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I’ve got a mature Riesling grape vine that produces a lot of grapes. This year, due to a cold wet spring, grapes are way behind and only to about 15 brix. Leaves are starting to turn. Will sugar increase this late in the season? Last year the brix was about 20.

I made a pear brandy last year. Stripped and then a spirit run then diluted with water to 40%. Tastes wonderful. After aging a bit, some solid fuzzy sediment has shown up. It has a slight greenish tint I assume is from the copper still. Why did this happen and can I filter it out? Is passing...

In all grain whisky making, what are the pros and cons of boiling the wort? I’m surprised to hear some don’t.

I’ll give a quick rinse with sulphite

The barrel I have had whisky in it until March 2021 and has been kept bunged tight. Is it sterile? Do I have to sulphur it? I filled with water once to check tightness and it is tight. Then I emptied it and bunged it. Seems to me to be ok to just fill with finished cider and age without all the...

I’ve never used or even heard of bottle yeast. What is it? I’ll look on this forum. Anything to make bottling easier, I hate that part.

I happened across a small whisky barrel, ~15 gallons, that I was considering aging some cider in. The barrel has been used once to age whisky for three years. Any idea how long to age it? For top up, how much are we talking about? A half a pint per week? If it is aged in a barrel is there enough...

I’m using on mixed apples and it is fermenting strong and throwing huge foam for days! Waiting for it to slow down so I can top up. Never seen so much foam.

Anybody use Renaissance Fresco yeast? I’ve got some going on a cider and it is foaming like a banshee.

I’ve been toiling away at making whisky for a while. So far I have about 5.5 L at 62% that I am aging in several one litre glass bottles. Some of the whisky is aged on oak and some is raw (shine?). I want to blend all of these as some of the oaked whisky is over oaked. Can I put 5.5 L of whisky...

It seems that at least some crystal malts have fermentable sugars assisted by mashing with 2 grain. Yes, this is for whisky. I’ll add this batch’s stripping run to the others. I’ll do a spirit run on four different batches. Completely unrepeatable if it turns out great. All for fun right?

It smells and feels fine. I’ll dry in my dehydrator for a bit

I’m using the crystal with pale 2-row malt. Crystal at about 20% grain bill.

Crystal has no fermentable sugars? I thought it had some. And brewing calculators seem to think it increases gravity and ABV of a final brew.

I’m using some old crystal malt I’ve had around for years (like 20 years). It’s been stored in a plastic pail with a tight lid, but not an air tight lid. When I tried to mill it, (corona mill), it gummed up the plates, like there was too much moisture. The grain does not feel moist. Could there...

That’s a quick response, thanks. My wash was from stripping runs, so about 40% ABV, or about 3.2 L of alcohol. At an average of 60% ABV in my spirit run, I should get 5.3 L if I get it all. Of course I don’t get it all. I normally run the stripping run down to 20%. This sprit run ran from 75%...

Update. I had three barley/rye mashes ready that have been stripped. A total of 8L of 40% low wines. Ran the sprit run today and got 2L running about 70% or greater and then another litre which ran between 60 and 40%. I stopped at 40%. Was that too early? Seemed to have a bit of wet cardboard...

Never mind, not how you use backset. I’ve saved a couple of gallons but don’t want to ferment right now. Will it keep?

So I have a couple of stripping runs done on all grain mash, a blend of barley and rye. Both puked, learning how to manage heat. I have about 5 litres of low wines for a spirit run. I’ve saved some of the leftover of the latest run to use as backset. How much do I use?

My beer was ok, not crystal clear, but if I was making beer I would have bottled it. Really malty without the hops. Regular all grain beer, sparged and boiled for an hour. I blew a fuse in my voltage controller so I had no heat control. After cleaning the puke out I used the on/off switch to...