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I have a five gallon batch of peach wine that I started from fresh peaches last summer. It has been sitting in the carboy and is very clear and very dry. I would like to try to make a sparkling champagne-style wine with it. I intend to add 2/3 cup of sugar to carbonate and am thinking I will...

I was brewing a Red ale kit and when adding water to 5 gal, the og only comes in at about 1.040. It's supposed to be 1.048. Is it acceptable to add sugar to bring it up or is this a big no no?

I am pretty new to beer brewing. I started batch yesterday. Extract. Yooper's English Brown Ale. I made it a couple of times and it came out good. Well, I made a double batch (10 gallons). I have it in a 22 gallon Brute container EDPM. Do I need to get it into airtight containers or does it...

Does anybody know a way to tell if some Sparkling wine a couple of years old is still carbonated in the bottle without opening them up? I would like to use for a wedding, but I don't know if they are still "good". Thanks in advance.

I just bottled up a batch of elderberry wine I started last summer/fall. It cleared up real nice and looked good. The flavor is kind of strange. It seems to have a certain woody or resinous taste. I noticed it earlier and thought maybe it would age out by this time, but no. Does anyone know if...

Anybody have this problem with Raspberry wine. I made this last summer (2011). It is the most beautiful looking wine you would ever want to see! It just has a bitter taste. My wife describes it as robitussin or medicine tasting. More of a bitterness than tartness. It tastes really good with...

This may be a stupid question, but... Does unfermentable sugar such as lactose raise the SG? I was backsweetening some hard lemonade with lactose and stevia and wanted to raise to about 1.010 or 1.020. When checking with the hydrometer, it did not seem to go up when I added the "sugar". I...

We really enjoy the hard lemonade. I have used Yooper's recipe and it is a huge hit. I sweeten with about 3 cups of lactose or stevia and I like to add a little 7-up or Sprite or whatever to the glass, both to sweeten a little more and to make it a little less "hard" so one can drink a little...

I made up a five gallon batch of Yooper's recipe dandelion wine. I did not take intial sg readings mostly because of all the solids I was dealing with in the must. At 3 pounds of sugar per gallon, what would my initial sg have been? I don't suppose there was much sugar in the dandelion flowers -...

I like dry wine. However, there are some in my family who like theirs a little on the sweet side (kind of like a Riunite Lambrusco type of thing). I have made some Lambrusco concentrate that is ready for bottling. This batch went down to .993 (which is great for me), but I better sweeten some...

I am trying to degas a Barolo kit. Has been in secondary about a month and is ready to stabilize. I have degassed many kits in the past and I always see everybody say to stir or shake until "No Bubbles Appear". Is this really possible. I really have never gotten to the point where "No Bubbles...

Has anyone re-used nomacorks? Or am i the only one who is that cheap? No really, they seem pretty impervious and all that and I just kind of hate to throw stuff away, I guess.

Okay, This may be a dumb idea, but what the heck? I'll ask anyway. It never stopped me before. I have made quite a few batches of wine lately and storage is an issue. I'm about out of room for storage especially for laying down the bottles. Is it possible and has anyone tried storing bottles...

Is there any good use for these things? More and more wineries are using them and I know I have a big pile. Some of them are nice thick bottles. Does anybody use these? Do you cork them or what. Just trying to decide whether to pitch them or keep them around. I actually have inadvertantly corked...

I bottled up some Zinfandel about a month ago. I thought it was clear enough when I bottled it, but I guess I was wrong. I looked at it the first time yesterday and it looks terrible. The bottles were lying down and the whole bottom half of the bottles is covered with sediment. I really would...

I would like to bulk-age some wine in gallon glass jugs. How would I seal them for medium-term storage, say 6 to 12 months. Screw caps that comes with them or solid rubber bungs or air lock and check the water occasionally or what would you all recommend? Thanks

I have had a batch going for almost two weeks. Can I leave it in the carboy longer to clear,or will it get too dry? I pitched Nottingham yeast in this one. My last was made with s-05 and I like it. I bottled at two weeks as called for, but it was not clear at all. It is clearing in the bottle...

Local hbs has no torrified wheat. Only flaked wheat. I'm getting ready to brew up a batch. Should I use the flaked wheat or just skip it? thanks.

I am picking up a 5 gallon bucket of Zinfandel juice next week from a local HBS. They have it shipped in every fall from California. What will I have to do with this to make a good wine -- Other than put it in a carboy with wine yeast? Will I need to add any sugar or anything? should I add sugar...

I have about 20 bottles of still applewein that I bottled up abut 6 months ago in wine bottles and that, frankly, I am not too fond of. I carbed some of it and that is much more palatable. Can I dump these 20 bottles into a bottling bucket now and carbonate using the normal method and put...