I have one and like it for early drinking things like you describe. I've heard, not sure it's true or not, that you shouldn't keep anything in the bag for longer than 6 months.
Degas the wine? When I was new, I didn't Degas the wine sufficiently and it was like a sparkling when I opened the bottles. No problem, just decant and the wine is fine. Not dangerous as long as the top doesn't come off.
Sounds interesting. I'd love to hear about the jelly your mom makes.
You might want to add some sugar to boost the SG. You can do it now, even if you've already added the yeast.
That's exactly how I clean any bottle with painted labels, except I use very warm water to mix up the stars San. Good to know I don't actually need warm water!
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that home winemaking may not be for you. I don't think anyone is trying to pass of their homemade wines as first growth Bordeaux, but are appreciating them for what they are: decent wine that we can be proud to say we made. I live in rural WI and it's very...
I haven't been doing this long, 3 years, but my kit wines are much better than yellow tail.
I've heard that the sorbate causes a geranium odor if you try and age the wine more than 2 years. Besides if you don't have residual sugar, you don't need the sorbate.
I agree that opus one...
I am by far no expert, having NEVER made wine directly from grapes, but I have heard of people putting a small amount of petit syrah in their wines to make it more red. I've also heard about something called mega-purple which the cheap commercial wine makers use to increase the color in their...