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I've been brewing and making wine for about 7 years. Beers are great, white wines are good but, I've never made a good red wine. My reds, mostly from high end kits from various mfg, all exhibit the same metallic taste at some level. They all are clear and bright with good color and have no...

I vacuum degass all my kit wines. Has anyone ever experienced a problem from this practice?

Here's the deal. I've been making wine for about five years now. And beer for about six. Great beers, even awards. Very good white wines... every one. Can't make a red to save my arse. Seriously. The only exception was a Zinfandel I made from hand picked grapes one time at the beginning. Did...

We've been making wine for several years and have made several whites along the way. Our favorite has been CC Yakima Valley Riesling which have all turned out well. However, I'm now searching for something a tad less sweet. I've considered withholding some of the reserve pack on this wine...

We're making a Rosso Fortissimo and I want to top off using a similar wine. Not sure what that would be for this wine. What are you guys using? I typically use argon since I'm only in the carboy three weeks or so for clearing. Would prefer to age in the carboy but alas no space in my...

Being a flat-lander in Oklahoma means I don't have a basement. I've commandeered a small bedroom in the back of our house and have established a collection of sorts of aging wine. Closing off the heat in this room has resulted in 60 - 65*F throughout the winter. When the weather begins...

Okay, so I'm maybe expecting too much but I gotta find something to make that doesn't take a year or two to drink. Have any of you made a red that's decent in 6 months? My white wines are great in 3 months but my reds wouldn't compete with Boones Farm inside a year. Mostly, I make upper end...

We're starting our first Mosti kit which was supplied with a nice grape pack. The Mosti instructions have one adding this pack directly to the must and later you need to use cheese cloth to strain out the remnant material. This seems awkward to me trying to fish the solids out of the wine...

I've been making kit wines for several years. I've always recognized that fermentation will raise the temp slighty, However, I just started a CC Old Vine Zin which ready took off. I ferment in an ambient of 72 - 74 F* which may, based on my prior experience result in the must getting to...

I had a Cellar Craft Showcase Yakima Valley Cab Shiraz working and left town for a few days... I thought. Basically I got it racked and added the clarifying/meta/ sorbate today, 1 month after pitching. Smells good and has good color.... but What's my odds of getting away with leaving this on...

Someone was looking for a mechanism to move around full carboys and buckets some time back. I too was having trouble with this task since my back simply wasn't up to it. So I modified a small Harbor Freight dolly with a small hand boat winch from HB to develop a tool for this. I've made an...

I've been using the classical 7.8 gal fermentation buckets for my wine making efforts. All was well until I started making the higher quality kits with grape packs. What I now find is the bucket is too small. The gas trap bleeds wine and I'm forced to remove the lid and have it just setting...

I bottled our CC Trio last night using our floor corker and some synthetic corks. Haven't used these corks before and when finished noticed they were leaking slightly. After some Google time I discovered these corks are not to be used with a floor corker. It appears the corker will...

Many of you have been helping me diagnose why my reds are crashing after a few months in the bottle. Using the info I've gained from this forum I have a new theory I'd like to bounce off of you. Background: Making wines for about 3 years, brewing 4. Never an infection with brew. Initial...

I've been making wines for about 3 years now. Mostly reds. Basically, I've never been able to get a red beyond six months. No problems with the whites but admittedly they're gone by six months. I've only had a couple of reds which made it long enough to be good before they crashed. The reds...

I've been topping with Argon and was wondering about introducing unwanted critters when injecting the gas. Do any of you that top up with gas filter your gas, or do you just layer it in directly from the tank?

I have been vacuum degassing my kit wines for awhile now. It's been working well but seems to take longer than I expected. So in an effort to reduce the time involved I went with a slightly higher vacuum for a much shorter time (2-3 minutes @ 25"Hg). I went ahead and performed my clearing...

Is it possible to have oxidized red wine to the extent it's non-drinkable but still has excellent color? How does one confirm oxidation in reds when you don't have experience with the taste?

I thought I'd share a little oops I discovered in my wine making which may save someone a headache. I just poured out the better part of three years of production because I found I had virtually no SO2 in my treasured inventory. Yes, I did taste them first... :) I always put the classical 1/4...

I'm looking to make a Moscato. Don't know much about this wine so any kit recommendations or feedback would be appreciated...