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The picture below is of my 2023 muscadine piquette that is refusing to clear. It was put into bulk storage late in the fall; and spent the winter in cold stabilization. I racked last Friday and dosed with 6 TBS bentonite slurry but is still cloudy today. The other 20 gallons of wine received...

Do you feel a certain length of time should be allowed after K-Meta, sorbate and the sweeting agent (in that order) is added to the wine to ensure no re-fermentation occurs OR do you think the action of the sorbate is basically “immediate” and that bottling may proceed without a “waiting...

Here's a link to the ancient wines of Georgia the former Russian province. The segment aired on this weeks edition of "60 Minutes".

I maintain a “down and dirty” cheat sheet for quick reference. I was reviewing this morning and ran across an entry indicating that one can add 1 tsp of K-Meta/ 5 gals at bottling. I routinely add 1/4 tsp / 5gals at bottling to add aprox. 50ppm. I also add 0.4g at each rack. I have no...

I hope when I inevitably choke to death on gummy bears from Halloween, people will just say I was killed by bears and leave it at that.

I was supposed to add the remaining 10tsp of nutrient at S/G 1.073 but totally forgot -ugh!:m S/G this morning is 1.012. Would you recommend adding the full remaining dose of nutrient at this point; 1/2 dose, or just let it ride and take corrective action later if the fermentation sticks at...

Stumbled across this link on youtube and thought you might enjoy. Certainly a far cry from our normal wine making routine; however an Italian neighbor of ours assured me that's pretty close to how his family made their wine.

My wife got this shot of our muscadine vineyard at sunrise. Thought you might enjoy the peaceful scene.

I started a 5 gal batch of Apfelwein 7 days ago using an established and proven recipe. The fermentation is active appears normal; however, the other day, I noticed a layer of foam on top of the must - nothing of concern. About an hour later, the foam was gone. This pattern of appearing and...

I hope to start a batch of Apfelwein using EdWort’s original recipe Apfelwein German Hard Cider Recipe later this week. From my research, it appears that this will top out somewhere in the neighborhood of 7-8% ABV. I plan to bottle in 750 ml bottles and age for approximately 1 year. The...

Kicked off my first batch of elderflower wine this morning and decided to use Montrachet yeast as specified in the recipe. Rummaging around in my yeast stash I found the only packet of Montrachet I had but was surprised when I saw the date - the yeast was almost 10 yrs old!! I generally start...

Experienced an unusual situation this week while bottling the ’22 crop of muscadine wine. I have used my Portuguese floor corker for 30+yrs with no problems and it has always seated the cork at the correct depth. This week for some unknown reason, it would leave some norma corks 1/4 inch high...

Anyone having trouble with a Fermtech wine “THIEF” leaking besides me? I purchased “The Thief” about 6 months ago but just opened the package yesterday. You sanitize the thief, submerge it into the fermenter and the level of the wine equilibrates to the insertion level. The Thief is withdrawn...

Just "re-discovered" 3 blue plastic barrels that have been in the shop attack for 25-30 yrs. There is no detectable odor on/in the barrels and the only marking/labeling I can find is: harcostar 1991 1H2/y78/s/91 GB/0084 I have no idea what they may have contained or what they were used for...

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Two of our friends vacationed in Umbria in September. One night while dining in a small family restaurant, the host selected a bottle of Sangiovese for them. They were impressed with the wine but failed to get any information, ship a case home or even worse, to send me a bottle!! They did...

Racked about 20 gals of muscadine wine from primary this morning and was incredibly happy with Steve's Free Run Tube!!:db:db I simply "dug" a hole in the cap and inserted the free run tube with the strainer bag, dropped the racking cane in the tube and turned on the pump. Even my better half...

After 5 yrs of great service, my homemade muscadine crusher finally gave up the ghost - in the middle of the crush I might add!:slp:m I checked with a good friend at Alternative Beverage, ebrew.com (my go to brew shop) to see if there were any rentals available. There were none but we did...

Local wine supply shop was out of pH probe storage solution when I stopped by yesterday. Westlabs indicates that if 4M potassium chloride solution isn’t available, it’s acceptable to store probe in either pH 4 or 7 buffer solution. Does anyone do this on a regular basis? Would be great to...

I’ve been following the various threads here dealing with natural/spontaneous fermentation with great interest. Many of the members have done an exceptional job of describing and documenting their experiences with spontaneous fermentation and the quality of the resulting wines. I’ve been a...