Recent content by mamaderf

I almost forgot, I know that a few people have asked if the carboy was shaken, the guy at home winery told me to shake it if it has been opened after I put the air lock back on to get rid of the air.

How would I check for gas? I was always worried about sanitation (I'm a germaphobe so sanitation is my calling, lol). The sampling was just because no one knew what it was, so we were trying to figure it out, we didn't take much out, just a few times that someone was over who said they knew...

I was able to find my dad's recipe that was taped to the inside of his cabnet online, http://www.homewinery.com/concentrate.pdf Yes there was sediment on the bottom before I siphoned the wine into a clean pail with the acid, then cleaned the carboy and siphoned it back to that with the...

This is what we have come to believe, we think it was made from a merlot concentrate, after that he pretty much made the wine in his own time on his own. He was always suppose to show me. And the recipe is on www.homewinery.com under the concentrate section (...

Yes it is still in the carboy, and as far as the head space, it was never what I would consider full to begin with so there is quite a bit of head space. No one ever mentioned adding anything to it to fill in the space (event the friends who said they knew how to make wine that came over to...

Hello everyone. A while back I joined this forum because my dad passed and had a carboy of wine that was never finished, well I finally got around to it. I stabilized it and I am waiting for it to clear, I am a little impatient so the guy at the wine store told me to use some super clear (I...

I hate to say it, but my dad wasn't that organized, he was the type of person who thought he could remember everything (unfortunately I am similar, I am always coming up with a awesome new recipe and my husband is always asking "now you did write it down this time, right?" answer is always no)...

Lol. Yes, I will probably have to read that through a few times, process things, look things up, then read it again. Good news is, it looks like I have a excuse to go shopping, yay! I looked up what a hydrometer looks like and I didn't see anything like that. I did notice that there are...

I cleaned the air lock, there was liquid in it, yay! But it smelled terrible, ack. I also grabbed a turkey baster and both me and my mom tasted the wine. When we smelled it we were expecting merlot, then we tasted it and it was more like a berry. We did find a old tag on the jug labeled...

Thank You for all of the wonderful replies! I will try and answer all the questions I can (I was sick with the flu for the last day and a half so I have some catching up to do here). "whats the approximate temperature in the garage you found it? and would you think that the temperature in...

Hello, I'm new here and know nothing about making wine and could really use some help. Here's the situation, my dad passed away on mothersday last month and while we were going through his garage I found a big container of wine he was making. I would like to finish it and bottle it for him, but...