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4" more last night, so 14" in 24 hours. Yay.

Yes, yeast needs oxygen to reproduce. I recently read an article posted by @stickman that was VERY interesting reading: https://www.winemakingtalk.com/attachments/oxyfer09-pdf.67792/ Of course. In primary, it's best to have everything in one bucket, but you can split it up if necessary. In...

I think that "sitting for a day" refers to how water treated with Chorine (not Chloramine), will off-gas the chlorine within 24 hours. I remember doing this for our fish tank as a kid. However, those of us that now have their water treated with Choramine need more than a day in an open...

Well, this is what I woke up to thus afternoon (hey, Saturdays are for sleeping in!). 10” in 5 hours (my daughter was up before it started), and no sign of letting up. Yesterday there was no snow... at all.

VERY nicely said @Rice_Guy! That’s what I meant.

Ahh, “well,” obviously my comment does not apply to you. Sorry. I assumed “Tap water” meant “city water.”

N Hey, there’s supposed to be no politics! (Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.) 😇

I agree with everyone else, plus... Freezing berries is good. It helps extract the juice. Pouring hot water (not boiling) over the berries is good. It helps to set the colour. As indicated by others, time is not a good indicator of progress. Glad you now have a hydrometer. BTW, what is your...

My understanding is that one of the reasons for punching the cap of fermenting grapes down is to prevent mold from growing. Yes, mold needs oxygen, but so does yeast during primary, doesn’t it? Whether a recipe calls for it or not, I think daily stirring would be beneficial.

Maybe I’m a conspiracy theorist, but my personal opinion is that what comes out of your tap is far more regulated and controlled (and cheaper) than what comes in a bottle. If you don’t drink your tap water, don’t make wine with it. If you do drink your tap water, make a batch with it, and make...

Opinions seem to vary, although it is certain that distilled is for sure a “no”. I would say no need to boil. It doesn’t remove chloramine, and it won’t likely kill anything the chloramine and k-meta haven’t already killed. I read that a quarter dose of k-meta will remove chloramine, but never...

I’m stumped. Can you check your hydrometer in water? Adding 12 lbs of sugar to 3 gallons of juice and 1 gallon of water should give an SG between 1.125 (if juice was 1.020) and 1.150 (if juice was 1.060). Even if your grapes fermented completely from wild yeast during the 9 days in the primary...

Did you add 3 lbs of sugar, total, to 5 gallons of juice? Did you happen to take an SG reading of the juice before adding sugar?

BTW, what yeast did you use?

It’s never for naught! Even if you dump it, you learn a lot, especially when you make mistakes. It is very rare that you would ever need to dump a batch tho. But something isn’t lining up. Adding 3 lbs of sugar to 1 gallon of juice should give you something like 1.130 SG or more, depending on...

The SG is the only reading you need to note. The others are to help you get the right amount of sugar pre-fermentation for the ABV you want. I’m not sure if I understand the sequence right. You said the first SG (1.050) was before fermentation, but you transferred to carboy at 1.050. Are you...

Without knowing your setup, but because you say this is one of your first wines, make sure you get it under an air lock and minimize the headspace (air above the wine) if it’s going to sit for any length of time. Now that fermentation is complete oxygen is bad. Maybe a picture?

I know there’s lots of sunrise & sunset pics... but we just get some beautiful ones here in Sherwood Park, Alberta. And they develop so much more slowly (Oooo, that’s nice, I’ll go get my camera, and tripod, and grab a coffee) than closer to the equator (Oooo, that’s nice, damn, it’s gone!). We...

No harm trying it. Take a small sample and test it. Maybe a combination of things. You can also bottle it as-is, and mix when you drink it. Maybe it would go good with Sprite, or Ginger Ale! Oops, did I say that out loud? Hahaha. Whatever tastes good to you and/or your partner. There are no...

I use FermCalc. One reason I like it is because of the wealth of information on their site about exactly what each method of calculation assumes, and where the equations come from. 131 is a commonly used factor that assumes a linear relationship between SG change and ABV. It’s a good and quick...