Recent content by WinePilot

Thanks :) :mug:

I just made my own wine press.

Thanks Yooper! I will give that a go!

Thanks for the replies. I guess the guy at the wine shop was wrong. He didn't really seem to know what he was talking about anyway. Ok, so I need to back sweeten this welch's concord because it is just too dry. Is there a water/sugar ratio for a simple syrup? What options do I have? Thanks...

Has anyone ever used glycerin to back sweeten? The guy at the wine making shop suggested it and it was cheap enough to just pick up. I was thinking about using this to back sweeten a concord concentrate. Has anyone used this and do you need to put in potassium sorbate to keep it from...

My guess is the CO2 suspended in the wine started releasing when the dry oak chips began absorbing liquid and resulting in the foaming. Something similar happened to me a while back while degassing a merlot. I went to fast with the drill and I had a merlot volcano. Sucks.

Thanks! Tasted it the other day and it was pretty damn good for only 3 weeks after fermentation. Should be great in 3-6 months!

There has been some sediment floating since I degassed. Is this anything i need to worry about? Thanks!

I've air locked both primary fermentations on a Merlot and Concord. No problems and it completely fermented. Both are in secondary right now under airlock. So far I've had no problems. I have my wine operation in the basement of a house built in 1944. Lots of dust and house spiders...so I...

I have a couple of pounds of potassium metabisulfite already in powder form. Are campden tablets more effective or just a preference? Thanks!!

Hi all, I'm about to make my first wine from Frontenac grapes. I just got an email from the vineyard owner and said they plan to harvest next weekend. Is there anything extra I may need for making wine from grapes vs. kits? They have a destemmer and crusher to use for free. I know i needs...

Can a person use pool or spa PH testing strips for winemaking? I tried searching for it to find out but yielded very few results. I'm going to try my first wine from grapes in a vineyard in a few weeks. Frontenac to be exact, which can be rather acidic and have to pick just at the right...