Recent content by Mr_fleabite

Argon gas is your best bet for gassing the head-space, but it's not cheap; CO2 and Nitrogen will also work. However, you'll need to re-gas every couple of days/ every time you draw wine out. Some places sell "wine saver" gas cans (like the air cans for blowing dust out of your keyboard) those...

Can you describe the smell/ taste? Was it Barnyard, wet cardboard, burlap, nail polish remover, farty, onion/ garlic, rotten eggs, burnt rubber, latex, vinegar, green bean/ bitter green pepper? Was it topped up into the neck of the carboy? What did your carboy previously hold? What was your...

Yes, you are on the right track. You need to sterile filter with something like a "Seitz" brand "EKS" or "EK1". http://www.pall.com/main/food-and-beverage/product.page?id=28208 Steam & Hot water are your friend here, 180 degrees F for 15 minutes will do the trick on nearly everything assuming...

Trim out the repetitive video game/ zombie references and the article becomes much more readable. Great pictures and good info, but the video game stuff doesn't add to the article.

If you haven't added any DAP or nutrient (mostly DAP anyway), I would suggest adding DAP early in fermentation (above 10 brix). Unless you're going for something more organic-like; however SO2 kind of nullifies that.

In the long run your Lavin will out compete the natural yeast; many wild yeast can't ferment much beyond 4-5% alcohol. The "problem" is wild yeast can be awful, neutral, or great, it's a roll of the dice. Also some may produce compounds that make life hard for MLF, a.k.a. secondary...

Have you taken any temperature readings? Where do you have it stored? How much SO2 did you add?

If you're shooting for a pink wine/ rose you'll want to keep the SO2 additions minimal, SO2 will bleach out the color. I would always use a good yeast nutrient Fermaid K for example (4-6 grams in 5gal) and some DAP (12-14 grams in 5gal). Holding/ fermenting on skins (if you're able) for a bit...

In my experience Potassium BI-carbonate is the most predictable for reducing acid. Please take into account that this will shift PH as well (increase). As PH rises your SO2 becomes less effective, I'd only be worried if your PH went above 3.70ish. I've not made Cayuga wine before and I'm not...

it won't hurt to make it homogeneous, my guess would be if you did it too aggressively you could extract a lot of flavor compounds (maybe desirable, I have no idea what this fruit is or how it tastes). I think it's pretty safe to say stir though fermentation but you'll need to stop as soon as...

Hello again, Commercial cider is largely made with concentrate (brix = 60+) so they dilute just to get it to ferment. I'd still urge you to not cut it back; I'd wager that the malic acid adds you did to drop the PH worked, then it went through secondary fermentation and this causes the PH to...

Why are you diluting at "blending and bottling" by 25%? Off hand this seems like a lot, at this step I could see various opportunities for sanitation to slip. If you have no other options, storing your secondary at higher temps is what you'll have to do, but this is far, far from "best...

I've had ferments that look like this before and nothing has been off. How does it smell/ taste? With a lot of K-meta already in there your yeast are struggling and they may start to make off flavors, did you add any DAP before starting? If your brix is above 8-10 (1.032 sg) you can add...

ColoHox is correct, it's also aerobic so this process primarily takes place on the surface with air contact, if you were diligent about sanitizing it may have taken off if your fermentation vessel wasn't topped up. From a home brewing stand point there isn't a whole lot you can do at this...

I wouldn't take the risk, just stating the facts/ semi-response to bu gee's comment above. For what it's worth, I'd venture a guess that at the level most home brewers are operating at TCA is in the environment already.