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Hello all, I thought I would post this here, as I found no comparable discussion on the topic. Backstory: I usually use PVC shrink capsules to decorate the bottles after bottling a batch, but this time I was experimenting with the bottling wax for the first time (actually the softer...

So, apparently the time has come: checked my mail this afternoon and there it was, my admissions offer to a doctoral program starting this Fall. While I do have my priorities straight, I think I would miss wine making now that I got used to it over the years, especially since I will be...

I stocked up on 15 lbs of cranberries to start a 5 gallon batch some time next week. I actually wanted to crush them tomorrow (Sunday), but discovered that I have no yeast and pectic enzyme left in the empty bottles (I have no idea why I kept them, if those are empty). I ordered the additional...

Sourcing my grapes from California (and usually not sooner than by early October due to busy personal schedule) I often run into the issue of high Brix grape. For instance, this year I got Pinot Noir of about 25.5*Brix/S.G. 1.108. For some full bodied wines I would be okay with that, but if I...

Being busy lately I am clearly late to the wine making party this season. Nevertheless, I would like to share with you a few pictures of a small crusher I constructed. Motivation: 1) Call me a cheapskate, but I have antipathy to spending over triple-digit sum of money for regular size...

Yesterday I came across a 34 gallon polypropylene storage container at a household supply store. It is not labeled "food grade" per se, but I know some of you are or have at one point used trash cans/buckets as primary fermentation vessels. It isn't PVC, so I don't expect it to leach stuff into...

I created this thread as I didn't want to hijack the previous thread that I found very interesting to read. I found two 1L bottles of blueberry syrup (evaporated juice) with which I thought would be nice to make a small batch (1-1.5 gallon) of blueberry port. I diluted the syrup at 2:3 ratio...

I recently finished fermenting a batch of cranberry. I deliberately stopped the fermentation early to keep the residual sugar to make it sweet. Current alcohol content is about 10% by volume and final S.G. is about 1.010. I was aiming for the final S.G. of anywhere between 1.003-1.005, but it...

I have to be honest, I am totally fascinated by people who can smell wine and produce all sorts of quasi-poetic descriptions of all the different scents they smell/taste. As for myself, I continue to be a complete noob at this sort of thing, as I struggle to spot even what others describe as the...

I have been wondering for quite some time why do triple-scale hydrometers have Brix and Potential Alcohol scales that fall below 0. Though I was suspecting it is because of non-fermentable solids found in wine, I wasn't sure how to estimate/calculate the final alcohol level based on this...

Since 2010 I have been making cranberry wine every year. So, this year, not being an exception, I crushed about 16 lbs of fresh cranberries that made up around 8 gallons of must in total volume (water added). Although some recipes state that I should crush 3 or 4 lbs per gallon of must, I think...

Recently I've read about this type of fermentors in one of my books, and today I saw an ad, and decided to follow up on it here. FastFerment The idea looks quite appealing on the surface, but I don't know what to make of it yet. So, I would like to ask some of you who have been...

Hello, everybody! Before today I made a dozen wines (while still learning all the various techniques and additives) from seedless table grapes, but mostly from non-grape fruits. Some of my first country wine batches were successful, even though I managed to pull it off with wild yeast alone...

Hello, this is my first post here, but I have been following these forums for a couple of months now. I have recently made a 3 gal. batch of raspberry wine from frozen raspberries (I bought them fresh and froze myself). It has been 5 weeks since the end of the primary fermentation and I...