Recent content by JTS84

We process fleshy fruits at work for seed. Elderberries I know have done, but not raspberries that I know of. It is quite frequent that the fruit is fermenting when it arrives for us to start extracting seeds. That doesn't affect germination I have been trying to find vented lids for 1 gallon...

I can confirm that The Purple Foot had a juice pail order last fall.

One of my barrels is a used whiskey barrel. What I ended doing was making second run wines to keep it full. I also asked a question about making a barrel neutral on here with chemicals that was answered a couple years ago. A quick search should bring that up.

Currently working at a northern nursery: Aronía =chokeBerry. Prunus Virginia = chokeCherry Aronía is a shrub and Chokecherry is a small tree. ChokeBerries/Aronia have small seeds ChokeCherry have largish pits. Just want to get out there that there are two different things with similar names. It...

It isn't traditional to glue heads together. When barrels were common for everyday use, the glue of that time was animal based hide glue - which is water soluble. If you start with dry wood and make your joints tight, once they come in contact with a liquid they'll swell up and make the joint...

Instead of flour and water you can also use beeswax, or spend the extra money on beeswax labeled as "cooper's wax". Before I disassembled a 6 gallon barrel I drew a wavy line around it so I could match up the staves perfectly to where they where before during reassembly. I cleaned the char out...

P_j_goetz explained it well. The cellar will be the cool, so you want to keep any warm humid air from moving into that space and contacting the cool backside of you finish. Make sure that you seal any holes from electrical, HVAC, plumbing, etc. That is key to keeping air out of that space. In...

I live in the Midwest. I used to use vapor barriers, then ended up replacing some when I worked in construction due to the issues they have. I now will only use "smart membranes" such as Certainteed Membrain for an example. https://buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-010-wine-cellars...

I'll throw in my 2 cents. I had some creasing issues with nomacorks as well as the flared ends. I noticed there were two times the issues were more prominent. When I used bottles that were slightly too short to touch the bottom of the corker and when I had help from kids. My two solutions were...

I've made chokecherry for the last few years, each year regretting I didn't make more. This year I'm making 5 gallons. I shoot for 3-4 lbs per gallon. If the berries are ripe, I find I can strip them from the bush with minimal stems. The less ripe they are, the more they stick to them stem...

From the Purple Foot: Various vineyards in Minnesota and Wisconsin may have grapes available in the fall. For Minnesota vineyards, go to: minnesotagrown.com and search for "grapes". That is what I did - contacted vineyards via email and now I am on mailing lists for pick your own dates. I'm...

I have made lilac wine a couple times. The flowery taste of the lilac is very light. I do not plan to make any more this year as even though I like it, there are lots of other things I like more. I feel the same about dandelion. Other people like that i made it though, i think for the novelty of...

When I picked up my juice at Midwest they had Mosti AllGrape packs there to purchase in store. I got one to add to my Carmenere juice; this will be my first time trying it out. I haven't seen any skin packs listed for sale online. When FWKs came out you could choose between adding one or two...

1) I never got the chocolate note I was looking for. Maybe a hint, but i was hoping for more. I was hoping for a little more than subtle, but nowhere near a chocolate flavored wine. Either how, we have been very happy with the result. 2) I'm 90% certain that the oak cubes i used came from...

I started an en primeur Carmenere in March of 2019, bottled it at almost a year. Fruity Carmenere that is as good if not better than most of the commercial I've tried. I added heavy toast french cubes as I was hoping for a little chocolate like my favorite commercial bottle. It's a little...