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Amendment, forgot to say, my wife was the architect of the scaffolding and the builder! 😁

Pictures of my 3 apple trees. The Liberty is a mini, the Spartan and Honey Crisps are Dwarfs. All 3 year old trees. Before anyone condems the trees and the scafolding… I purposefully conducted an experiment this year. If I were a college student at some university extension, this would have been...

Hi All, My 3 apple trees had their first breakout good year (their only 3 years old. I will end up with over 35 apples each of Liberty, Spartan and Honeycrisp. They are all big and ready to pick in a few weeks. I want to make a small batch of cider but I do not have a crusher. I have a juicer...

Hi All, Does anyone bottle and cork their hard cider? I did get some flip top bottles but frankly don’t have anywhere to store 6 - 12 bottles of cider upright. But I do have plenty of wine bottle rack space. Dave

Hi All, Well I finally got some success in this brewing hobby of mine. The Raspberry wine was the best “anything” I have ever made! I backsweetened the wine before bottling. Ended up with 7 1/2 bottles. Very pleased. :thumbsup:

Hi all you fruit wine lovers and makers, My first ever batch of fruit wine was store bought frozen mango. Followed the recipe from “Fermenting Flavor” by Todd Combs (guys a wild man). In his video, he had all kinds of headspace in his 5 gallon primary bucket and his airlock was very active. I’m...

Hey Everybody, After an hour of research… everyone seems to hover around the usual yeast suspects. I actually have all of them and decided to use EC-118. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Dave

Projected ABV is 10.2 +- and fermentation area is constant 66-67 deg F.

Good Morning All, Probably a way over the top question. I started my first ever raspberry wine from “I picked them myself” fresh berries. Made the must this morning (1 gallon batch). Now it's sitting for 24 hours to get rid of wild yeast. What’s your favorite yeast for fruit wine? Dave

I’ll go with that hypothesis!

Started bubbling within a couple hours (that’s when I first check it). But the rate it’s going now, I wouldn’t have even thought about racking, but in the bucket I had no movement and the SG was negative. I did degas with the wand on a drill motor and didn’t get any great amounts of gas or...

Another update, this one is perplexing. The gallon and a half of juice that I got when I racked (yes I did squeeze the fruit bag to get all of it) is now bubbling like crazy. What gives? There was virtually no activity in the 2 gallon pail and the SG was .998, now I have all kind of activity...

Good Morning All, Update time. SG is down to .996! 😀 The wine is VERY dry. As it sits right now, ABV is 10.11 % +-. I’m understanding why back sweetening might be desirable. I’m racking today. 👍 Dave

Happy Hump Day All, Update. Sunday I took the airlock off the bucket lid and after a”punching” of the fruit strainer bag, I just set the top back on the bucket (not snapping it down to be air tight) and twice a day I have “punched” the bag a bit. I took a reading this morning… down to 1.016...

Big bottles or smaller ones? 😳

Happy Fathers day to all you dads out there! 😀 Well it kicked off… finally. Very active fermentation as shown in my 3 piece airlock. I just hope the must that sat there for almost 6 whole days was/is ok. Will keep you advised. Dave

Ok, just got home, checked the SG. Started at 1.072, it’s at 1.050 now. Still tastes like mango flavored sugar water. I’ll give it till tomorrow. After 7 days, with no alcohol being made, it’s got to be getting nasty.

Made a new batch of yeast, (per the instructions), pitched it last night at 5 PM, this morning…. Nothing. I’ll give it to this afternoon and then chuck the whole thing as it will have been sitting in the fermenting bucket for 5 days and chalk it up to learning. I am really getting tired of...

1/2 tsp each: Acid Blend, Yeast nutrient (Fermaid O), Pectic enzyme, Wine tannin, (1) Campden tablet. 2lbs of sugar, 4 lbs of frozen mango chucks (thawed of course). Initially let stand for 24 hours, then sprinkled 1/2 packet of Lalvin D-47 on top of must (fruit was in a strainer bag). Have...

Hi All, It’s been 48 hours since I pitched the yeast on my gallon batch of Mango wine and not one hint of fermentation start. Here’s where I think I might have goofed. The original recipe included a campden tablet and waiting 24 hours before pitching the yeast. However, the recipe was for...