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So, what are some of the typical arguments for bottle vs bulk aging? To overcome bottle shock, is a few months about two then? How does one know when the wine is over its shock?

So, I've got various attempted fruit wines in bulk aging right now. What I'm wondering is at they have been in there many months and are no longer dropping lees. Once I bottle them, do I age an additional 6 months in bottle, or do I count the time aging in bulk? I know, longer is better, but...

It is a "Brewers Best" Ale Pail. The top has a bung for the airlock, so I naturally assumed it should seal... I will ask at the shop when I'm back next.

Well, I've never aged on fresh fruit, but did you stabilize at secondary? I'd think the sugar from the apples might restart fermentation otherwise.

Well, racked the mead today. Now in one 3g and one 1g carboy for topping up later. Six days since pitching yeast, SG is down to 1.012. I gave it a swirl before racking so ended up with almost no lees in the bucket. I guess that just means more lees later, but the carboys are bubbling away...

More time seems to work for me. A few months sitting in glass with a very minimum of headspace will let the apple flavor come back more. It will still be a dry drink however. Honestly, I like them at this stage and am just experimenting with adding various flavors to a dry, aged cider...

Should I take any special precautions to avoid a stuck fermentation when racking at 1.01? Starting from 1.093 OG.

Sounds really good! What was the starting recipie?

I don't have any exceptionally old cider, but I keep mine in a back room that has little light and runs cool. Bonus is that "cellar temp" is about the right temp to drink cider for me. No fridge required!

Cider helps me learn patience. Waiting for the cider to really be crystal clear takes months, the wait longer for really good flavor. It just means you need to keep making more batches to keep the pipeline full!

If you can't read through it yet, wait. I've been through this with cider and the results are worth the (agonizing!) wait. Eventually you will see that haze slowly move down the carboy leaving clear drink behind. The end flavor will be noticeably better. Once it is clear, rack off those lees...

I have a 6.5 gallon "ale pail" (ale will likely never touch it, but anyways...) that I recently started a simple mead in. I ended up with 4.5 gallons of must, so there is significant headspace, but it's a new fermentation so it's going strong. However, even this new fermentation can't keep...

I wouldn't add nutrient now. Probably not enough sugar left for the yeast to use the nutrient and you may pick up flavors of yeast nutrient. Just let it ride as it is. 5 weeks is only 1 1/4 months. I just racked a batch of a similar age that was still bubbling slightly. It still hasn't...

I would think to soak the berries first with campden to drive any living pests or strange bacteria out, then drain and freeze to kill eggs? The fermentation looks good though. I guess you can say it self sterilizes as the alcohol level rises?

I've got some wine aging in a glass jug. It's nothing fancy, just Welchs white grape juice made better with some Montrachet yeast:). What I'm noticing though is a strange whispy appearance near the top of the jug, just the top inch or so up in the neck. Hard to get a photo, but it's almost...

Because "good" is highly subjective! I don't have anything near ten months old. But, a month or two aging in a bottle makes a good tasting cider to me.

Foam isn't always present during fermentation. I've got 3 gallons of cider fermenting with Montrachet yeast (just the yeast I had at hand) right now. So many bubbles it sounds like sizzling bacon and the airlock is bubbling continuously. The surface of the fermentation is perfectly clear...

According to the can, the concentrate has a SG about 1.192 (32g sugar in 60ml). So it has to be diluted out of the can to get down to 1.100. Would that much concentrate give an overpowering flavor in the finished product? I thought commercial vineyards used just water and grapes?

Trying my first wine after doing several batches of hard cider. I notice that most recipies I see call for some amount of concentrate + a lot of sugar. I've been wondering though, why add raw sugar instead of more concentrate? Is it just a cost thing or some other reason? I'm calculating...

No added sugar (aside from the honey!), juice was unfiltered though. It has cleared to where I can see light through the fermentation. Has a great color The little chunks make it like a fermenting lava light. Bubbles going up, taking little bits of sediment with them and other bits of...