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Glue sticks - why didn't I think of that? Thanks to both of you!

Interesting to see someone else wondering about this - I put both the date I added the yeast and the date the wine was bottled onto the label, and also the batch number. How do you label your wines? I've been looking for a solution that is inexpensive and doesn't leave a gummy mess all over...

Thanks HW - that's some good information. I think I'll use JK's recipe for the ingredients but follow my usual method and add all the sugar at the beginning. That way I can take an SG reading at the start too.

It's peach season! So I'm going to start my first peach wine using Jack Keller's "Peach and Banana Wine" recipe. The recipe calls for adding the sugar incrementally - half at the beginning, a quarter when transferring to the secondary, and the rest after a further five days. So far with...

I happen to have a batch of strawberry on the go too - added the yeast on July 2 and it's been in the secondary (glass carboys) since July 9. For each gallon of water, I used about 3.25 lb sugar and 6.5 lb strawberries and got about 1.75 gallons of must. SG was originally 1.088 and is now...

No don't throw them out!!! SGs of 0.994 and 0.992 are good and normal for wine that's completed fermenting after a while in the secondary. Also I usually put my hydrometer samples back after testing - it's fine to do that with wine so long as you sanitize the equipment. Sometimes I drink...

Also, how is it even possible to "spend too much time on beer math?" :mug:

Yes please - that would be great! The site where I found the formula did say it's not exact but is fairly close. They had 1600 g/litre as an approximate figure, and the 0.625 litres/kg is the reciprocal of that. I do find it handy for planning what multiples to make of the recipes I find.

I've been wondering this too, since I like to experiment, and I've just come up with this: SG = (W+S)/(W+0.625xS) where W = water in litres and S = sugar in kg That's from combining SG = density of solution/density of water with the formula vf = vi +A/b where vf is final volume...

Start collecting extra glass containers in various sizes - I've been doing this for a bit over a year and have about ten glass jugs in sizes from 1.9 litres to 4.6 litres, plus 1.5 litre and 750 ml wine bottles. I got most of them for a dollar or two at the recycling depot. And you'll need bungs...

I recommend Jack Keller's Cherry Wine (Dry) (1), and if you've not found that site yet then I recommend it too. It was the best wine I made last year, so good that I've just started a 6 gallon batch! And I like my fruit wines dry, not too acidic, and definitely not medicinal...

Hi there, not sure if I have anything useful to tell you - I tried the Sparkolloid once and it didn't seem to help. Maybe it's because I tried it randomly instead of actually knowing why my fruit wine wasn't clear, lol. I seem to remember adding the slurry to a full carboy though, so perhaps...

We've reached the end of my expertise I'm afraid - since I've never tried that yet I'll defer to someone who has! Sounds like it would work though. And if you're at all mathematically inclined, you can find ways to estimate your starting SG point based on your ingredients, especially the...

Can you tell us if you took an SG reading before you added the yeast? And what has your must been doing - fermenting and fizzing like crazy, or just sitting there? Mine take a day or two to really get going, but SG of 0.995 would mean yours is pretty much done. Your sugar level might be a bit...

Progress report! I bottled this four months after starting it, having racked it twice, and I got about ten bottles. I started with four times the one-gallon recipe, which was about 14 litres in the primary. So in two rackings I lost almost half due to the nature of the pulp. It's strong...

Thanks Buckhorn - I agree, I could do that, but I'm a bit squeamish about the cat smell and wondering if anyone can tell me, from experience, what I might expect?? Can odors like that permeate through the cork? Does heat really wreck a wine?

Does anyone have experience with wine that's been stored in less-than-ideal conditions after bottling? I started a batch of blueberry wine (using fruit) 14 months ago, and bottled it 5 months ago. I kept half the bottles and gave the other half to the friend who provided the fruit. My half...

Oops, correction - I didn't boil the bentonite! I followed the instructions fore rehydrating it - and I boiled the Sparkolloid that I was adding to the dandelion wine at the same time. I read Forsberg's reply, and though "I know that - why would I have done that??" and eventually remembered...

The wine was almost clear a week ago. Now, 7 days after adding bentonite, it's cloudy. It has to be the bentonite in suspension, since I racked immediately before adding it - is there any other explanation? Is it normal for bentonite not to have settled out after a week? I don't think...

I have a three-gallon batch of Strawberry wine that I started last June, from fruit (not a kit). So it's now been nine months, including three rackings, and it was almost clear but not quite - looked nice, but flashlight beam still visible. I used pectic enzyme at the start. Six days ago I...