Search results

Anyone else try the rapt pill floating wifi hydrometer from kegland? Same idea as Tilt and iSpindel, but it's cheaper. It's wifi, so no Bluetooth repeater or nearby phone needed. I'm doing my first batch of beer with it right now. Will try it with wine this fall. So far I'm happy, I'd like to...

So I had some wines that are a bit to acidic that I wanted to lower. I haven't used potassium bicarbonate before, but decided to use this vs calcium carbonate. The LD Carlson package said to use 1 1/3 tsp per gallon to lower TA by 0.1%. Finding the same product online, which also showed the...

I've built a small insulated box below a countertop in my garage. It's about 4'x2'x3' Looking for a way to keep it cool in summer. I don't often need cooling during wine fermentation time as it's usually not so hot by harvest time, but it does happen sometimes. I also make beer year round so...

I have about 110L of Riesling in primary fermentation right now, thinking ahead to secondary. I have around 15 carboys but they are all full of other wine. I do have two 50L beer kegs available. One is unmodified, so that's pretty simple. The other one has had some drain ports and a 1-in port...

Hi all, I have a wine I am making for a relative. I make this most years for them, but it's always a rushed affair because we harvest in late September, and it needs to be ready for Christmas. I have no control over the timeline. I know time is the best option, and stopping fermentation isn't...

I've got a couple grape crushers, just the manual hopper with a single spiked roller in the middle. I'd like to electrify one of them because I usually crush alone, and it would be a lot faster to have it running all the time. I've got a 24V, 250W DC motor, and a speed controller.The motor is...

Pressed my last grapes for this year, got 16.5 gallons (62 L) of Syrah. Also racked my 5 gallons of apple cider out of primary. I kept all the pumice with the thought of using it for some other beverage later this year. This was my highest volume year by a good deal, especially when you add in...

I picked the remaining apples and pears from our back yard today. Got 75Lbs of apples and 5 lbs of pears. I wanted to make cider from them. I had done a trial before to see how my grape crusher with not very good results. So I figured I'd just cut them into 1/8ths and try to press them in my...

I picked about 200lbs of Riesling from my cousins farm today. 19 brix. There was more brown/split/rot grapes then I expected, see photo. My own Muscat grapes never look this bad, nor have the other grapes I've gotten from him over the years. I'm guessing most of this is due to the late season...

I picked up a used wine press a while ago. It's a ratcheting style wood basket press. It has 2 half circle wood blocks with handles, 2 half circles without handles, 2 small half circles, then a bunch of blocks. When I used it yesterday, I found as I was applying pressure, the blocks and even...

I have never pasteurized wine before, but this one very sweet wine that we make for a relative I am worried that it will referment on me even if I am using sorbate. I was wondering about people's thoughts on pasteurization. It will be way too many bottles for me to try to do it in bottle. But...

Picked my muscat today, got 350 LBS! I've never gotten more than 250 before. Last year was more like 100. Destemmed, crushed, and pressed. Got 90L (24 gallons). SG was just 1.06 PH 3.22 Couldn't get a TA reading, think my kit is to old, week get another tomorrow. Added yeast nutrient and...

I have an all-in-one wine pump and whole house filter. I've used the pentek P1 1-micron filters in the past. In Canada I've had trouble finding them for a good price without having to double or triple the cost in shipping. On Amazon I came across this...

I was going through my vines and removing all the growth down at ground level. One one on my Riesling, I plucked off the little shoots down an inch or so above the ground, then noticed that was the only green on the whole vine. The rest of it (goes up 3 feet then splits in each direction along...

I was testing my wines today and one tasted like it hadn't fermented fully, so I made up a starter with orange juice, water, fermaid, and then super b and 1118 yeast I had laying around. Before I added to the wine, I tested sg and it was .990 so no reason to add the yeast. Didn't want to just...

Anyone have experience to share with making a white wine like a red? Crushing and leaving on skins? This is called Orange wine I tried searching but mostly got threads discussing making wine from oranges. The local teaching winery here is experimenting with it. Wondering if I should try it too.

About 6 weeks ago I bottled a bunch of stuff, including 5 cases of our Muscat, which I had filtered (5 micron), sulfited (30ppm), and back sweetened (wine conditioner with sorbate in it) Opened a bottle today and and it was sparking. Looked at a few more and see some cloudyness in them. I'm...

I got a set of Atlas 772 Nitrile gloves today for $5, on the off chance I could use them for punching down wine cap? Any thoughts on using these for that purpose (after washing and sanitizing)? Manufacturer doesn't list food safeness, but some websites selling them say for food prep...

Back in June I started a 5 gallon batch of strawberry/rhubarb wine. It fermented from 1.08 down to 1.04 but then got stuck. It's been sitting in a carboy ever since. I figured out why it got stuck, I somehow over-sulfited it, so it's at 120ppm free SO2 (guessing maybe I added sulfite when I...

We planted 2 unknown variety table grape vines a couple years ago, this is the first year they've had fruit on them. Does this look like too much fruit to ripen?