Recent content by Zwetschgen

I think the blender was a good choice. Strawberries are soft enough that you can crush by hand (foot, 2x4, whatever), there really is no need to puree strawberries. Apples and hard pears on the other hand aren't so delicate. I've never used a juicer so I cannot speak to them, but I think a...

Cheese cloth would work if you tie it into a little bag. I hope you experience with B&B was better than any I have ever had.

Generally, I have found and others may disagree, that the finer you get the fruit the more juice you can get out of it. Cider makers will typically crush theirs into a near applesauce consistency then press. I would mash them, sounds like a lot of work if they are as hard as you say they are.

I have heard stories of sunken ships being discovered and amoung the cargo found were cases (or bottles) of wine. They may have had a wax seal I am not sure, but people have definately tried them, it seems to me you'd be fine.

A #2 stopper fits the standard wine bottle I believe.

When you crush and press fresh fruit to make wine you are essentially making juice first. The amount of acid in a Flordia orange verses that of another orange could be totally different. I doubt the acidity would have any effect on your finished product especially if the juice is simply an...

I will be honest I don't like to wait, and I have been known to add the additives wait only a few hours then pitch the yeast. I've never noticed anything horrific about my wines when doing this, but as a beginner it may be benefitial to learn the right way. I am sure you are aware, the beer...

I made a gallon of cranberry wine earlier this year. My yeast stalled for some reason, I presumed it was the acidity level, so I had to dilute the must with some water to get the flow going. I used a mix of cranberry juice and fresh cranberries, that may have been the problem. The wine is very...

Your recipe looks alright, but you did not mention the use of campden tablets. They are necessary for sanitation and preserving the wine for any length of time (use 1 per gallon). If I was going to question anything I would ask what your total volume is. 15 lbs of strawberries doesn't computer...

If I don't have room for the sweetener, I'll usually pull out enough to bottle a 'dry' version (either 12 oz bottle or a 375ml) then sweeten the rest like you plan to do. Just remember to label the one that was not sweetened.

I concur.

Can you? Yes, but I will not. Too often I have had bad experiences with either fermentation not being complete or bad sorbate, because my fermenation has been known to restart once I've sweetened. Just sweeten and wait a few days to see if it will start up again.

Once it's fermented dry (no residual sugar) you can use a vinometer, which are like $5 at any LHBS to roughly estimate the amount of alcohol. You could try to see at what temperature it freezes, 10% alcohol freezes at about 25 degrees, so stick it somewhere 30 degrees and see if it freezes. The...

Yeah, with that kind of time you might as well just buy some vodka and pour it into your grape juice. Maybe wouldn't hurt to start a batch of great quality wine to open every year for a decade after your graduation, but maybe not.

If wine making has taught me anything it's patience. Take a reading and once it's lower that 1, then I'd wait a few more weeks. Nothing is worse than losing bottles to blow corks or bottle bombs. Give it a little longer, if you are adding anything to the wine, I would use some potasium sorbate...