Recent content by PJ805

Has anyone tried to carbonate their wine and if so how? This is probably a dumb thought (and not recommended), I'm toying with the idea of carbonating it with a sodastream?

I started a few batches of wine in 2018 with fresh high quality grapes and they came out great, much better than your average $5 bottle of wine. I did not use any yeast nutrients though. Do yeast nutrients improve the taste and quality of wine? Would it be worth adding to my next batch?

That's good to know, I'm actually wanting to use bentonite instead of sparkolloid, I saw a post from dangerdave with side by side batches with the two, but looks like it won't make a difference in time, so I'll just let it sit longer.

I'm glad you mentioned sorbate, doing another check I stumbled upon some. That leaves only pectic enzyme and tannin.

I'm thinking of trying out this recipe but I do not have pectic enzyme & tannin in hand. Has anyone eliminated either and how big of a difference did it make? I'm also missing potassium sorbate but do have potassium metabisulfite, I'll only be making a 1 gallon batch so it probably won't last...

It's around 60 degrees. If that's the case, should I be concerned that it won't degas completely over a 9 month period?

I'm making a one gallon batch of wine from fresh grapes which is now bulk aging and will continue to do so for a few months. One reason among others is to let it naturally degas. My assumption is the CO2 would escape via the airlock however there is no movement in the water in the airlock. Am I...

That is my assumption that they weren't ripe yet since I didn't measure the brix. I had enough grapes from each to produce more than one gallon of wine so after primary I combined the extra from the two with some viognier into a third batch and it's now aging as well. Judging by what it tastes...

You are correct, the grapes are from Paso Robles. Regarding the must, I picked the grapes myself from their vineyard and juiced them by hand (wine press is on my shopping list for next time). Interestingly, I was able to pick some zinfandel from a different winery less than a mile away which...

Starting sg around 1.100 (going off of winery's word), ending sg .990. Might be worth mentioning after 4 days of primary it was already down to 1.000 at which point I racked and started secondary.

I have a 1 gallon batch of wine from fresh zinfandel grapes from a local winery. I didn't measure the acidity of the juice but I'm assuming it was on the higher side since it's had a sour taste since fermentation was complete. It's been aging for almost two months now with oak cubes. It smells...

For me the temp was consistently between 60 and 65, after having added more chitosan it did clear though but now I have a rose that didn't clear even after adjusting the chitosan. I have the leftovers of the rose in a mason jar upstairs where it's 10 degrees warmer so it will be interesting to...

Out of curiosity, why didn't I have this issue with my viognier? It cleared right away with less than 5ml of chitosan.

I am at about 5ml of chitosan and 2ml kieselsol (only making a 1 gallon batch) so it could be the dosage as you mentioned.

I'm using superkleer (chitosan + kielselsol) to clear my whites. The Viognier cleared beautifully, however, after being degassed, I'm not able to get the Chardonnay to clear completely. Is it just a matter of using a different fining agent? I ordered some bentonite in hopes it will do a better job.