Search results

I tasted the wine and it has changed and it is no longer good. Wine will be dumped. My process is sound. Primary is typically less than 10 day, then I rack to secondary carboys and rack every 2 to 4 months. I add pot meta every other racking and I use one way vacuum valves for air locks...

I have a 20 gallon batch of strawberry wine that I bottled in May of 2021 that is showing deposits at the top of the wine in the neck of the bottle - please see pictures. I'm seeing these deposits in both the regular strawberry wine and in the strawberry wine that I made into chocolate...

Once you have a pipeline of wine going in various stages and inventory the stress goes away and you are no longer on a clock. Time is your friend here.

I've learned it pays to put in the sorbate, k-meta, backsweeten and then let it sit for at least a month or more. Then I will rack and taste test again. My last batches of cherry needed more sweetening to balance. Glad I waited.

I like using a paint strainer bag or similar mesh bag to hold fruit for primary fermentations. Makes it easy to remove the pulp and any seeds from the must when racking to the secondary.

In my experience, fruit wines always need backsweetening or there is little to no fruit flavors regardless of how much fruit you use. My best fruit wines are backsweetening using real juice. A little acid can also being out fruit flavors. You must add potassium sorbate before...

I can leave bottles in softwater and oxiclean for days and have never seen a white film. Must be the hard water. I typically soak for 3 days and then scrape off the labels with a curved carpet knife (I have left them in for two weeks at a time). I don't worry about perfection and then put...

USA ITH-20R

Not that long ago I was very new to wine making and it's easy to miss steps. A website that helped me learn was http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp It's not the most organized website, but there are ton of articles that will help you understand the process of wine making. Most, if not...

One of my "Ah ha's" in good fruit wine making is what we often taste in the bottle is a result of adding back in some fruit flavor and sweetness through either a flavor pack (do a search on how to create) or by simply adding in some unfermented fruit juice or sugar after adding pot sorbate and...

USA

Yes. I add Potassium Meta every other racking. 1/4 tsp per 5 gallons. My racking interval is typically 2-3 months.

Time and patience is my best suggestion. I get the sense that some fruit wines take a long time to clear. I would rack it every 2 months and add meta every other racking until it clears. I have a friend that almost always takes a year to make his fruit wines and rarely does he use a fining...

It's a bug on his website. After two pages of recipes, the third page is blank. The rest of the recipes are under the Requested recipes section. Try this link and scroll to the end of the page and you will see a complete index of recipes. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request.asp

Try some Apple juice, banana and frozen Strawberry wines. Check out http://winemaking.jackkeller.net for recipes or do a google search. These are easy to make and benefit from 6 - 12 month bulk aging.

Racked and bottled my first batch of DB. Started on 12/16, finished fermenting on 12/22, back sweetened on 12/31 (.992 to 1.008) and aged for a whopping three weeks before bottling tonight. Tastes great. Tweaks included 9# triple berry and 1 can of Welch frozen red grape juice, juice from a...

You might be surprised - you might be bottling first thing Sat morning or Friday evening. With my first batch I had to had to hit it with pectic enzyme and I really had a hard time being patient - I wanted it to clear so badly. Fortunately after two or so days it cleared. I can now see why...

I have a Inkbirk ITC-106VH PID (proportional integral derivative controller). You can find kits on amazon prime (or ebay) where they provide a 40A SSR (solid state relay) and the thermocouple for $35. I've seen some kits for $20. I wired mine with a light switch and a duplex outlet so I...

Your carboy should be able to handle the brew belt especially if you can set it to a reasonable temperature. I use a PID controller with a home heating pad and have set the temp as high as 76F to help get a fermentation going. My basement glass carboys stay at 60F unless I use heating pads.

I had a similar experience with my 12# Tripleberry Dragon Blood not clearing quickly after fining with Durafine. I gave it another dose of Pectic enzyme and within three days it was totally cleared. My basement doesn't have great side lighting so my Dragon Blood carboy looked like your picture...