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Hey All, I made a batch of Welch's wine about a year ago. It wasn't very good and I just left it in a 3 gallon bucket (only about 2 gal worth of wine) so there was lots of air contact. Well, out of sight, out of mind. I dug it up today and was going to pitch it. I popped the top on the bucket...

Hey All, I have read (after I started this batch!) that blueberry can be a tough ferment. In addition I am trying a "dragon blood" blueberry variant so it is pretty acidic to begin with. Anyhow, the ferment was petering out pretty quick in the beginning so I made a yeast starter (only for about...

My local HBS sold me a 7.9 Gallon primary. It measures (outside dimensions) 15.5" tall X 14" wide (at top). 6 gallons fills it to a ring that runs around the inside of the pail 2.5 inches down from the top edge. Once you put 6 gallons in it, you should be able to put another 1.9 gallons in...

Hey All, Working on a new batch of Cider derived wine and had a few questions. I'll ask 'em first and then post the recipe. - I am shooting for a 3.5 ph. Good/bad/indifferent? - I am thinking about trying oak for the first time. I have some LD Carlson medium toast French oak chips. It...

Excepting a loooong slow ferment, why not just ferment dry in the primary bucket? Seems like most recipes call for transfer to secondary at some particular SG (1.040/1.010'ish). I thought the yeast like oxygen at this point. Also if you rack later on you'll leave more of the gross lees...

Grrrrrrrrrr...... I was just racking my first 6 gal batch of Dragon Blood into secondary. I had added K meta, pot sorbate, and super kleer. When I was racking into my carboy I saw what looked like a fruit fly. He must have just got in there while I was degassing and such. It may have been a...

Was reading a Michael Polan (sp?) book the other night (love his books) and he was talking about various ferments. Fermented veggies, cheese and of course wine/alcohol. In the book he says that wild ferments usually don't go over 5% abv. Is this so? Before the advent of our modern "killer...

Ok, Help me out here. I've never been the sharpest stick in the bunch but this issue has me vexed. So, I make a 4 gallon batch of wine (actually have one going right now) with the idea of putting 3 gal into one of my 3 gal carboys and having a gallon to top up with. Ok, no prob I have gallon...

I swear I searched first last night before posting this. I got the whole 1/4 tsp per 5 gallons of must part! What I want to know is a per gallon addition of K meta so I can do partial batches. The best answer I found in my search was: "2 tsp k-meta in 20oz of water. Sulfite additions...

Hey Everybody, The more I read on this site the more I ponder this question. How much wine do you make in a year, and what do you do with it all? Seems like most of you have 2 or 3 (some people 10 and 12!) 5-6 gallon carboys working at any one time. That is conservatively 40-60 bottles a...

So, the peaches are steadily coming in now. I am going to pick up a bushel or so this weekend. My last peach wine was a HS2 disaster and I dumped the whole batch. After doing a bunch of research on this site I am forming a game plan and I'd love your input! The basics -minimum 10 lbs. per...

Hey All, I'm not going to use water! I could order a BUNCH of marbles from marbleking, and I plan to buy some at some point, but I was thinking to top this off with another wine. I don't have any of my own I'd like to use. Besides I think this is going to be more than just one bottle. Oh, this...

Ok, I posted a few days ago about some sulphur smell in my primary ferment here. http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f6/slight-sulphur-smell-my-new-plum-wine-batch-46407/ Now I have gone to secondary, air locked and everything seemed okay. Tonight I went to check the SG and there is a...

And I want to nip this in the bud quick! I have read a bunch on this site about these probs and tried to adopt a plan to stop it as I have wrecked two previous batches already. Grrrr. Okay here is where I am: Recipe: -19lbs plums after washing pitting and chopping -3 gals spring water -Sugar to...