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I made blueberry melomel a couple of years ago; added the berries to the must when I pitched the yeast. Turned out nicely. With a class today, though, it was recommended I wait until I do my 1st racking and then add the fruit; the proponent of that said it may involve the sugars in the fruit...

I'm wondering what the best common household utensil/device/whatever there is I can use for safely stirring the must. My wine "mentor" used a canoe oar (!) which seemed to work OK enough. I don't have one of those, but ... is there some common, easily available thing around I could use instead...

I had an outstanding fig harvest last year, and am now wondering if I should use some of it for wine. I've made wines with mead, grapes (Muscadines) and paw paws, so now .... time to branch out. Figs're pretty sweet, so there's a sugar-addition question about the fermentation, in my mind. Does...

I think I have the terminology right -- I mean, I'm ready to strain the must and put the liquid into a jug for "settling" for a long while. I've read in various grape-wine recipes that I should stir the must (after pitching the yeast) 7-8 days before straining. I (in the 1st batches I've made...

Howdy; this is an extrapolation question. Maybe. My grape harvest this year was pretty sad (only 12.5 lb from 6-7 vines; maybe due to predation from birds/'coons/squirrels?). In the past, I made wine using a 3 gal bucket and 32 lb of grapes, with 8 cups (wt?) sugar. Made another batch with a...

It's been a while; I hope all's good for you folks in wine-land. My 1st batch of wine, 2 years ago, was with muscadines. I didn't want the usual super-sweet stuff, but ended up with a super-dry batch. "Not bad" for a first try, the old hands told me. But (I'm sure) not great either. My second...

I've collected about 16 lb of these grapes -- really tough-skinned, but ripe. I don't have access to a crusher, and when I tried to use things to smash the grapes last time -- not a good result. Does anybody have any innovative ideas about how to crush these grapes? I've frozen all of 'em, in...

I just did the 1st racking of my experimental paw paw wine. Is there a tried-and-true way to make sure the mesh I kept the paw paw meat in (during the fermentation) gets thoroughly cleaned? It's pretty fragile-looking material. I've hand-washed/rinsed it a few times in detergent, but there's...

Maybe this is nit-picky, but sometimes the simple crap is what sinks the ship, so .... When I add the yeast to the paw paw brew tonight, do I stir it in once it's been sprinkled onto the top of the mixture?. Or ... sprinkle it on top and leave as-is?

when I first began making wine (mead, summer of '19), I was instructed to put the yeast (lalvin 1118) into a vial with water warmed to a certain temp, mix, then let it sit a while before placing it into the jug with the honey and water. Worked. I don't recall now, though, if I did that in making...

Does anybody have a preference for what water they use? I'm thinking City water (from the tap; with chloramines) is a no-go. That said, would distilled be better than deionized? If so, any reason? Would it make sense to maybe boil the water (and cool it) before adding it to the ingredients? I'd...

I had a nice paw paw harvest this year in eastern NC; what's left is now frozen in my stand-alone freezer. I'm wondering about making paw paw wine. Maybe ~1 gal? Can I thaw and squish out an amount of paw paw meat that would correspond to the weight of grapes I'd use for 1 gallon of wine? Of...

OK, I bottled my 1st batch of musc. grape wine (fermented it last Sept) 2 days ago. I tried a little of it -- tasted somehow ... "raw", although not bad. High alcohol content, little sugar, as far as I can tell. So ... does it improve with age? Do I keep the btls in a cool (or ambient) and dry...

I just tried using a hydrometer to see what the alcohol % is of my (1st) newly-bottled grape wine. The device, basically, sank! OK - I checked online, generically you might say, and the little blurb said a hydrometer can't be used for finished wine! Is that right? Appears to be, per my...

I'm sure this has been asked umpteen times, but I don't see it right-offhand in posts, so here goes: I'm racking for the 1st [actual] time this weekend; from grapes I fermented last Sept. The btls to-be-used were scrubbed and dried at the time and stored in cardboard and styrofoam boxes. So...

I'm not finding any data anywhere on making paw paw wine (Jack Keller or not). Does anybody have a clue about this? Maybe I should just experiment -- maybe treat the paw paw meat the same as I would pear, or apple? It has a custardy texture, and is a pain to separate from the big seeds, but good...

I asked this a while back, but it was buried amid other questions, so I didn't get a response. I'll go solo with it. If I'm sanitizing btls for racking (or whatever), can I re-use the StarSan I saved? At what point is it no longer robust enough (or viable) to use? Thx for any info on this; I'm...

Corking, for the 1st time, some bottles this weekend, using a plastic Ferrari corker. The process sounded really simple/easy when the supply shop owner demo'd it ("air-demo", not with the actual corker and a btl). But .... trying it myself, I nearly broke myself trying to get the corks into the...

My 1st time using the stuff, so .... I had my solution suds up when I rinsed my wine bottles; seems I've read that this is normal. Is it? If so .... can I let the bottles air-dry (standing up), or should I use them right away? The suds won't be an issue? When I make up a batch, can I store it...

I've noticed that in accessing this forum, I always end up having to enter e-mail and password even when I'd clicked" "remember this" on the previous access -- and even if that access was mere seconds before the 2nd sign-in. Is there an actual way to stay signed-in? Thx for any ideas ..... Mitch