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A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church, by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the Old Abbot to question...

An old, blind Marine wanders into an all-girl biker bar by mistake. He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a shot of Jack Daniels. After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender, 'Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?' The bar immediately falls absolutely silent. In a very deep...

I want to have more temperature control of my primary ferment bucket. It's a 10 gallon plastic bucket (see pic) and I typically ferment 6 gallon batches. The pads seemed to be the most efficient but I have seen some pics of burned plastic floormats that give me pause. I would love to hear of...

I have a lot of additives that are a year or so old. Nutes, energizers, acid, tannin, sorbate, k-meta. I have heard that sorbate has a a short shelf life. What else? Is there a way to tell? When I 1st started, I was putting these additives in canning jars and vacuum sealing after each use...

I have read here that tart cherries were best for wine but I never saw a reason besides the cough syrup taste of sweet cherries. I wasn't afraid of that taste cuz I kinda like it, plus I figured if ABV and sweetness was kept to a minimum it wouldn't be so bad. My mistake was to copy a successful...

Sorry for the long post but I wanted to get most of the questions you might have covered. I've only been making wine for almost a year, but I have made about 170 gallons. Although I have had a a couple of batches get stuck mid ferment, I have always been able to kick start them pretty easily...

I started a batch of sweet cherry using cherry concentrate from Coloma at a tad stronger than full strength combined with 5# of sugar. For a total of 6 gal S.G was 1.114 Using a calibrated digital ph meter, it took 10 TBS of acid blend to get a 3.45 reading. That seemed like a lot of acid...

I am looking at different extracts from OliveNation to add to wine and I noticed some include glycerin and some don't. I am hoping one of you food science guys, or anyone that knows, could tell me what affect glycerin would have on wine if added after the ferment. Good, bad, or no effect at all?

I have seen a lot of forms of chocolate mentioned on this forum, but not chocolate extract. Seems like a good way to add some chocolate flavor to something like cherry wine without the fat and added at any time after the ferment. Has anyone used this method? What about extracts in general? Pros...

Rather than updating an old thread where I kinda deviated from the OP, I thought I should start a new one. I had a problem with Coloma in that they sent me what I assumed was the wrong juice. Here is the original: NEVER AGAIN ! This is "Black Raspberry" Flavored Concentrate? I don't think...

No more than 15 gallons in Alabama? https://apnews.com/article/alabama-illegal-winery-busted-sewage-90df58246b706d797d4a80a162f8b1ac

I've ordered some peach juice concentrate from Coloma and I'm wondering how to create a good recipe for it. Since I presume the juice will be lacking the pulp and skins I would have if I were using fresh peaches, so what will it be lacking that I might add. Would this be a good place to add...

In the process of back sweetening, I used five 1/2 TBS instead of five 1/2 tsp to five gallons of blueberry wine. So, essentially 3 times the proper dose. 1) will this ever dissipate over time? 2) other than blending it in with 2 more batches of BB wine, is there another way to fix it?

I'm about to start a 5 gal strawberry/ vanilla batch. 16lbs frozen strawberries 15 oz golden raisins vanilla bean(s) A couple questions for those that have used vanilla beans in the past: 1. I'm looking for more than a touch of vanilla flavor but I still want to taste the strawberry. How much...

So I just got around to buying a digital ph tester and figured out how to calibrate and use it. Now, my question is about the range I should be shooting for and does the meter take into account the temperature of the must? For example, I am starting two batches now. One blueberry and one...

I'll be making wine using concentrated juices from Homewinery.com for the 1st time. I thought I start with their recipe but after reading over it and seeing that it included this chart that said the sweetness of the final wine was determined by the initial sugar added, I lost confidence in the...

I'm ready to do a little back sweetening for the 1st time. From what I have read here, I believe I have the basics but not the details. My plan is to pull off about a half bottle or so and my wife and I will taste test from dry to a few varying degrees of simple syrup added with the...

I've started another 5 gallons of ginger wine only to realize I was almost out of acid blend. My recipe called for 4 TBS of acid blend so I used my last TBS of acid blend plus 3 TBS of acsorbic acid I had in my canning cupboard. Of course now that that horse has left the barn, I thought I ask...

I made an experimental gallon of ginger wine 77 days ago and it is was a success. It is now clear and aging beautifully but the ferment had slowed to a stop midway, then I got it restarted and it finished up at .996. I used ginger powder and white sugar and energizer and acid blend and nothing...

I have about 50 gal of wine made now and I kinda think I'm getting a handle on the basics. Very basics. So far, I've been making banana and blueberry and a few experiments, but the banana and blueberry is what I think I will be making the most of. I have been using Red Star Premier Blanc yeast...