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Tonight I got to the step where I had to remove 2 cups of wine from the carboy to make room for the F-Pack. I was very surprised to find that I had to take out 4 cups to fit it in. After adding everything and topping up, I still have just under 4 cups in a quart jar with a screw cap. Is that...

Picked up 4 gallons of fresh merlot juice on October 6, fermented in primary for a week ( SG < 1.000) racked to Carboy and inoculated with Bacchus MLB on the 13th. It appears that MLF is done as there are no more small bubbles. The wine has dropped sediment and has started to clear over the last...

Having gotten all my fresh juices into carboys for aging, I decided to try the Chocolate Orange Port kit. I've been following the directions to the letter, except that I'm having a terrible time keeping the temperature within spec (72-75 degrees F). The house has been around 66-67 degrees...

I have a couple varieties of white wine that I started from fresh grape juice on 9/14. They had both completed fermentation on 9/24 so I racked them to clean carboys. The wines are clearing and have around a quarter inch of new lees in the bottoms of the carboys. At what point should I rack...

My local winemaking shop carries several varieties of oaking supplies, including Wine Stix (http://www.winestix.net/?page_id=330), They are made for carboy use and seem quite convenient since you can easily remove them when you feel the wine has had enough oaking. I bought a light toast stick...

I will be picking up a few gallons of fresh Merlot juice tomorrow. Any suggestions about a good yeast to use? The winery recommends malolactic fermentation so I will be trying that for the first time. Per the winery, the specs are 23.5Bx;0.76TA;3.43pH. Should I plan to make any adjustments?

I am making 3 wines now. 2 are coming along nicely but one is taking forever to ferment. I picked up the juices (6 gallons Seyval Blanc, 3 gallons Valvin Muscat, and 6 gallons Cayuga White) on 9/13. I adjusted sugar to 22 Brix and added yeast nutrient. The juices had already been sulfited at...

I've seen conflicting information about this. Some instructions say that all wine needs to be de-gassed, some say you only need to do this with kit wines. I've made several wines so far and have never de-gassed any of them. In fact I never heard of the practice until recently when a friend...

I have 6 gallons of Seyval Blanc that I started on September 14. I used Cotes des Blancs yeast and added sugar to an initial Brix of 22. On the 23rd the hydrometer read .990 so I racked and sulfited. I would like to oak this particular variety, as I like the taste of oaked Chardonnay. The...

I started making wine last year and was very pleased with the results, so now a whole corner of the basement has been taken over as my "winery". I have Dandelion and Blackberry bottled, and Strawberry in the process of bulk aging. September and October are grape harvest season here in western...