Recent content by jboyer

Thanks for the replies Wade and Runningwolf. Going to put in a order for the stirrer asap. Looks like I'll be degassing in the bucket then racking back to clean carboy. The newly sorbated and sulfited wine will be topped up and backsweetened. (figured I may as well do everything at once)...

Ok I will add my sorbate when racking into clean carboy after the sulfite has been added. I guess I will look for a drill attachment somewhere so I can degas once in the clean carboy. Degassing after these additions should serve to mix everything up well to. After the wine is degassed I plan...

Hey guys and gals. Just have a few questions before I rack my first wines after fermentation is over. The history.... I started concord grape wine from my own grape vines. At the time I had little knowledge of the whole process and the exact sciences of it. However the grapes were real...

I also read on here that a colony of yeast usually is down near the bottom of the primary and you risk having possible stuck fermentation if you do not get to any of those. I don't see where it would hurt to stir from primary to secondary when your transferring. I'm filtering anyway and you...

Alright thanks for the advice guys. I'll follow it so I don't screw up my first wine. Just waiting for the fermentation to quit now which I will verify with a hydrometer before I do anything.

I've done some searches and read but still not quite sure what to do. Here is my dilemma. I currently have 3 6.5 gallon carboy's in secondary fermentation. Just started secondary fermentation less than a week ago and its still going strong. The wine is concord grape. The level of wine in...

Sounds good, I'm sure your wine will be ok. I tried using a strainer and cheese cloths but I think it would have taken forever. I had to filter around 25 gallons of primary at one time. With the pillowcase I could pour and filter about 2 gallons in it at once. I didn't see a lot of lees at...

Yea I have ten 6.5 gallon carboys in secondary fermentation and all of them had heads on them right after I transfer them from primary. After a couple weeks the head breaks up into small patches of bubbles with a small bead around the edge at top of carboy.

That is sort of what I've done on my first few batches of wine fruit wine. My primary fermenters were large so I was unable to lift and pour them. I also free floated my fruit pulp and skins. At the end of primary fermentation I used a large plastic pitcher to dip out the wine and pulp. I...

Yea I'm also wondering the usual time frame for wild yeast. My hydrometer has'nt gotten here yet but my plum that started with wild yeast has been going for five days. It seems to me that the wild yeast may have been a faster fermenting yeast but no way to tell. The batch has seemed to slow...

That's cool, I'll probably just wait to destone them b/c they are a small variety of plums and really ripe. Probably do too much damage by getting the stones out first. Thanks.

On a side note, I've been looking for some info on freezing plums to use for a future batch but can't find exactly how to. Would I leave them whole? Should I go ahead and cut them in half to remove stones? I just picked them a day ago and they are ripe now. No primary space and need to order...

Good suggestion. Didn't really think about that. I will when I put in my next order. This hobby is kind of addictive. Six six gallon carboy's in secondary fermentation as of now. And I have'nt even drank any wine yet. :D

Whoa those are some crazy fruit flies! I'm not a expert, maybe someone else can chime in. Although I read on here if your wine is sulfited it may be ok. A couple of fruit flies is probably not anything to stress over, just not a whole bunch.

Did you have dust caps on the airlocks? I have them on mine, some have small vent holes and some just sit on top. I had a lot of fruit flies until I put up some fly strips which helps a lot. Every once in a while the fruit flies would land on top of the caps but never got in, also had pinch of...