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One of my wife's co-workers has a vineyard and had a 5 gallon surplus of what we've deduced is frontenac juice. He offered it for free so of course I wasn't going to turn him down! So we got a bucket of juice with a message taped on top stating the juice has a pH of 3.37 and a brix of 23...

I thought I would post a new topic since my desire for a backyard vineyard is beginning to be fulfilled. Appleman has been gracious enough to send me some vines to try out here in Omaha, Nebraska. He sent me 6 one year vignoles and10 corot noir cuttings thislast Monday. Now, I have never...

Hey everyone, I've got this apple tree in my yard that was here when I moved in a couple years ago. The tree had not been cared for at all and so it is very overgrown. Also thre is another tree growing up next to and within the apple tree. I think I'm going to cut down that second tree, I just...

I just got a turkey fryer for doing full boils this weekend. I will be making three kits forour wedding reception that will be in May. So I'm thinking I'll need to start these beers by February at the latest. Problem I just realized I might have is that it's going to be stinkin cold outside and...

So last year I started a new family tradition of starting a wine kit on Christmas Eve. Last year we did the MM Renaissance Chilean Malbec. We bottled it on father's day in honor of my dad who picked the kit but then passed away before he had a chance to really taste the final product. We'll be...

Finally got around to starting a new brew for myself. Got motivated when I realized that I was drinking my last homebrew! Not okay! So, I went and got a Brewer's Best Robust Porter and started cooking it up. I think I will make this one a vanilla porter. I'm looking for a lot of vanilla...

I've got the All-Juice Amarone with raisins in primary fermentation right now. It's been fermenting for almost 4 days now. I haven't checked the SG yet, but I'm guessing I will be just about in range to rack (according to the instructions) tonight since I've had this fermenting right at about 80...

One of my girlfriend's co-workers had three cherry trees in her back yard and she said whoever wanted cherries should come out and pick what they wanted. So naturally we were there that night! haha Two of the trees are North Star Dwarf trees and the other is unknown to us but it is a much more...

I've been reading through just about as much of these home vineyards posts and it has really sparked my interest to try to start my own small vineyard! I have maybe a 30' x 30' area of my lawn that seems to get sunnearly all day. Not a whole lot of room, but I hope I can grow enough vines to...

Opened my first bottle of JAO last night. I started it 1/5/08 and bottled it almost a month ago. I followed the recipe pretty closely except I used EC-1118 instead of the bread yeast since I don't really like sweet wines generally. I let it sit for maybe a month after the orange fell and then...

Finally bottled our Malbec yesterday. We started this one on Christmas Eve as a new family tradition. We got a full 30 bottles even afteran "accidental" spill into a few glasses. It tastes really really good! Our plan is to open the first bottle around Thankgiving time. I also got a chance...

Hey all, all the reading I was doing on the port kits got me all excited to try a La Bodega so I ordered one up from George! Anyhoo, I got it started today. The must just got up to temp so I am rehydrating the yeast as I type and will pitch in about 5 minutes. Te directions say to add the...

Anyone ever made this kit? I just cracked my first bottle open (my first homebrew as well) and it tastes pretty good, but it does seem a little thin. I know that my OG came out a bit low at 1.051 after I topped the wort off to 5 gallons with water, so I wonder if it's a bit watered down because...

Here's some pics of a few of the wines I have fermenting right now. Sorry about the quality of the pics. All I have for a camera is my phone! Orange-Pineapple-Apple: Grape/Acai: White Grape Vanilla: And of course a Joe's Ancient Orange Mead about 1.5 months in...

So last night I started a banana wine. 1 gallon batch. Here's the recipe I used: 4 lbs bananas (sliced and put in straining bag) 2 1/4lbs sugar 7 pints water 2.5 tsps acid blend ~1/8 tsp liquid pectic enzyme 1 tsp yeast nutrient 1 crushed campden tablet 1/8 tsp tannin Lalvin EC-1118...

Hey everyone. My family and I are making an MM Chilean Malbec right now. We just completed the first carboy to carboy racking tonight and started degassing. No wine volcano so far! Woohoo! Though I did manage to spill a few ounces on my parents kitchen floor during the racking process when I...

Hey everyone, I have been lurking around this forum for a couple weeks now. I am pretty much brand spanking new to winemaking. Some guys and I from my church decided it would be fun to start making beer together and it got me thinking of what it would be like to make wine. So I looked into it...