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I know I saw something like this before. I’ve used juice buckets from two different suppliers locally over the past few years. Mixed results- one was consistently just blah and the other was pretty good. Tried different grapejuice merlot, cab sauv, sangiovese. Calif and Chile varieties. Can...

Do you backsweeten or not? I have 3 gallons aged and am not sure. Thanks.

Anyone use the Apera SX620 pH digital tester? Amazon has the .01 capable tester for $64. Is there one you would recommend in the less than $100 price range for what we do? Thanks Joe

I had a red wine bulk aging last winter in a 5 gallon carboy that was correctly fitted with bung and airlock that developed the flowers in wine problem- some kind of stuff floating up to the top of the neck of the bottle. I researched it here and elsewhere and determined it to be mycoderma. I...

I have 5g of cab sauv bulk aging from Spring. Thinking about doing 5g of sangiovese Italian juice in Oct. then blending some and leaving some separate. Any suggestions? Joe

This was started last summer and bulk aged. Today bottled 26 bottles nice and clear. Added some simple syrup that seemed to bring out the flavor. Still a very subtle pear taste and about 12% abv. Not too bad and the pears were free. I have enough frozen pears for a six gallon batch but I will do...

I have been wanting sinks in the basement to make winemaking chores easier. A friend donated a double sink to the cause last weekend. I already had water supply lines in the garage so now I just need a waste water line. Plan to use a plastic line to the drain in the concrete floor. It can be...

I had 6 g aging since Sept. 2019 Merlot when I saw the dreaded white film. I racked and carefully filtered it into a clean container using more than 1/4 tsp Kmeta. Then bottled it. Bit I can taste a kmeta or something odd in the leftover half bottle. Will this dissipate? I plan to let it age at...

I am at my daughter's home and tried to bottle some wine we made together using a hand corker but some of these bottles didn't allow the cork to go in all the way and sit above the neck- six bottles. Would it be better to pull these corks when I get home and use my Portuguese corker on new...

Anyone using this to rack have a problem with it quitting? I used it one time to rack 5g. Maybe 5 minutes of use? Put it away tried to use it about 4 wks later. No pumping action or noise other than a clicking sound. Any ideas? Don’t have a receipt to take it back now. There was oil in it but...

For a 5 g batch of pear wine. I did bench trial using acid blend in 10% solution. Put 1ml into 100 ml wine and 2 ml into a second glass 100 ml of wine we like the 2 ml better. the calculation: 5g = 19l 19l=19000ml 2/100=x/19000 X=380 ml i add 380 ml of acid blend solution to my 5g. Did I do...

picked up a juice bucket last Friday and pitched the 1118 yeast Saturday. It fermented like crazy for two days. Today the SG IS DOWN TO 1.002 a fast fermentation. We have had a heat wave here and our AC broke so the house was warm in the 80s which sped things up I guess. I put it under airlock...

i belong to an Italian American Club and we are considering doing a wine competition among the members. I’ve never even attended one let alone hosted one. Is there any source of “how to” tips you can suggest?? Joe

5 gallons of pear in secondary now. Looking like it will need to clear quite a lot. At what point should I use clarifying agents now or after several rackings? Usually use Super Kleer or Dual fine.

I know this is tiny compared to some of you, but with 7 varieties under my belt it was time to label the shelves! I am using more and more of my wife’s storage...good thing she enjoys the wine

What supplier is usually the best price? All my friends are red wine drinkers so clear bottles are hard to find! Thx Joe

bottled this 6 gal. Juice pail today. Fermented till dry and oaked for 5 wk with American medium oak spiral. Really good. Some more aging in bottles will be great. Started in May 2018. 31 bottles plus 2 glasses Joe

Today was bottling day for Sangiovese juice from 2018. Aged in carboy almost 12 months. Great color and flavor! 26 bottles.

i started this Dragons Blood variant on Feb24 using kumquat plus frozen tropical fruit mix from walmart. Followed the DB recipe. For a 3g batch. Yeast started fine EC 1118 and went great for two days then stopped. I restarted this must with another yeast batch that again went for two days and...

I recently picked one up and want to clean it up a bit. There is some rust where the plastic jaws sit that i need to remove. Has anyone taken one apart? Any special pieces I should know about? Thanks Joe