Brand new at this fine hobby

[Ohio Bob]

miracle grow fertilizer

Really? I don’t even like putting that in my vegetable garden. Isn’t it synthetic?

 

[wineview]

Really? I don’t even like putting that in my vegetable garden. Isn’t it synthetic?

Don’t know where people get these ideas. I wouldn’t even put it in the wine room.

 

[BigDaveK]

Can I use city water for my juice and mixing my san star with? Can I put my city water in the air lock?

Did a quick check on your water. Slightly hard meaning dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium, but that's fine since most yeast like/need them. Chlorine added but that's easy to remedy like @winemaker81 said.

 

[rshelton]

Did a quick check on your water. Slightly hard meaning dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium, but that's fine since most yeast like/need them. Chlorine added but that's easy to remedy like @winemaker81 said.

Wow thanks a lot Dave. I'm about to start a batch of blueberry today. Sounds like I'll be starting it tomorrow so the chlorine will dissipate

 

[wineview]

Purchasing distilled water is also an option for your wine. I used distilled exclusively when mixing SrarSan.

 

[Anna Nelson]

Hello all, I just registered this morning and thought I should get to it. I have been reading a ton of things on here. I appreciate the helpful nature of you fine folks. Very helpful. So I bought a fruit kit and have started two 1 gallon batches. My first was watermelon and my second was strawberry both made with the actual fruit not the premade juice. I had a problem with the sulfur STANK with my watermelon. It read .999 SG, so I racked it twice and that helped quite a bit. Dropped a crushed campden tablet the second rack. I read that yeast goes after the sulfur bits (the proper term eludes me) after the nitrogen has been depleted and this is what sometimes contributes to the STANK. I then read that after pitching to add your yeast nutrient. Which I failed to do on my watermelon. Could this be the reason? I also see conflicting thoughts on whether to hydrate or not when it comes to your yeast. Which I'm sure varies great on type and brand. So I poured the packet straight into my juice after 24hrs with my watermelon but hydrated the yeast on my strawberry. The fermentation was night and day. I'll add some pics. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I tried to add text to the pics the bucket with the crazy bubbles is strawberry and the one with not so much is watermelon. The strawberry was 24hrs after pitch and the watermelon was a few days after pitch. View attachment 111196View attachment 111191

My strawberry batch foamed like crazy and smelled awful. I stirred it several times a day because the foam formed a mat. After 5 days I strained out the floating fruit and it was much better. 2 days later the fermentation slowed appreciably and I racked it to gallon carboys. It tastes wonderful- though still too sweet and it’s bubbling away on my kitchen counter.