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Instead of releasing gas, my airlock is doing the reverse--it seems like the must is trying to draw air IN. What is going on???

My first attempt at making Skeeter Pee was sketchy at first. I followed the directions exactly, but after pitching the lees from a batch of cider, I had no fermentation. I rehydrated some lalvin champagne yeast and pitched it, waited a week, but nothing. Figured I'd try one more thing before...

Taking a break from my cider and rice wine to explore a traditional Chinese cured sausage: lap cheong! For those who know this stuff, there is no other comfort food that can compare. My sister has celiac and hasn't been able to eat lap cheong in years, so I decided to give it a shot! After...

Hey, everyone! I've been trying my hand at making homemade lap cheong (Chinese cured sausage) for my celiac-afflicted baby sister, and one of the traditional ingredients is Mei Kuei Lu Chiew. According to Google, this wine is made from sorghum and rose, but I have not been able to find any...

So for some reason my brother in law's apple wine has a sour, bitter taste to it. It doesn't taste or smell like vinegar, and the apple flavor is really nice as an aftertaste, but the actual taste is sour. Any thoughts?

So with one 5 gal batch under my belt, I've got a couple of questions. Please forgive me if they're already been asked before! 1. After a while, the batch seemed to take on an odd taste, not like vinegar or anything, just ick. I've been reading into it, and it seems that maybe what I noticed...

I just pasteurized my first batch of bottled cider, and I realized I haven't seen anything on here about how to tell if the process worked. I boiled the water, let it cool to 190, and put 8 room-temp bottles in there. I didn't take them out after 10 minutes though, I just left them till the...

I'm still finishing up my first ever cider, and I'm in the carbonating stage. I've got the stuff in bottles, and it's been over a week (realized my temps were wrong to promote carbonating, but I fixed that). I just cracked one open to check it (couldn't resist) and it gave a nice pffft! when it...

Yes, I'm posting again with yet another n00b question. I backsweetened my cider with a little table sugar and frozen apple juice concentrate (no additives, other than vit. C). I've got some that I want to keep pretty dry, so I didn't add a lot of sugar, and some that I wanted to be pretty sweet...

Hi, I'm getting ready to backsweeten and bottle my first batch, and I'm using frozen apple juice concentrate as the backsweetener. It's not pasteurized, and I'm wondering if I need to boil it before adding it to my cider. Thanks!

I'm on my first batch, and it's been going for almost 5 days. I'm using a balloon airlock till I can get to the homebrew store (which should be tomorrow). First few days it was going like crazy, balloon was completely inflated. Now, the balloon has decreased in size and the cider has a bubbly...

While waiting for my first batch of cider to ferment, I thought I'd try something that only takes a few days. However, there are a few questions I have about soda making with yeast. 1. Does yeast carbonation cause the soda to have a weird taste? 2. How long do these homemade sodas stay...

Yes, another newbie thread (shudder). I think I have a decent understanding of what I'm shooting for, though, so maybe I'm off to the right start. I would like to get this going tonight, so if one of you experts out there could take a look at my plan and let me know if it sounds like something...

Just to let anyone wondering know: I've found out that #1 or #2 5 gallon bottles are hard to find, but I found #1 bottles at Hyvee for $12. They're really only $6, but they come prefilled with water so you gotta buy the whole thing. I know not everyone might have a Hyvee, and not everyone's...