Recent content by sly22guy

Did your primary have alot of sediment? Ive never made strawberry but my peach had an ungodly amount of sediment. im assuming it already dropped to 1.000 or lower? if so i would let it go for a month or so and then rack it off. your going to have to let it sit for quite awhile until it will...

I'm 39 and started making wine as a hobby about 6 years ago. kids came and life got busy again so its been "aging" Ive got 5 gallons of apple that has been bulk aging for the past two years. That is one of the things i like about this hobby its mostly when you have time.

Why not get a tap and rethread it to whatever you like?

That was funny i got tears in my eyes laughing so hard!

I just set the lid on loosely.

how large is your bucket? you should use a large enough bucket so that you have at least 5-6" of space from the top. No need for airlock for the first week or so. it will be throwing off enough gas that it wont be necessary. Like Julie said a hydrometer would be a wise investment.

Hey just wanted to drop by and say hi! Life has been crazy the past couple of years. A good crazy but all the same. I have Two daughters now and that really ties up my wine making time. I've had a batch of Blueberry/Pomegranate Bulk aging for nearly 2 years.... I did sample it the other...

Yeah now that my daughter is almost two i figured i better get my butt in gear. plus hopefully next year my vines will be producing.

Starting a batch of Vintners Harvest Blackberry. I have Cote des Blancs or Lalvin EC1118. Any suggestions on which would be better? Or should i run out and get something different? This batch is a 6 gal. batch i plan on taking 2 gallons of this and making a brandy out of it.:sh Also...

Get your self a bottle washer. Hooks to your sink and shoots a high pressure stream and rinses them out awesome. Got my off eBay for cheap. It can do two bottles at a time plus it works really good for carboy's too.

I wouldn't recomend putting your better bottles in there either!:HB And yes Unscented Oxy Clean is the way to go. I still spritz with potassium meta-sulfate before i bottle.

I know with some juice buckets that some times they will begin to ferment on there own so that when you get them the sg could be lower, not sure about the kits but i would imagine that that is possible with them too.

pouring it at this stage is fine the extra O2 wont hurt it any. i would do whichever is easiest for you. I would siphon just for the fact i wouldnt have to lift the carboy.

So the lowest SG reading you had prior to stabilizing and back sweetening was only 1.00? It should have dropped lower than that. What temp did you keep your carboy at? As my own person rule of thumb i will wait a minimum of 6 months before i bottle but i always wait until it falls clear.

that should work fine, and yes i forgot to mention to stabilize prior to doing so.