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I have a daughter that is a probation officer for the county. She recently busted one of her "clients" and confiscated a few bottles of wine that were at the residence. She gifted me 4 bottles in a bag and not being too fond of commercial wine, I thanked her and threw them in the car. When I got...

I started a Raspberry Choc port back in May (about 6 1/2 months ago). I started with a 96 oz can of vinters wiine base and added 15# of frozen raspberries to make a 6 gallon batch. There is also 6 cans of Welchs grape juice and 24 oz of Dutch cocoa powder. EC-1118 yeast, acid blend to 3.4...

OK, I know the majority on this forum feel that bulk aging benefits a wine. I have a Raspberry Merlot kit (Island Mist) that I started about 2 months ago. The directions say I could have bottled a month ago. I have racked it twice. Kmeta, sorbate and back sweetened it 6 weeks ago per...

I posted this in the specialty wines section (in a Skittle wine thread) about 4 days ago and got no response so I'm going to try here. I just started my first Skittle wine about 4 weeks ago and now wish I had read this whole thread through first. The wax in the primary was a messy nightmare...

OK, another member made a post today (hillpeople I believe) that stated that if you get your kmeta up to 60ppm you could walk away for a year or two. I think that the comment was made tongue-in-cheek and maybe a little exaggeration, but just how long can you really ignore your wine while bulk...

Ok, my chocolate raspberry port is finished fermenting and I'm ready to fortify with brandy. I have added up the ABV at each step feed and come up with 19.3%. I've also added another 24 cups of sugar (on the top of 8c to begin the batch) to get it that high, and would like an accurate (or close)...

I've finally got my chocolate raspberry port started and the goal is to run the ABV up as high as possible, until the yeast croaks. There is not that much clear information out there about step feeding that I can find. One poster here stated that he waits until the SG gets down to 1.0 and then...

I've been making kit wines for a number of years now and never had a problem with sediment in the bottles...until now. I made 11 batches of wine last summer and still have about 150 bottles that I let age over the winter. I live in northern MN but was in AZ from Dec-April. I leave my house...

I'm back from my winter break and ready to start my first port from Jack Keller's site. It's a Raspberry-Chocolate Port and I'll be making a 6 gallon batch with a 96 oz can of Vinters Harvest, 15# of frozen raspberries and Dutched Chocolate. Whats confusing me is the recipe says to run the...

I have read quit a few threads lately about cold stabilization, and have tried researching it further to find out what type of wines benefit from cold stabilization. To confuse me further I read one that after CS they actually added acid after because the pH got too high. Seems like chasing your...

I started a batch of apple wine 1 week ago from my daughters apple trees. Out of 110# of apples I ended up with 7 1/2 gallons of juice. This is the first wine I've made that wouldn't all fit into my 7 1/2 gallon primary so after adding nutrients and kmeta the day before, I moved 1 gallon into a...

A frog walks into a bank and approaches the receptionist. She asks if she can help the frog and he reply's "I'm building a house and need to borrow some money". The receptionist directs the frog to go see one of the loan officers, Patty Black. The frog sits down at her desk as she asks how she...

Just finished pressing 100# of apples and adding my nutrient, kmeta, tannin and the recipe is calling for 6-9 tsp of acid blend. It's a 7 gallon batch, SG to 1.086, and the pH is at 3.0. Not sure if I want to drive the pH much lower preferment. Should I add the acid blend or not?

To not hijack another thread, I'll start a new one. I just learned that a demijohn and carboy are NOT the same. For some reason I thought that a demijohn was just a European term for carboy. Evidently it is not. I guess they are thinner. So, I have a few questions: 1) They are thinner and I...

I started a version of Dragon Blood about 6 weeks ago. At second racking I de-gassed and added kmeta and sorbate. I tweaked it for the last month with raisins, oak and got the pH where I want. I am ready to back sweeten and bottle but looking through my records, it's been a little over a month...

This is a term I still do not understand. I know from reading here that it relates to Specific Gravity, but how? It seems to be on a totally different scale than SG. Some threads mention brix and SG, sometimes in the same post. A search here hasn't been any help and the Common Terms doesn't have...

I usually go by time and the amount of lee's in the bottom of the carboy, but how do you really tell when a red wine has cleared enough to bottle. I've taken small samples (right after first racking) and they look the same as a sample when the wine is SUPPOSED to be ready to bottle. I can't...

We started to hi-jack another thread so I thought I would start a separate one on soaking corks. I am a little surprised at the number of people here that seem to go to extreme measures to make sure their corks are sanitized. I never gave it a thought. After bottling and consuming about 70 kits...

Just bottled my first Sketter Pee (Cranberry-Lime at 10.7%) and this one could be trouble. It's VERY good>:HB I also racked my Tropical Blend that I started on 7-16-16. It's got 2-48 oz cans pineapple juice, 4#Mangoes, 4#Peaches, 3#Tropical fruit (Pineapple, Mango, Strawberry), 3#pineapples...

I'm going to start another Dragon Blood soon. I'm going with double fruit this time and many have stated that adding some oak chips improves flavor. Two questions 1) The bag of oak chips from the local wine shop says to soak in water 1 hr before adding. No other instructions. I'm assuming that...