Recent content by RocketBee

Thanks to Joe and Rocky, I made two batches of 11.5% Wine Lovers Sauv Blanc and I followed Rocky's flow closely with my two batches. The only difference was that I used Lalvin QA-23 yeast on one batch and the enclosed yeast which I assume was EC-1118. Both were very good, but I and my lovely...

Liquid and all? Sounds good to me (and cheaper). Have you ever done this?

My daughter and I are working on Pinot Noir kit from Wine Lovers Online...the 11.5% kit. She wants sweet cherry in the foreground, lightly oaked and smooth finish. However, I'm having trouble finding sweet cherries to make an FPack. I'm thinking about getting a cherry puree from the LHBS...

@Khristyjeff I have the 11.5% Malbec kit from Wine Lovers. I see in this thread that you've tweaked one of these same kits with Zante Currants (along with wine tannins, oak, etc) and another one somewhere else with a blackberry FPack. I'm getting ready to work on this kit and just wondering...

I started a tweaked Wine Lovers Shiraz this evening (medium-bodied kit listed at 11.5% ABV). I used the enclosed yeast pack (which I assume is EC1118). What is the ideal fermentation temperature for this kit?

@Khristyjeff Which kit was this, Malbec?

So, what am I doing wrong? My lovely bride who has been very supportive of this winemaking hobby, is also giving me some constructive feedback that a lot of my kits have this "musty basement taste and smell" sometimes maybe a little corky? She also suggested I throw it out here on the forum to...

I'm following up on my A - B test with the WineLovers cheap Sauvignon Blanc kits. I started the primary fermentation 15 days ago with two Sauvignon Blanc 11.5% kits and used the enclosed yeast in one bucket (I assume it's EC-1118) and QA-23 in the other bucket. I racked into carboys today. My...

@BernardSmith thanks again for your reply. I wanted to use DV10 for my last trad, but the LHBS guy looked at me like I had two heads growing out of my neck when I asked for it. So I opted for D21 instead.

Wow! Thanks for the post @dmw_chef ...amazing stuff for slobs like me. And, my Mazer cup friend who helped me encouraged me to use the finish tannins as well as the opti-white and oak cubes AND the use of acid additions/back sweetening to get the proper balance. So all that seems to be a...

So, I made another batch of traditional mead with my own honey, which is a very sweet, but a light-tasting honey. I didn't use D47 like the last time and I fermented in the basement which was quite a bit cooler so the fermentation temp was cooler as well. The mead that has been produced doesn't...

Of all the kits I've done so far (about a dozen) my greatest success was with a cheap Sauvignon Blanc kit from wineloversonline.com I followed the above-quoted process from @Rocky under the tutelage of "master-tweaker" @joeswine but not to the same scale...just one six-gallon kit. Well the...

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/tweeking-cheap-kits.51904/page-113#post-755884 I tried to follow @Rocky as best as possible and it came out great. Going to go for a repeat, then a threepeat. Here's the beginning of the thread...

I just ordered and received two Wine Lovers Sauvignon Blanc kits (medium body, 11.5% PABV). I'm trying to replicate what I did the last kit because it was my best tweaked kit so far (thanks @joeswine and @Rocky ) So they made a change to their packaging, previous kit they threw a pack of...