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I jacked my 1 year old chokecherry port by about 1/4 and when I did it dropped out a lot of sediment. I was surprised because it was pretty clear to start with. I'm wondering if the cold temps precipitated out something. Anyway, I put it into a pail with some oak to age. It's taken on a lovely...

Haskaps don't self pollinate and for best results you need a different variety. The fruiting varieties are usually low bushes that produce large sweet fruit. The pollinator varieties are taller and produce smaller fruit that is tart. Most people find the pollinator fruit undesirable for fresh...

Interesting! I do not, but if I did I would blend some fruit from a pollinator variety to add acidity and character. Maybe 20%

Ok. I've had the odd acclusion / defect in glass carboys and they haven't given me trouble. Sometimes they look like cracks, chips, or bubbles in the glass. Carefully look at the bubbles. Do they move? Are they inside the glass? It would be an extreme case but it's possible these are glass...

I think you may have a relatively benign bacterial infection reminiscent of a sewer smell but very faint. There is likely something downstream of your boiler (in the chiller or in your cold break transfer) that is harboring a colony. A joint or a crack. The other possibility is low grade...

Hi all, So I was given 5 gallons of mead a friend made about 5 years earlier and lost interest in. I opening it up and sampled some and it was almost dead. Not a lot of acid, the cinnamon they put in hadn't toned down much, and the whole thing was out of balance and past its prime. So I...

I'm jacking some concord wine at the moment. It's dropping a lot of acid out as crystals but I doubt it's going to be drinkable anytime soon.

I recommend that you try not to stress out too much, wait another 48 hours, then aerate the juice and repitch a yeast starter made 48 hours earlier with sugar some nutrient and about a quart of water.

It'll be the Camden tablets. FWIW I press juice from windfall apples that have dirt on them. Then they sit in the garage for a week or so before pressing. Then if I'm using pectin enzyme the juice sits for 24 hours before I pitch yeast and I never use sulphites. I use cool temperatures and...

I was given 5 gallons of 4 year old mead once. The aroma was great but the flavor was disappointing. The acid was gone and it was on its last legs.

The cold temperature is an attempt to slow down any residual bacteria from multiplying as it could take a week before SO2 levels drop to a point where the yeast will re start. Depending on how much air space you have in the fermenter you might want to not put an airlock on so that the gasses...

Chances are you nuked everything with SO2. I'd place it in a cold spot until it's gassed off enough so your yeast can get going again

Whenever I've had problems starting a fermentation it has always been because of too much SO2. Best wait a few days before repitching.

I was making white wine and you press the grapes immediately but my press didn't do a good job so the pomace was wet and chunky. So I added a little water and some sugar to offset the water I added and pitched some yeast. You're correct it isn't how traditional grappa is made but I have no idea...

It could be the fermentation temperature. I did a slow cold ferment at under 15C / 60F. That tends to reduce the amount of astringent tannins extracted from the seeds.

Just pressed the skins and unfortunately the wine is too good to make grappa with. I do have some concord grapes I have going so maybe when I press those I can use them for grappa.

Here is a photo of the freshly pressed wine. The excess that didn't fit into the secondary anyway!

The Muscat wine from the juice is still going but the wine pomace ferment looked ready so I pressed it today. The pressing went really well and the cheeses coming out of the press were excellent. Based on what I've read online I was expecting a slightly orange liquid with lots of astringent...

PPM is a measure of the amount of some solid in a given volume of some medium. My guess is that in this case it is the amount of peat smoke in a volume of liquid. It might be water or it might be spirit at a standardized alcohol percentage. You're probably going to have to do some digging and...

Yeah looks a lot like rhubarb fiber.