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Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

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    Acidity - g/L or %

    So after a year reading posts I’m still confused. In some posts I see numbers for g/L acidity while others talk about %TA. I have tried searching for an explanation but there are soooo many posts on acidity and TA Can someone help me out? Are these posts reporting the same thing with...
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    Wine sampling day!

    Below from left to right: wild grape- beet - elderberry the wild grape and elderberry are 4 months old and the beet is 5 months. I gently stirred the top half of each carboy with the end of my big spoon then took a sample with the wine thief. I really need to get together with some...
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    Sodium metabisulfite

    I was going through some wine making equipment I purchased and found a five lb bag of sodium metabisulfite. It’s probably five years old and was opened. Can this used for sanitizing? Is it used in place of k-meta for oxidation protection?
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    What would you make with a few gallons of maple syrup?

    We tapped the maple trees at my dads place yesterday. He typically makes 8 to 12 gallons of syrup a year. When he gets to the bottom of the batch there is always some quarts with a lot of sugar sand that settles out. Then there is the darker syrup (grade B?) that ends up collecting dust in the...
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    Diet Hard Lemonade - accidental experiment

    So I made hard lemonade using a recipe from “VinesnBines” and, per usual, My hands were outpacing my brain😂. Midway through adding the lemonade I started wondering why it was pink… I looked and it was strawberry lemonade. No problem, so I continued. A week later when putting out the recycling I...
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    Using a Laser for measuring wine clarity?

    So I noticed something interesting last night. I was in the cellar to check airlocks on four wines that I’m bulk aging and I was messing around using my infrared thermometer to check surfaces in the cellar (I use supplemental heat in the winter). In the past I noticed that the red laser...
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    Sub Fermaid K for yeast nutrient?

    So I’m making a hard lemon wine right now (HT VinesnBines) and I only have 2t of Yeast Nutrient left. Can I substitute Fermaid K on a one-for-one basis?
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    Apple varieties for wine and cider

    Im starting my vineyard this spring and want to include a few apple trees for wine… I haven’t made it yet but I’m sure cider is in my future as well. Do any of you northern growers have recommendations for wine & cider apple varieties. I have a nursery nearby with hundreds of apple varieties...
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    Clarification needed on Brute trash cans

    I searched a bunch of posts and I’m still confused about which Brute trash cans are food grade. I know the white ones are but what about the grey ones at Menards? All of them? Just some of them? And how can I tell? 🤔 I did but a 10 gallon white Brute made for bakery dry goods but It’s...
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    Wild Grape Wine Questions

    I have asked questions about my wild grape wine project on several different threads. Today I was looking for some particular advice I had received and had trouble finding the right post. Since I have more questions (so, so many questions) I thought I would bring it together in one place so I...
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    What do you consider "gross lees"?

    I'm looking for a little clarity here. Everything I read says not to let wine sit on the gross lees too long. First, how long is too long? and what counts as gross lees? I have an elderberry that is three weeks out of the primary and there appears to be about two inches of junk in the bottom...
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    Help with small vineyard planning

    Having been bitten by the wine making bug, I’m already planning a small vineyard… I already have 24 vines on the way in June. The space I have in mind is a fallow field that last saw cultivation about 25 years ago. It is gently sloping with a southeast aspect. So do I arrange the rows...
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    Refractometer and filter advice needed

    So I recently bought a hobbyist winemakers entire setup. I bought it for the carboys, a small crusher, and a small press. While going through the totes I found these two refractometers. I also found a pH meter and Bueno minijet filter with a bunch of plastic plates and filters. I did a...
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    First (and maybe last) elderberry wine

    Today I checked my elderberry wine and it had a FG of 0.994 and a pH of 3.49 so I racked it into a three-gallon carboy. It was only a 6-day ferment... not sure if that is short but the wild grape wine I started two days earlier is only at 1.025. To be honest it tastes like garbage but I'm not...
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    Am I stuck?

    This is only me fifth attempt at wine and I'm wondering if I have a stuck fermentation. It's 6 gallons of wild grape. here is what I have done so far: Afternoon 11/28 24 lbs of wild grapes crushed and in straining bags 9 lbs -12 oz sugar boiled in water water to make 5 gallons SG was 1.062...
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    Beet wine pH

    I started a 4-gallon batch of beet wine on 10/20 based on a recipe by Keller. 13 lbs beets, peeled sliced and boiled 5 lemons juiced 10 oranges juiced 7 lbs sugar 7 t acid blend 3/8 t tannin 3 t yeast nutrient amalayse and pectic enzymes Lavlin 71B I originally used 3 lemons and 4 t of acid...
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    Wine cellar questions

    Having been bitten by the wine making bug, I have converted my root cellar into a "wine cave". I ripped out some old decaying shelving (non treated lumber) and outfitted it with some new shelving including a 10-foot long shelf on the long wall for secondaries and three-high shelves in the back...
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    Apple wine with LOTS of solids

    I made two batches of apple wine last year by chopping the apples fine and adding all the ingredients according to a recipe from a friend. After primary fermentation I scooped the must into a mesh bag, squeezed out the juice, and transferred the resulting liquid to a secondary. In the first...
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    Suddenly can't stop making wine

    Hello from Wisconsin. I had lots of pandemic free time on my hands last year and decided to try my hand at making fruit wines. I purchased a wine making kit only to find out my dad had one in his garage that hadn't been used in years, so I grabbed that too. I started with 10 gallons of apple...
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