Recent content by JimboJ

I was thinking the same thing. And how is it quick? Seems like a couple of hours total to get the water to boil, boiling itself and cooling down. And thats assuming you can fit all your bottles in one pot. I think its MUCH easier to fill your bottling bucket with water and sanitizer (you...

Ok so it sounds like some bacteria is more resistant to alcohol than others. Makes sense i guess. But it also makes sense that when you get to a certain level of alcohol, it must kill all bacteria. Its probably why 30 year old scotch never turns to vinegar. I'm just curious what % of alcohol...

Beer I can understand. But wine has 2-3 times as much alcohol as beer. My question is how much alcohol does it take to kill the bacteria and wild yeast?

Maybe this is a silly question, but... If I am making a wine with say 12% alcohol, do I still need to sanitize the bottles and bottling equipment? Doesn't the alcohol in the wine accomplish the same thing? What level of alcohol is necessary to not require sanitizing?

How long do you need to stir it? How do you know when its done?

I'm making a Vintners Reserve kit, and the instructions say that once you rack it to the carboy for secondary fermentation and add the additional chemicals, you need to stir it vigorously inside the carboy. What do you use to stir inside a carboy? Even if I had a spoon long enough, it wouldn't...

FYI, I ended up adding 6 oz of the sour cherry syrup at bottling with no additional prming sugar. When I tasted it, it seems to have just a hint of cherry flavor, which is what I was going for. Keeping fingers crossed the carbonation is ok and I don't have exploding bottles. I'll let you know...

I bought one of the Vintners Reserve kits that makes 6 gallons. The instructions say to use a primary fermenter that is at least 8 gallons. I have a 6.5 gallon fermenter that I use for brewing beer. I really don't want to buy another bucket. Is the 6.5 gallon big enough, or do I really need...

I'm currently fermenting a batch of oatmeal stout and I wanted to add some cherry extract at bottling time. Problem is I can't find cherry extract anywhere locally. Its been in the primary for 3 weeks now, and I don't want to wait another week or so to buy it online. I did find a liter bottle...

Dave- I started brewing a chocolate stout, but you got me thinking about adding cherry flavor to it. I used 4 oz cocoa powder in the last 15 minutes of the boil, and plan on adding 2 oz. chocolate extract at bottling. Anyone have a suggestion on how much cherry extract should I add to get a...