Search results

Have you never watched the moonshiners on TV? They ferment in blue food grade barrels on every show.

Bummer...

Are you allowed to sell to North Carolina?

Bottling bucket...this is your answer.

RIP...

Check your hydrometer in pure water.

Warning!!! DO NOT ADD THE SORBATE PACK TO THE KIT. You probably wrecked this kit, as kits are not blended to require or even need MLF, but if you do add the sorbate, it will completely destroy the flavor and the smell of the wine. Don't ask me how I know.

You can make bread using that technique, so you will have yeast of some kind. No quality control, though, so off-flavors or limited fermentation cycles can happen.

Yea, you don't want to do that. Clean and sanitize between batches.

I got the same email. Didn't realize how much junk email that Kiva sends out. It's really annoying.

No

The barrel tasting I did was amazing. The winemaker pulled wine thief's from a rack without sanitizing, mixed wines from different barrels in a pitcher and when the tasting was done just poured it back into one of the barrels. This was at a very well known high-end winery with a well known...

You're going to hate this, but I just had my last bottle of 2010 Cab Franc from a kit. It was exquisite. At 2 years, it was not good, at 5 years, it got better. The only reason I had enough to last that long was that it wasn't that good early. I wish I had another case... Time is the best...

I don't think I have ever heard of a sweet cab. To each his own, I guess. Best way is to take a small measured wine sample and add a tiny amount of conditioner until it is sweet enough. Multiply the small amount of conditioner to get the total conditioner required. Go easy, because you...

There is a difference between gross oxygen exposure and micro-oxidation created by the pores in an oak barrel.

With skins, you should rack off the lee's. Off flavor can be had from the rotting fruit. Also, rack off the dead yeast so you don't pick up off flavors from the dead yeast cells.

If you warm the must, ambient won't matter. Just remember, yeast evolved just like humans did and share the same temperature requirements. Roughly mid 50s to mid 90s. Anything above or below that and it gets uncomfortable...not deadly, just uncomfortable.

There are reports of 4500 year old yeast used to make beer. The yeast was found in Egyptian crockery. A year shouldn't hurt it too much.

FYI...wine does not magically "turn into vinegar". It may become oxidized or lose flavors, but making vinegar is a unique process that takes skills.

Look up wine aging potential charts. You will see that even highly rated wines do not last anywhere near 50 years. Even some of the better French wines are past prime at 25 years. You are making wine from unknown varietals that are blended to get a flavor profile in a short time, not over 50...