Recent content by jdrum

i still like cooking my pears till there soft, then mashing in a mesh bag, 5 or 6 days in the bucket, then pull bag and squeez the devil out of it, solids are reduced by more than half, racked to carboy at .010, tow wks later i got about 3/4 inch of lees and still fermenting, did this last yr...

let it sit, if you can degass, do it, getting the co2 out will speedup the clearing process, then move to the coolest spot u got, keep covered and wait, i think i would also add my k-met and sorbate to stabilize now, you got another 3 or 4 mos to go don't rush it, it's worth the wait jim

i just came to my attention (i don't get around much) that Coca-Cola is selling glass 8 oz bottles of coke again with crown caps. sounds like a match made in heaven for the people who just want a little nip before bed!!! i have a frend who buys them buy the case and is saving me some. i dont...

you need to remember the berries are about 70 to 80% juice, first mash the berries up that will reduse the vol. by half, i do 5 gal blackberry batches in a 8 gal fermenter and have no problem, and use 25 lbs of berries. mash the berries up real good ( i put about 3 qts in a gal ziplock bag and...

got about 40 lbs of scufadines this am (more to come) any suggestions. i plan on freezing this batch for a few days, then mashing and starting a ferment. cant make up my mind to use natural yeast or pick some up (dont have any at present) jim

check out watkins coconut extract there extracts used to be top of the line. jim

freezing apple cider is the old timers way of making applejack ,

cold crashing is not done by freezing solid, it is done in a temp controled freezer holding the temp around 29 to 32 degrees to help clear wine and reduce tartic acid. goggle the term for a more compleat description jim

if you dont have a hydrometer put an egg in the must and add sugar untill the egg floats that will give u about 1.085 which translates to about 11% ABV. you can also get a small paint strainer bag and put your fruit in it and place in primary, and remove it with most of the pulp at the end of...

give it time, ive got a 5 gal of peach and 5 gal of pear 5 mos along that were treated with superkleer over 3wks ago, took 1 1/2 wks to start clearing, but every couple of days there is a marked improvement. jim

it dosn't hurt to give it a good stir every day for the first few days the in primary fermentation the yeast need o2 to reproduce. get a hydrometer and check the specific grav, when it gets down to 1.020 or 1.010 then rack to a carboy and air lock and leave alone. keep checking the sg when it...

whats the temp, may need to warm it up jim

ok ok use fresh egg. i never had one sit around long enough to go that bad, they belong in a skillit jim

you are fighting an uphill battle with all the chemicals in the must. if it is a small batch, i would start over. and try another ( look for juice or concentrate with out all the chemicals ) if they list asorbic, or citric acid thats ok. if you don't have a hydrometer to check the specific...

When your wine finishes fermenting, (hydrometer reading stays the same for 3 or 4 days) get some potassium sorbate and treat as directed, with both p sorbate and k-met. the sorbate will not kill the yeast but it prevents the yeast from repodusing after a few days the last of the yeast will die...