Recent content by Dhaynes

My wife & I are empty nesters. We woke up one day and realized that we didn't have very many common interest anymore so we started looking for something we could enjoy doing together. We were interested in making wine but the nearest shop where you could get lessons and ferment a kit at their...

Thanks for the feedback. It is encouraging to know that the harshness is to be expected at this point. Makes me feel a lot better. Unfortunately I don't have a barrel but I do have some oak spirals. Would it be a good idea to add some oak or should I just let it sit?

Have about 300 bottled and another 300 worth in carboys that has been bulk aging about a year and is ready to be bottled.

Just racked several eclipse kits in preparation for bottling including a 15 month old Nebiollo, a 15 month old Shiraz and a 12 month old Pinot. I was very surprised by how harsh the Nebiollo was when we sampled it. Did not tweak the kit in any way other than leaving out the sorbate and bulk...

Sorry to go back to something so much earlier in the thread but I just saw what you were saying about the price of the fermenter. You actually got a good deal. I've been shopping online looking to buy 2 or 3. Best price I've found on a 7.9 gal with lid is around $22 plus $11 or so shipping. You...

Sounds like you've gotten great advice on picking out your equipment. Now you need to start picking your wine kits. I recently had part one of a two part article on selecting a wine kit published on line that you might find helpful. Part two should be out in a week or so. Here is the link...

I read the bit in the instructions about using solid bungs so I tried it. I kept walking by and noticing that they had worked loose so I went back to regular S shaped airlocks.

I really like the WE Luna Rosa. It's more of a medium red than a big red. We bottled half of it dry and then back sweetened the other half to make a chillable red. That might work well with Texas BBQ and hot Texas days.

I have this kit going now. Started it in January. I split it into two 3 gal batches. Pitched the EC-1118 that came with the kit in one and D-47 in the other. My plan is to keep the batch with the 1118 as my control and make it by the book although I may oak a gallon of it just to see the...

We always buy them in lots of 5. We find that having a lot of spares on hand tends to prevent breaking the one we are actively using :-)

I built an inexpensive system using this whole house filter http://www.winemakingtalk.com/entries/diy-wine-filtering.html and a small diaphragm water pump like the ones used on boats and RV's. Bought it from eBay. Best I can remember it is a 3gpm and cost around $40-50. Came by slow boat from...

I guess there is some logic to the idea that a 375ml bottle would age faster than 750. The cork is the same size in both so they would both have the same amount of oxygen passing through them but the volume of wine in the 750ml is twice as much so each ml of wine would get half as much oxygen...

Update - Just had another blind taste test. The wines were started in January 2014 so they are now two years old. The sample size was a little smaller in this test 9 vs 20 before and it was a different mix of people. There was a major shift in the voting. The inexpensive Vintners Reserve...

We take a different approach. We don't try to goose the ABV up to typical wine levels. Instead we only add about 3 lbs of sugar to raise the ABV to around 8%. This gives it a little more kick and a little more body without throwing off the balance. This has worked well for us. It also allows us...

New kit makers should follow the directions provided with the kit but not stress about the schedule. That way you have less risk & will get better support from the manufacturer if you have a problem. That said, it is always okay to stretch out the schedule once you rack the wine out of the...