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Lol too much! No I have a 6-gallon carboy, seven 3-gallon ones, fifteen smaller assorted sizes from imperial gallon down to 2 litres - and a plan to start filling them all up as fruit is available over the summer.

Thanks for the replies! No, I've not degassed it - but it's been in the carboy since last May, and it's been racked four times. Could it really need degassing? Maybe I'll try bentonite this time, or maybe just leave it a few more months until I need the carboy in August for the blackberry wine...

Hi all - I have a dandelion wine under airlock that I started 11 months ago, and it's still hazy. The recipe is from Jack Keller's website, and it includes Welch's white grape juice as well as zest and juice of lemons and oranges. I did use pectic enzyme, and have racked it a few times. Last...

Has anyone else observed that fermenting bubbles and degassing bubbles look different? If you're not sure which one it is, the wine has probably been going long enough to be somewhat clear. I've observed that fermentation bubbles are bigger and, because they rise from the bottom of the carboy...

This is a problem I've been thinking about too, since I also make wines from whole fruit. You can start by freezing the fruit so that the juice comes out more readily. Use a mesh bag to hold the fruit, dissolve the sugar in boiling water, and pour the hot sugar solution onto the fruit...

Can you recommend a specific model that is reliable but affordable for winemaking? The ones I've seen online seem to be closer to $80 - and that's Canadian dollars, without the buffer solution, and before they charge a massive shipping fee for only buying one thing. Thanks!

If it's not too late - I'd find something a bit less tightly woven than a pillowcase, so you don't strain out lots of the yeast just when it's really getting going. Also from my experience the pulp will clog up the fabric. Next time, I highly recommend getting a mesh bag to contain the pulp...

Great advice - thanks! Since you seem like a practical sort, do you have any advice on how to actually measure acidity and/or TA? I find the low-tech colour-changing kit with the phenolphthalein impossible to use with red wines, but pH meters are expensive and seem like they are complicated to...

Cool! I've made dandelion wine twice, and it's fairly nice after a year or more aging. But I'm not sure if the flavour is coming from the flowers much, or from the citrus zest and juice that the recipe called for (along with Welches white grape juice). But my mum made elderflower wine once that...

Thank you Kent, Gratus, Yooper and Bernard for all those great suggestions and advice. I also like my blackberry wine with 6 lb per gallon, wheras I think the blackcurrant with 3.5 lb per gallon (currently aging 6 months before we taste it) will probably be flavourful enough. With strawberry...

Hi all - summer will be here soon so time to plan the next round of fruit wines. Yay! This will be my third time making most of them - blackberry, strawberry, cherry, etc. and always dry. Two years ago I followed recipes calling for 3-4.5 lb of fruit per gallon. Last year I increased to 5-6 lb...

The raspberry wine that I started early August last year, with EC-1118, went from SG 1.092 to SG 0.989 in 28 days. With a couple of rackings it was almost completely clear by mid November.

I started a batch of that same wine last August 25, following the ingredients except with 3.5 lb peaches instead of the 3 lb called for. Also, after preparing the banana liquid according to the recipe, I followed my usual method instead of doing the incremental sugar thing - everything into the...

Right, that awful smell - it's probably hydrogen sulfide. When the yeasties get stressed for whatever reason (it's not easy being them) they sometimes fart a lot. Not unlike some people I know, lol. It might go away, and if not you could splash rack it - there's lots of info online about that if...

Can you tell us what the awful smell was like, and if you cleaned and sterilized your equipment or not? What's the temperature where you have the carboy? I've had a couple of fruit wines with weird smells during fermentation (hydrogen sulfide in a blackberry and acetone in a strawberry) that...

Well I will second that - it's insane how the prices keep going up and up, and they seem to particularly like hitting local craft beer with their liquor tax policy "improvements." All for our own good, of course. But in addition to saving money I enjoy eating, drinking, cooking, playing with...

Thanks Bernard - pH meter going forward, and blending for this lot, is the plan now. Does anyone have ideas for a lower-acid wine I can make for that purpose? I was thinking perhaps banana or mango-pulp, but not sure how low (i.e. how high of a pH) I can go with the acidity.

Um - it tastes promising, like a bit raw but it will improve with age, but far too acidic. Also it upsets my tummy and makes me worry about my teeth.

I started a batch of raspberry wine in early August, and just racked it for the second time in mid November. It's an odd-sized batch that should yield 8-9 bottles. Here's the ingredients, with starting SG of 1.092: 4.25 kg raspberries from my garden 2 kg sugar 4.9 litres water K meta...