Recent content by Milwood

Just signed up! Cellar Classic Winemaker's Trio 18 L Wine Kit. :br

Hey Intoxicating. I have been making "Seconds" for the last few years. Some have beenvery good and some were pretty bad and ended up getting dumped. I have never made seconds from whites but I do seconds on almost all of my reds that are made from grapes. It's a great way to stretch your...

I prefer the high-shouldered dark green bottles for the reds and the clear for the whites although I will often put some whites in dark green but never reds in clear.

Hey everyone. I recently started a Black Raspberry wine with some fruit I picked at a friends farm with the intention of making a port wine. After preparing the must as normal (SG 1.10) and innoculating with yeast (ICV-D47) I covered the fermenter and waited for my yeast to do their thing. I was...

Hey everyone. I bought a new pH meter from George for last seasons grapes. When I got it I also purchased all of the related solutions to calibrate and store it. The meter is a pHep5 and it has a cap that protects the electrode. Using the meter is very simple but I'm not exactly sure how to...

I made seconds last year from my Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and from Zinfandel and both have turned out pretty well. Because of the lower amount of tannins they are coming around much earlier than the first run. This year I am makinig seconds from Cab Sauv, Zin, Syrah and Petite Syrah as well. As...

After re-reading the original post I found that I made a mistake. I read it as each 36 pound lug yielding 6 gallons of juice. My mistake. Three lugs should get you a good 6 gallons. Sorry for any confusion.

I have never made a Viognier but I will be getting a bucket of fresh juice from California this year. Many of the other guys in my club have made it and it makes a very nice white wine. I am planning on using ICV-D47 for all of my whites this year. I have never used it but I have heard lots of...

I would double check that information. My club orders lots of grapes (thousands of pounds) from California each year and we typically calculate about 100lbs for a 5-6 gallon batch. I would say 3 lugs would give you 6 gallons for sure. Each grape is different but we use this as a general rule.

You could use calcium carbonate to bring down the acid levels. I made a batch of Marechal Foch from fresh grapes last year and the finished wine was too acidic. I later learned that most of my friends used calcium carbonate to bring the acid levels down prior to fermentation. You could add some...

I've never made the Cab Franc but I can tell you that I make the Welch's Niagara (white) wine a couple times a year. My wife loves this wine and and I have made 4 batches so far. I can make 5 gallons of this wine for under $25. Let us know about the Cab Franc and I hope everything turns out great!

Has anyone ever thought about cutting and toasting your own oak? I have a friend that has hundreds of oak trees on his property and I figure that a half dozen or so good sized oak logs should set me up for a long while with oak. I have tried to do some research and all I can really find is that...

Thanks Everyone. I didn't realize that the K-Meta that I was soaking the corks in would rust the corker that quick. I'll just sand it down and re-paint it and be sure to be much more careful in the future to wipe it down and dry it after using it.

Has anyone had any problems with their floor corkers rusting? I usually rinse my corks in K-Meta before inserting in to the bottles. Yesterday I was bottling a small batch and I noticed that tiny particles of rust were getting into the bottles. Luckily I noticed this pretty quick. I took apart...

The CA Trinity White kit is really good. You'll enjoy that one. It was actually so good that I bought another and made it again. I checked my notes and I de-gassed this one using the brake-bleeder idea I found here on the forum. Those things work like a champ. Good job keeping an eye on the...