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For all the long timers here who knew Northernwinos (Lorraine) when she was active on this board, I just wanted to come on and let you know, her husband Jim passed away this morning. Lorraine is the one who taught me the craft of country wines, and not only that, she and Jim stood up at our...

If it was me, I would use Lalvin EC 1118 for a fast start, quick fermentation that tolerates low temps - all features that might keep that watermelon must from spoiling while fermenting. however I have never tried making watermelon wine. Red Start Premier Cuvée would be it's equivalent.

Hi Scott^S, I'll jump in as I'm a fruit wine maker -- with frozen juices too... How long has it been since you started this batch? Did you have it under airlock in the primary or is this now in the secondary? Have you racked it once yet? Is this a 1 gallon or 3 gallon or ? gallon batch...

Do smell test and taste test first - if in doubt, throw it out... but I've made wine from home canned juice older than that, and it turned out fine! (really fine). Test the sg of the juice to get an idea of the concentration level and a guide to how much sugar you need to add. Depending on...

Oh Shannon! Hard lesson learned...Never dump anything! If it's truly bad, (not toxic just bad tasting) it makes Great "moocher repellant" for those psuedo-friends who nag you for a bottle of your wine repeatedly. Give them the yuk wine and don't tell them it's yuk. If they say it's fantastic...

Hi KS, No, it was more than 2 months from start to serving at the party. I posted the recipe after the batch was complete and bottled. The original batch was started on August 23rd, and bottled on October 18. The party I shared the wine with was on Jan 8th. So it was 4 1/2 months...

Hi Appleman, There hasn't been a lot of activity in the Pelican's winery for the winter, other than reducing the stock of bottled wines. To that end I did take both kit -2008 WE VR Vieux Chateau du Roi - and a 2009 Chokecherry to a blind tasting party with friends recently. Funnily enough, I...

Hi Jobe, Jim's doing fine... left the ice house about a week ago... and headed down to Mexico like the two of them did last March. Lorraine's thread about their mexico trip is here: http://forum.finevinewines.com//forum_posts.asp?TID=7647&KW=mexico The photos are still up at Photobucket...

Amazing. It took two quesses but 'he' got it.

The only time my vinbrite took "too long" was filtering a 1 gallon batch of peach wine - and that took way too long and used up 3 filters too. It would completely clog the filter pad after about 1 quart. What a pain that was. And, I thought the wine was "clear" when I started too. Other batches...

As a variation on the 5 gallon bucket or using a standard primary bucket for a corkidor I use a 1 gallon ice cream bucket corkidor with a small 1 lb coffee 'can' (plastic) with holes punched in the lid for the kmeta. It's just the right size for the 100 cork quantity and takes up less space.

Chokecherry!

I have the glass carboys and some betterbottles (PET). I know there are comments saying don't use "water bottles" for fermentation, too much oxygen transfer etc but if I had a good supply of those I probably would try it but probably wouldn't 'bulk age' in them for 18 months ... not that I...

From Jack Keller's site I find a quote "When adding sugar to raise specific gravity (S.G.), a tablespoon less than 8 ounces will raise the S.G. of one gallon of must 0.010." I will venture to speculate that the 8 ounces is weight not volume. Since how much syrup that would be depends on how...

After fermenting totally dry, and having a clear wine that isn't throwing any further deposit, for the welches white grape and peach batch that you want to sweeten, I personally would use some frozen concentrate Welches White Grape Peach. Just how much to use, would depend on how sweet you...

Just don't consume a mistake containing broken glass!

Have a search of the Fruit Wines or Recipes section of the forum. Several of us have made Welches White Grape & Peach from the frozen concentrate and it's turned out pleasingly well by most reports. The 1 gallon batch I made from a 2x 2qt bottles of juice (pmoegranate & black currant)...

Welcome Al - and what a find on those 1 gallon carboys!

Welcome Lucky Al, and I'll second vcasey - use the whole spice and use fresh. The only other thing I'll add is since you've got lots and lots of those 1 gallon jugs now, split the 5 gallons into the 1 gallons and add the cinnamon to one, cloves to another, oak to a third, and all three to the...

whoops ! You may have inadvertantly made applejack. At the very least the freeze will have killed off any remaining yeast for sure, as you'll certainly have 'cold stabilized' it. Fortunately, freezing does "preserve" things. Way better than leaving it for a few days in blistering heat and...