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Arne: Growing up in Western Nebraska I was also not familiar with the sassafras tree either. Wait, Come to think of it ,I was not familiar with any trees! They were few and far between. LOL Most westerners will not know the sassafras tree it U.S. range runs from extreme eastern Texas...

From Day one! When my wife was alive she use to say, I do nothing half way. It's whole hog or none at all. Still true today!

If you add nutrient too near the end of fermentation the nitrogen may not be used and could lead to spoilage.

I have over 100 hives at any given time, at one time I had over 1000 so I bought all kinds if nifty power tools to do rabbit joints and dado cuts, plainer and bed sander ect. so I make my won hive components. I also sell beekeeping supplies in my shop. so what I do buy I buy from my wholesaler...

I have found the same as grenginND I find that in many fruit wines in order to get an alcohol level to provide good storage the alcohol masks the fruit a bit until time mellows the heat of the alcohol. and allows it to bond with the fruit to bring the fruit forward. the dryer the wine the more...

I try very hard to not add anything but Oxygen and yeast nutrient once the fermentation begins. Pectic enzyme does better if given a chance to begin breaking down pectin before the fermentation starts, however, I do not believe it has a monumental effect on yeast performance, As when the pectin...

Catastrophes among the bee community seem to befall it's members each year. The past three have years have seem major accidents resulting in the loss of hundreds of hives and millions of bees. 4 years ago millions froze in a semi crossing Wyoming. 20 years ago there were 5 million active...

I have plenty of stoppers! would you like some? They sit on my shelves waiting for an empty carboy like the Maytag repair man. So they can stop the dust and bugs from getting in the carboy when not in use. LOOK there is one at work in at the bottom center!!!

Depending on the brand the manufacture recommend 1/2 to 1 teaspoon per gallon, however since you are dealing with such a small amount of sugar and surviving yeast 1/2 tap would probably be adequate for the entire batch. but as I said earlier, that close why bother risking it.

Not that I am any sort of expert but I agree with everything JohnT said. Although many of the workhorse yeasts are rather resilient drastic changes in the fermentation process, with the possible exception of the addition of nutrients can stress the yeast and make it do odd things. Some yeast...

A degree of oxidation is necessary to bring life to the wine. I know we are all taught that oxidation is bad but that is in reference to excessive oxidation. oxidation takes place through the wine making process, even when bottled, However the type of oxidation is different in the two aging...

Although JohnT is correct for white wines. .60 to .65% is preferred for reds. so your choice to go with .60% would be a good one. I feel using the lower end of the recommended percentage leaves one with the ability to add a little more post fermentation if the mouth feel is not adequate.

Once the wine got that close to dryness you should have just left it in the primary. At that point the suspended yeast had become pretty much depleted. Racking left the active yeast in the lees. If you by chance saved the slurry you could add some back to the wine and it may resume. You can add...

No. No problem as long as you do not use chemical pesticides. But there is no advantage either as honey bees do not really make much use of grapes for nectar or pollen.

Hello Lilly, Welcome, lots of good folks here!

I noticed you said "all but stopped" which I would interpret as meaning there is some activity, After racking for the reason Julie stated wine can be very slow from 1.000 to 0.995 give it a few more days and see what happens, in any event you never want to consider a fermentation stopped until...

Aww come on, Has no one here ever made sassafras wine? no one can tell me how far off course I am? it's bubbling at least.

That is quite a find, We will not have strawberries in my neck of the woods for 5 weeks or so. I am sure you already know this but strawberry wine by itself is a pretty good wine, as is strawberry pomegranate, My last strawberry venture was strawberry mango. It turned out well when I...

I have used the HI-98103 for years now. I have compared it's accuracy on many occasions with the HI-2215 at the shop. Which is an extremely accurate bench model. I believe retails for around $600.00 and NEVER have deviations near .1 let alone .2. Tell me what difference .2 pH is going to...

Dominic1920 Pretty much nailed it. Too often too much raisins are used and that is what you get raisin wine. but they can improve a rather bla wine, I sometimes use them when making a fruit wine, and I do not really have quite enough of the target fruit. 1/4 cop per gallon seems right for...