Recent content by winemom

This is so goofy. I made Cayuga White last year with juice from the same winery. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing but had no problems and the wine turned out very nice! Oh well, 6 gallons of juice was $40 so no real loss if it goes bad! Any other observations welcome!

An update on the Cayuga White: I had stabilized it with sulfites in early October. As of last week the wine was pretty clear. When I went into the basement a couple hours ago, I noticed that it was cloudy, and there were tiny bubbles fizzing away. I just checked the sulfites and the reading was...

It doesn't seem like they should break the carboy, but I figured better safe than sorry as the winery has handled a lot more carboys than I have. I made carrying straps out of nylon webbing, similar to a commercial product called a "Brew Hauler." I have one that fits the 5 gallon carboys and...

The winery I get my juice from cautioned that the bottoms of milk crates can break if you carry them with heavy carboys. They suggested cutting a piece of thin plywood to fit the bottom of the crate. They also cautioned me to only use the handles for carrying empty carboys - the neck can break...

Tonight I got to the step where I had to remove 2 cups of wine from the carboy to make room for the F-Pack. I was very surprised to find that I had to take out 4 cups to fit it in. After adding everything and topping up, I still have just under 4 cups in a quart jar with a screw cap. Is that...

Good advice, will do!

Given that I have only 4 gallons at a cost of $80, I'd prefer not to spend $60 plus tax and shipping! If I were doing a larger quantity, I could justify it. Since I bulk age my wine for several months before bottling, I'm opting for waiting a while.

Thanks, I've just had a lot of trouble interpreting the other tests I've tried - SO2, acid, etc, and reading the directions for the chromatography test didn't sound like it would be any easier. I need a thing I can stick in the wine and have it tell me the results on a digital display!

Thanks, that all makes sense. I'm just a little concerned about leaving the wine for an extended period without adding sulfite. I also need to get the Carboy into the basement where temps will be low 60s before the holidays. If MLF is still in progress will it continue?

Temps were 68-70F. I plan to age in the Carboy for at least 6-8 months before bottling. Once stabilized why would MLF start up again?

Picked up 4 gallons of fresh merlot juice on October 6, fermented in primary for a week ( SG < 1.000) racked to Carboy and inoculated with Bacchus MLB on the 13th. It appears that MLF is done as there are no more small bubbles. The wine has dropped sediment and has started to clear over the last...

I've had good luck picking up used bottles from local wineries where there are tasting rooms. Perhaps stores that do tastings would have used bottles too.

I believe that if you bury it in a snowbank that will insulate it and keep it at a constant temperature near freezing. Might not be a bad idea to rack to a Better Bottle first instead of a glass carboy.

The tartaric acid crystals will stay in the carboy when you rack the wine after cold stabilization if you rack while it's still cold. If you don't cold stabilize the crystals can form in bottled wine. They aren't dangerous but no one wants to drink crunchy wine. I've read that you can use the...

I cold stabilized my Cayuga in a colder corner of the garage last winter. We had an unusually warm winter so the temperature averaged around 28-30 degrees. I left it in a glass carboy with vodka in the airlock. This year I plan to use a Better Bottle for cold stabilization so I don't have to...