Recent content by DougBrown

Oops, neglected to mention that we do use yeast nutrient, and the temperature is perfect and steady. We're happy to wait months. I was just concerned that there's something amiss with our method.

We have a cider making club and do a lot of ciders each year (100?). We're all pretty experienced but one odd thing has us all puzzled. Maybe 5-10% of the ciders each year really drag their fermenting feet. Almost all the ciders finish in 4-6 weeks but these few can go on for months sometimes...

Thanks all. My concern is that adding any tannin to delicate fruit wines (apricot, peach, etc.) although it will provide some benefit, it will be offset by introducing astringency to the wine. The testing is logical but it seems safer just to leave it out.

I've done quite a bit of research on adding tannin to fruit wines and I'd like to try it but I haven't been able to get any guidelines on how much to use. Feedback?

It's my understanding that the pH for fruit wines should be around 3.6.

Well, it seems to me, and I pretty sure I looked it up, that one would add a base to raise the pH. Yes/no?

I pick my fruit (plums in this case) when they're very ripe by taste (I don't have a refractometer) but when I make up the must I get pH's in the low 3 range (3.1-3.3). When I taste the must even at 3.3 it tastes fine -- not too acidic. I add calcium carbonate but ending up using so much (1/2 a...

I/we used the 6-at-a-time cherry pitter from Lee Valley. Worked great but still a lot of work.

Do you aim for a specific pH?

I pit the cherries, which opens them up pretty well, add sulphite and then pectic enzyme the next day. I use a mesh basket and ferment for six days then I press them well and carry on from there. I spread the wine around among friends and most of them thought the same as I did about the...

I made a cherry wine that turned out weak and insipid. I used 30 lbs. of fresh cherries (Bing) for 6 gallons. I also added 2 cups of white grape concentrate, 8 t. acid blend and 2 t. tannin (plus the usual other additions). My first thought is to add more cherries and/or more acid blend, and/or...

I often heard that Transparent apples are not good for cider but nobody says why. I have access to tons of them and an sorely tempted to use them. Anybody want to talk me out of it?

I'm not happy with the micron choices on the commonly available filter pads. I also make beer and use pleated cartridge filters for that. I've never seen anything on using cartridge filters for wine. Is there a reason for that? One can pretty much get any micron rating they want plus the...

I'm mostly a kit brewer (BrewHouse but lately U-Do) and I was wondering if I could create a lambic beer from a kit. I mean when the adding the yeast step comes up does it really matter if you started with all grain or a kit? I see that Wyeast has a few lambic strains.

Dave -- I don't see how it can be the yeast. I've been fermenting stuff all fall with yeast from the same batch (I bought a box of 100) and everything is doing/has done fine. Doug