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Welcome to making wine! As you already have seen, it's a bit different than making beer. It sounds like your wine fermentation is stuck - meaning the yeasts aren't eating the sugars for some reason. Here's a handy website that spells out a lot of the possible reasons, and suggestions on how to...

1. At the 4 weeks' mark, most likely, the wine must will still be fermenting. It will most likely still be cloudy, yeasty, and bubbly. As a lot of the sugar probably won't have time to ferment into alcohol, it will most likely taste sweet, and have a low percent of alcohol to it. It will...

It's one of the ways to stop fermentation, or make sure that no more fermentation occurs. Sulfites & Stabilizers Usually it's a good idea to make sure the yeast is dead, or gone, before sweetening. Otherwise, the remaining yeast will start eating the sugars, and fermentation starts up again...

What is the "wine taste?" Tannins from the cherries may have added a flavor similar to what red wine tastes like, from the skins. Unless you mean that it is very dry, and not at all sweet? In that case, once it's finished fermenting, you could choose to stabilize it, then add any sweetener you...

Wow, that's a lot of headspace in those bottles. Aside from the lack of pressure, are there any other reasons you're doubting the cyser? It looks pretty clear, doesn't seem to have any molds or clouds, so it could be fine. You could try popping it open, having a taste, and then going from...

Not sure if this is "normal" or not, but the same thing happened to me with a particularly stubborn maple syrup wine. After stabilizing, racked it into a new carboy and fit an airlock, "just in case," like usual. The next day, I noticed a few bubbles coming up from the depths. I gave it about a...

It's usually a difficult, uphill battle against preservatives - when you know what they are. Not having an ingredients list makes it a bit trickier. It could be anything. One way to combat preservatives is to make a starter, like you mentioned. You get the starter going along merrily for a few...

This article really helped me choose what yeast to use - and why to not use bread yeast in making wine: Making Wine with Bread Yeast ... NOT! Mostly what I use for fruit wines is the Lalvin EC-1118 yeast. It's specifically designed for fruit wines, and is an absolute beast at eating sugars and...

One way to reduce the hardness of water is to boil it. Doing this causes the minerals to concentrate into a fine powder-looking material at the bottom and edges of the pot. You can then slowly pour the water into another vessel, leaving the minerals at the bottom of the pot. No added salt, like...

You can buy birch water readily online. Be sure to read the ingredients labels, to avoid unnecessary additives. Some of them add sugar and citric acid, which isn't really a big deal. Be sure not to use any that have added preservatives that will halt or effect the yeast fermenting.

This recipe sounds great! One thing you might consider is starting with birch water? It's the equivalent of maple water, but made from birch trees. This is basically what comes out of the tapped tree from the spile, and it then usually boiled down to be concentrated into syrup. You can buy maple...

Yes! That batch threw a TON of sediment. Wasn't really sure why, but I guessed it was a mix of the possible plant matter (cherry skins, pulp) and other particulates falling out of solution from fermentation. It's great juice - I used their Just Blueberry Juice to make a blueberry mead (also...

Is it R.W. Knudsen's cherry juice? When I saw it on the grocery shelf (and it was on sale, which was really rare), I knew I wanted to try it, too! When I made cherry wine out of it, I used 4 quarts of "Just Black Cherry" juice, 0.75 lbs. sugar to bump up the PA to 10%, and the same nutrient and...

Making a separate one-gallon batch with the new berries will save you a lot of extra work. After both batches are all the way done, you can taste each, and decide about blending, sweetening, etc. If you decide to go for one three-gallon batch, there are a lot of extra steps. Sanitizing the new...

This was a tricky lesson for me, and I still forget in some batches. Sometimes, you just need to let the must do its thing, and see what happens.

What's your ambient temperature? Could try making it slightly warmer, and see if that helps boost fermentation. There are a lot of possible factors limiting fermentation. This is the easiest one to change, for the most part, without even opening the carboy. It could be pH, something else...

The tannin I got has this on the label: LD Carlson Company Wine Tannin Balances Low Tannin Wines & Aids Clarification Directions: Add according to specific wine recipe. Recommended use as follows: add 1/4 teaspoon per 1 US Gallon for white/rose wine must; 1/3 teaspoon per 1 US Gallon for red...

Do not put anything in anyone's mailbox that is not mail. Tampering with the mail is a federal offense. I like the old adage, "Good fences make good neighbors." The bamboo idea is nice, but it tends to run rampant once it's planted, and is a highly invasive species. The idea of bringing over...

It really surprised me, too. ;) The syrup from the canned peaches might have had something to do with it in my wine's case. Mostly it's extra sugar, but it feels like it might have some bonus peachy flavor in there, too? From soaking on the fruit, and possibly fruit that's long gone into other...

Here's the one I used, a piecemeal recipe cobbled together from various book and internet recipes. Smelled and tasted strongly of peach - sweetened after the fact, because I prefer sweeter wine. Without sweetening, it was only a tiny bit sweet. Ingredients: 3.25 quarts water 32 oz. canned...