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I'm sure Yooper will chime in with her experience on what is a typical pH for that recipe. Has your pH meter been recently calibrated? You don't want to make additions to your wine unless you are confident you are accurately monitoring the issue you are trying to solve. Where is the TA...

I've heard of people heating bottles up in the oven at low temp so that the glue used to adhere the label becomes soft and the labels can then be easily peeled off. Don't know the temperature they used and I bet it varies depending on the label adhesive used. Maybe something to give a shot sometime

The blobs resemble protein coagulation. Bentonite is often added to the primary during active fermentation to drop positively charged proteins in grapes that can produce those floating blobs. The tannin extracted into red wine does the same. Chitosan attracts and drops negatively charged bits...

I don't recall having seen this before. Did you previously add kieselsol or bentonite? Chitosan is typically added as the second part of a 2-part fining protocol. Kieselsol is added first and the chitosan is added the next day. This is sold as the "super-kleer" set. If you haven't added any...

Cool fermentation shouldn't impact acid preservation in a major way, as far as I'm aware. Some strains of yeast (eg 71B) are chosen since they metabolize more malic than other strains. Since the yeast action is affected by temperature, it is possible that fermentation temperature could modulate...

Ammonia is a very odd odor to come from wine. The only time I have ever smelled ammonia was, unsurprisingly, from the DAP yeast nutrients I've added to the fermentation which dissipates almost immediately. But I've never smelled ammonia from the wine. So, are you sure it is ammonia... like...

Temperature is certainly a factor in the rate of fermentation and it will take longer at lower temps. Sufficient nutrients can also help it to complete within a reasonable time. But I've also heard of some wineries in Michigan letting their Riesling ferment at low temps for months. The lower...

Since the wine is not sweet enough for you now, you will need to backsweeten the wine. You will absolutely need to add sorbate and sulfites to protect the wine and guard against refermentation & exploding bottles. I suggest you draw off a measured sample and weigh an amount of sugar that makes...

I found this old thread after I've noticed how foamy my SP batch is. It foamed up a lot as expected when I de-acidified it but significant foam remained even after the de-acidifying was complete. The foam died back a bit until it began fermenting and has kept a full 30% of the liquid volume as a...

There are various wine aroma wheels that help guide the sensory analysis for a wine. This would be a good place to start. There is a sensory protocol where you smell before you swirl to perceive certain fruit aromas and smell afterwards to look for other volatile aromas. Perhaps there is a class...

Mmmm... shiraz. At least they stole some of the best grapes! I suggest you add sulfites now to protect the wine from oxidation & spoilage but do not add sorbate yet. Let the wine age and the yeast to settle so you can really taste what the wine is like. This will probably resolve some of the...

I'm not seeing any reason you can't use that HLT as a primary fermenting vessel. The stainless is easy to clean and sanitize. The ball valve is the only thing that concerns me. Make sure it is stainless or absolutely do not use it. Also, ball valves have a notoriety for being difficult to...

If you don't plan to back-sweeten it, then given that amount of time you may be fine without adding sorbate. But you need to add the proper level of sulfites to protect it from oxidation and spoilage. Though if there is any chance of residual sugar, you should add sorbate just to be safe or you...

You can pick up a small barrel fairly inexpensively. The micro-oxygenation in the barrel dramatically helps with softening tannin while it ages. Depends how much tannin was extracted for the juice in the kit though. As far as carboy vs bottle, both are inert glassware that will keep it air from...

I bet a good many wine makers have corny kegs sitting around from when they used to dabble in beer. I've got a half dozen that I use for carbonating and bottling sparkling wine & cider. For my sparkling wine, I use new sparkling wine bottles, force carbonate to about 5 volumes CO2 and crown cap...

Often rieslings are somewhat sweet and the alcohol tolerance of the choice of yeast strain affects the residual sugar during primary fermentation. However an SG of 1.020 is rather sweet, at least for my tastes. The fermentation sounds like it has definitely slowed but it may but be stuck yet. If...

OK, there is no cap to punch down then if there aren't any skins. How's the SG at this point? Should be <1.000 if the fermentation proceeded normally. I'd rack it into a carboy now, just to keep oxygen away from it. If the SG is under 1.000 it definitely can take some sulfites to help combat...

Good information on champagne bottle corking. My sarcastic response earlier was in the context the op wanting a "cheap and easy way" to bottle sparkling cider, for which the use of cork was suggested and I felt it was unlikely the op had the equipment to safely insert the champagne corks &...

I don't know anything about the "Cellar Master" line. I'm assuming it came with skins though, by looking at the picture. Were you punching the cap down a couple times a day during the fermentation? This looks like mold growing on the cap from the pictures. At this point to save the batch, I'd...

Ah, of course... Then by all means dust off your mushroom corker, bring out your bag of new mushroom corks and the wire cages you have laying around and go to town!