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Your wines likely blew because they were either not done fermenting (or not halted properly), or not degassed (this may account for some of the burning feeling as well). Before bottling, while still in bulk, you will want to stir the wine vigorously so all the CO2 can be released; I recommend a...

I use a steam juicer, and I also freeze the berries (mostly because I get them from a bunch of different places: my own yard, u-picks, friends' houses, etc). Steam juicers are really good at spearating solid from liquid (pitting is still necessary with stone fruits, of course), and whatever...

So I have a bunch of apple juice (Indian Summer) that I bought a couple years ago for a cider project I never got around to. I was thinking of making rocket fuel apple cider out of them (as opposed to a 6-8% sparkling), as they are pasteurized and unopened, but well past their Best By date (June...

I did a light mead and racked it onto some peppermint tea and raw sugar. I liked it much better than the candy cane wine I made a couple years ago, it was too plasticy.

Agreed. Unless you're rich or have some sort of hip-hop video to shoot.

Thanks! It is the bochet, so I was afraid I'd done all that work for nothing, rather relieved.

So in my rush (not sure why I was rushing, racking a mead to secondary is hardly a "no oxygen" siituation), I grabbed too small a bung. As I was sliding it in it popped below the rim. I tried to fish it out, but it fell into the wine (a mead). So three questions: 1) will the bung effect the...

As a scotch drinker, these words make no sense to me. ;)

I moved it to secondary a couple nights ago; I MAY have left it in primary a little too long, but it also fermented close to dry (normal SG for racking to secondary, but I was away for a day and am not sure if it sat with too much air or not; no visual signs of oxidization though). The color is...

Just out of curiosity--those of you who do massive amounts all the time. What do you do with the wine? Do you give a lot of it away, throw parties, store it all and drink it over long periods of time?

I've left things in bulk aging for two years plus (accidentally, but still). By my figuring, if anything it will age slower in bulk, and as has been already said you can continue to tweak flavor and acidity. I also ALWAYS bulk age at least two months after backsweetening just to make sure that...

Fair point. I've never had a 9% dry wine at all, but yeah, I suppose it might be quite nice.

You need more sugar. Add simple syrup (or your sugar of choice) to get that SG up, it's only going to ferment to dry at about 9% the way it is right now. Your starting target SG should be 1.08 or higher (I usually go for 1.100-1.115 depending on what I'm making, but I like a boozey wine).

I don't think it matters, the campden will prevent any infection. But if you're worried about it, tight is fine, just not after you pitch the yeast.

NEED? No, like vacuumpumpman said, there is a lot of room to maneuver in winemaking, and five minutes--heck, a day or two--isn't going to ruin anything, so get what you know you need and start, pick up other stuff as you need it... Unless your supply store takes forever to get to, then stock...

The best way to degas (for a home winemaker, anyway) is to use a vacuum pump while racking. The cheapest is to use a spoon. The middle ground is a degassing "wand". They're about $15 and attach to a drill. You stick it in the carboy and run the drill until the wine foams to the top of the...

Can't edit my second one anymore, so currently: On deck: Cherry melomel, 3 gallons Blackberry wine, 5-6.5 gallons Sherry (kit) Primary: Plum wine (non-country style), 7 gallons Bochet (sack-ish), 3 gallons Secondary: Nothing currently Bulk aging: Chai metheglin, 1 gallon...

Hmm. Any adverse effects of too much? Other than a mead that may make me energetic and motivated? And it's started finally and seems to be fermenting away. :)

The front page is the main winemakingtalk.com site. There are currently articles up on bochet and sack meads. And 3 gallons because 1 isn't enough to age out, but I learned from my initial (large) failed batch of Skittle wine--start small, perfect the process and the recipe, then go big. Plus...

Also, thought--I've used bananas in wines to bring down acid, but they've always been strong flavored wines. Would adding some to this effect flavor much? Or is it early enough that it would be mostly absorbed and drowned out?