Recent content by Schattenmann

Must be a mom thing. Mine wouldn't drink any wine until about 7 years ago, now she will only drink Riesling or other sweet whites. Red disgusts her, but she ~OMG LOVES~ Arbor Mist Blackberry.

I bought some pH strips, here's the result on the apple cider Also took some to the LHBS for them to taste and give their opinion on sour vs bitter vs hot, hopefully they can give me some insight.

I wouldn't be too worried about it; I mean what's the big deal so maybe you have kids with 13 fingers or 47 teeth.

Jack Keller has several recipes calling for demerara: walnut leaf, celery, strawberry, wheat, etc. Do a Google search for "site:http://winemaking.jackkeller.net demerara" Lots of warnings out there not to fool with molasses, though obviously demerara has very little of it.

Alright, after doing some reading: The book that came with the kit doesn't say anything about campden except to sterilize the must, but a few things I've read since say to use a tablet after fermentation is complete and again before bottling. How important is that? I've done two rackings with...

As a flat out newbie, all my batches are experiments right now, but here we go for this thread. 96 oz Welch's Concord 32 oz Knudsen Just Black Cherry (from fruit) 8 oz Knudsen Just Blueberry (from concentrate, all they make) 19 oz sugar (bringing SG to 1.110) 1 tsp pectic enzyme 1.5 tsp acid...

I've seen Steve's pump; I'd like one eventually, but that's down the road (unemployed—blackberries are free ;) ) Sale in the juice aisle today, so I got a 96 oz bottle of Welch's Concord, 32 oz of Knudsen Black Cherry, and 32 of blueberry. I've made up a must of 96 oz concord, 32 cherry, and...

I noted a sour taste in my first try with apple wine/cider the other day, this is what Bernard had to say about it

Speak of the Devil... I was just reading some of your comments in vernsgal's blackberry thread (which I wish I'd seen a month ago!) and had quoted one of your posts to transfer over here and ask a resulting question (see below). But first, to answer your questions: I'm fermenting in my...

Well, last night I bottled 2 bottles each from both runs of blackberry wine (1 gal blackberry, 1 gal blackberry/Welch's); it may be (probably) early since they've only been racked twice, but I siphoned from the uppermost clear wine. I did this so I could add some medium toast French oak chips...

You could let it stay kind of mucky and claim you wanted to be able to play Kottabos.

I started fermenting in July 2015. On my churchmouse budget, right now I'm interested in country wines and small batches from juice; it would be cool to do grape kits later but I also do just like the idea of fruit stuff in the first place. In Primary 1 gallon of Concord/Black...

If I may piggyback since the oak experts seem to be here, I got some Fr. oak this afternoon to test on a portion of my blackberry wine. I also wondered about Black Walnut; I've got some from a tree we felled that has been sitting waiting on a woodworking friend to come pick it up. I can't find...

Bought some potassium sorbate this afternoon, and some French oak chips to test with a portion of the blackberry. Thanks for you guys' help and advice!

That's the odd thing about this recipe. In every other mention of adding sugar, he notes to stabilize first, but not in this one. I plan to, anyway, but here's what I'm working with. (recipe 3, cider method in the second column)