Recent content by carrie_mt

Thanks Yooper! That makes sense! I've got it going now so I'm just in the waiting game...

Yooper - I'm hoping you can help a newbie... If I've got a bucket with apples/water/sugar up to my desired mark how accurate is my initial sg reading? I'd imagine once the apples are removed on day 5 that I'd have to add quite a bit of water to bring it back up to my desired mark and that...

Uhh... yeast starter? I just use a packet of dry yeast and sprinkle it on top of my liquid when it calls for it. Is there a reason I should be using liquid yeast/yeast starters instead of the dry yeast packets?

To be honest I've never used marbles but it came up in my searches this morning when I was trying to figure out how others prevented the issue of not getting a full 5 gallons into the SFV. Do you use the apple juice to top up a secondary or tertiary racking? Is it o.k. to add more sugars...

Thanks DarkBrood! I'm assuming if you are taking a 5 gallon recipe and converting to a larger recipe you'd multiply everything but yeast by 1.2 for a 6 gallon batch or 1.3 for a 6.5 gallon batch. I'm assuming that once I had the 5 gallons in the SFV anything added at that point would be for...

I've got a few wine batches under my belt but I'm still trying to figure a few things out. This is quite the learning process! I'm trying to prevent loss when racking from my primary to my secondary. I'm not to worried about other rackings since I don't experience much loss with them and am...

I learn something new everytime...now I know how to make a sweet wine. *sigh* not what I had intended on this batch. Do you know if they will taste sweeter when cooled or less sweet? I thought the taste of the gooseberry was nice but a tad sweet...if chilling it took a bit of the edge off I...

I was wondering if it had to do with to high of a SG. Unfortunately I weighed the recommended sugar out and added it - now I'll know to just add the sugar to the recommend SG and not worry about measuring it. They are on top of the fridge and we keep the house between 64-68 in the winter so...

I've got three batches of wine that are about 6 months old but seem to be stalled... 1 gallon Red Current 8/14 - Montrachet yeast, SG 1.130 12-16 reading 1.042, 3/2 reading 1.036 1 gallon Gooseberry Apple 8/14 - Montrachet yeast, SG 1.24, 12-16 reading 1.032, 3-2 reading 1.030 3...

Oh yes - a balmy 30° today! I actually went out for a run over lunch! I'm a newbie homebrewer myself so I actually just heard about the club. It doesn't show on their website but the next meeting is next Thursday, the 3rd, 6pm at Madison River Brewing in Belgrade. I'm planning on going to...

There is also a homebrew club in Belgrade/Bozeman - google bridger brew crew to find it. To set the record straight - I have never seen temps near -40 here. -20 is about the worst I've seen here and that lasted about 4 days or so.

I probably didn't let it ferment all the way then - I looked at my records and it was .998 when I added the campden/sorbate. Is there any harm in leaving it a carbouy for longer - say testing it and having it below 1 and then just leaving it for another month?

I've got bottle bombs! After the first 2 gallon batch I did that was so successfull I did a 5 gallon batch. It fermented out around 1.00 after about 8weeks. I did 5 campden tablets and 1/4tsp sorbate (per directions on bottle) per gallon to knock the yeast out. To back sweeten I added juice...

Newbie here myself - I must like to learn the hard way because I thought I could skip the bucket and go straight to the carboy since I had the juice from the fruit. I *thought* I was taking a short cut...lol I had rhubarb wine all over the walls... been there done that! I moved it to a...

Awesome - Thanks Yooper! I'll give it a try! The crabapple juice and jelly I made last year with them was delish so I think it will make a great wine!