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Well the addition is coming along but I tweaked my back yesterday so instead of hanging drywall I’m drawing up plans for the new winemaking space. I have a little more than 700 sq ft of basement space to play with. I’ve been thinking about this a lot but this is the first time I’ve put it to...

Next Friday I’ll be heading over to my brother's house to make cherry wine. He and my SIL picked and pitted about 40 lbs of tart cherries last summer and want to learn wine making. This is what I was thinking. 40 lbs of cherries with enough water to make 10 gallons in the brute. Pectic...

So this morning there’s 18 empty bottles on the counter and the cellar shelves are a little “thin” in places. Not counting a few commercial offerings brought by guests. We had more than 30 people show up for our first official wine tasting party yesterday and a good time was had by all. We...

I was just reading a post and when I saw the word “Sorbate” the oh 💩lightbulb lit up! Saturday I bottled my petite Pearl/Marquette/Verona blend with a touch of back sweetening. It had been aging for 11 months so I didn’t add sorbate… I also bottled a 100% rhubarb with 57ml of simple syrup...

Today I picked up a Hocking Valley cider press. The wooden stand is junk but the grinder, gears, press screw, and hardware are in good shape. It’s missing the hopper and the baskets. I did a little searching and I believe it’s the Senior Model. I plan on using it for cider and pressing...

Last week I was checking my airlocks and found what looks like bacteria growing on my petite Pearl and Verona wines 🤬🤬🤬 I immediately pulled the airlocks, took out the oak spirals, and used some cotton balls to clean them out. Then i wiped out the inside of the necks with a Q tip soaked in...

The forecast for tomorrow night is 34F with widespread frost warnings! 25 Marquette 25 Petite Pearl And 28 newly planted vines in grow tubes. I’m not worried about the plants in tubes but I would like to protect the 2yr olds. I’m thinking about buying 50 paper grocery bags and covering...

In March I selected the best vine on each plant (most pencil sized or slightly smaller) and trimmed them to three to five buds. Some of them also had buds on the trunk, so now many of them have eight to ten buds. Is this too many? Should I be removing some of them? This is a typical...

Serious question… I have read some very emphatic comments here on how chlorine should never be near a winery. None explained why and I’m curious. I would note that I do have a container of chlorine disinfecting wipes in the winery/basement bathroom and, while I don’t clean wine-making...

I have a small vineyard (50 going on 80 vines) in Northeast Wisconsin that I planted last year. I sprayed a two-foot wide strip in the rows and I hoed to keep it relatively weed-free last year. This year I will be putting up the trellis and I wanted to mulch. Can I use old sawdust and...

My Rubarb Grape is very tart so I would like to do ML fermentation to see if I can reduce that a little. Any recommendations for a solid ML bacteria? Primary fermentation is done and it’s still air-locked and off-gassing. I haven’t added K-meta since the pre-fermentation dose. I used 71B...

I got a box of these 375ml bottles from a family member and can likely get a few more every month. Are they safe to cork? the little Asti bottles are screw-top the others have the push-in “corks”

I’m going to pull my rhubarb from the freezer tonight. I have about 35 pounds When is the best time to press? Should I ferment first (like grapes) and press when nearly complete, or press as soon as they thawed? Also, should I use straining bags in the press or just dump it in? One...

I have some of this information on a previous thread but wanted to get it all in one place. I recently brought home about 120 lbs of apples from a local orchard to make wine, one of my wife’s favorites. I have a small press but it was frigid outside and it’s too messy to press indoors. So...

So me and my wife started our apple wine this evening. We ground 110 lbs of apples and put them in a 20 gallon Brute with 6 gallons of apple juice. I added the pectic, k-meta, yeast nutrients and tannin then started dumping in sugar. I had several totes of supplies I got in a real good deal...

I finally have some time for wine work and I want to start a maple wine. (among others). I have a few gallons of grade B in the cellar and have been researching the process. Here is what I’m thinking for a 5-gallon batch. Pure maple syrup diluted to an SG of 1.100 Tartaric acid to a ph of...

I have three wines (Petite Pearl- Brix 22.5) (Marquette- Brix 23.5) (Verona - Brix 18 but adjusted to 22). I pitched Red Star Premiere Rouge on 9/25, inoculated with Wyeast 4007 culture on 9/27, pressed on 9/29 with an SG of 1.000 to 1.002 and racked off the cross lees on 10/5. This is all new...

Here in NE Wisconsin my new vines are going dormant for winter. Is there anything I should be doing to make their (or my) first winter easier? I have a mix of northern hybrids… Petite Pearl, Marquette, and Brianna. Next spring I’ll be installing the trellis and adding some Itasca and Frontenac.

Dang that was fast! I started three wines last weekend. Petite Pearl (fresh crushed on 9/23) Brix 22.5 (1.094) PH 3.51 Marquette (2022 frozen crushed) Brix 23.5 (1.099) PH 3.45 Verona (2022 frozen crushed) Brix 18.0 chapitized to 1.100 ish PH 3.3 All inoculated with a Red Star Premier Rouge...