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I went back and looked at my calendar, my spring juice is just over 5 months old. so no reason to worry about it being out of balance - for me, buckets need a minimum of 1 year before being anywhere near descent

Hello all - been making wine over 10 years. always a patient/lazy approach however this year I find myself with all carboys full and looking to bottle early (6-7 months since primary) from the spring juice buckets. I sampled some early wine today and its a hot mess lol. the pH and acid is...

ok thanks much.

Ok thank you. I took a phone call during the batch I guess I didn’t pay attention close enough. Im fairly certain the sh was that high. So would you recommend adding water to the batch? It was a 6 gal kit made to 5 gal

Hello friends, I have 2 chard kits from fontana that i started last friday (10 days) i do the joeswine thing and make to 5 gallons, a little chaptalization and an oak stave. i think the initial read was 1.150 Ive done more of these kits than i can remember and never had a problem. Both kits...

good morning ladies and gents - I'm writing today to see if anyone can comment on re-using bottles with ceramic lid and loops from this company http://vodka360.com its water tight, i just didntk now about letting the wine "breath" through the cork. yes its fully degassed :D

I looked everywhere but can't find it. sorry :( It was however based upon another DB recipe I found on here.

i added dates to a dragon blood variation. I put in lots of different ingredients. initially it wasn't very good but i let it age for a year and wow is it good. Gourmet really. Going to do another batch for 2017 holiday season. I can dig up the recipe i made if your interested.

Joeswine do you have a link? Ive been busy over here lol have 15 kits and buckets in glass:HB

how much oak chips do you all put in? the bags are IIRC 4 ounce but the label says its good for 25 gallons. I wouldn't think it would do more than 12 ounces.

I had something like that on a kit with lots of fruit in it. I feel it was pectin - after several racks it went away.

BTW does anyone have a comment on oak chips vs. just using tannin powder?

Yes Bill, mostly oak, tannin, grape paks etc. some use raisins or chocolate, clove etc. but for me just adjusting SG and a little oak will probably do just fine. I did 5 buckets last year and let them finish on their own with no tweaking. I feel like they could have been better so my lesson...

great advice i will do so thanks Phil. Do you know much about the barolo and the monte? i bought 3 american oak staves and have lots of loose chips from LD carleson but they make such a mess.

Hello friends - I have 8 buckets I just brought home from luva Bella in Ohio. and Im wondering what if anything i can do to increase the overall flavor and profile etc. I will chaptalize a little bit but not too crazy - after I have a base SG as they are still super cold 60 degrees or so...

wow how this thread has taken off! i wanted to ask joeswine about blueberries. they were only 1.49 at aldis (7/23/16) so i got 4 packages. do you think that is too much for one kit? i was going to add them to a fontana merlot. i think its a 1 dry pint per unit so i would be adding 4 dry pints...

welcome to pittsburgh and wmt :)

I've done mostly fontana kits. the wine expert kit i did do wasn't even close to the hot rod fontana ones I've done. I'm sure the higher priced kits are better but I'm a casual winemaker, just having fun with it

Hi Joe, and everyone else here on the other kit thread. Been busy teaching my 70 year old Mother the joy of tweaking cheap wine kits and she is hooked!! I haven't read up on the thread but will do so today.

Added grapefruit zest in primary of pino grigio, it was grapefruit early on but now has lost its flavor. Add more grapefruit? the wine finished the second week of January.