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Just remember anything you use on the outside of the bottle can end up inside the bottle so if you use petroleum based solvents you'd better make real sure those bottles are thoroughly cleaned, rinsed and sanitized. I value my health so I'm pretty careful about those things. Too many bottles...

This is a common mistake when first starting out making wine. Rushing a wine, especially a wine from red grapes is a bad decision. Don't let friends or family push you on this. You will regret the results. Wine clears when it clears. Filtering a new wine will only waste filters, eat your...

Ditch the plastic lids and put some cloth* tied down over the containers. A plastic lid just laid on top of the bucket is an invitation to the fruit flies. Make sure your fermenting container cover is tied down (Cloth cover ?) so the little critters can't get in. As cmason1957 said use a fan...

To get help you really need to provide details about your recipe, measurements taken, (SG readings and pH readings before pitching the yeast.. 1) Stirring occasionally (once or twice day AT MOST )- is all that's needed. You wine does not need huge amount of oxygen introduced to it now. 2)...

May have missed and perhaps this was already mentioned the choices are often based on very personal reasons: 1) Cost, 2) Availability (Fruit, Hardware or even Space), 3) Interests, 4) Risk Taker vs Non Risk Taker mindset. So while one will say it takes the same steps for 1 gallon or 6 gallons...

Your experience proves once again that wine making takes patience. Sometimes there's no certain answer without going to a laboratory and that's not practical for 99% of us home wine makers. Glad to see you got it bottled up and it's currently clear. Even if it throws sediment in a week, a...

A pectic haze can last a lot longer than the wine. Especially a low alcohol, low acid wine. When we talk about making wine the Old World way or "Natural" wine making, keep in mind we rarely ever hear about wine making disasters that occurred way back when... Historians rarely kept such...

As much as we know you want to do your wine without chemicals, if you are going to make wine you have to learn the basics. Using tools such as a Hydrometer and pH meter would give you a lot of help but... without the guidance of someone with a lot of experience in "natural wine making" you...

If you have 5 gallon carboys (18.927 liters) you might just end up with enough wine to fill that size carboy. That would be the easiest solution.

Ah yes - That key element of wine making - Patience. Hardest part for many new winemakers. Master that and this hobby becomes a lot more fun. One point to add to what some others have said - Save some time and effort and ditch lid to the bucket. Just use a nice towel, Part of an old...

Many folks find that a ferment with a starting SG of 1.100 and over will have issues even getting started. You are at the high end of your yeast tolerance. Generally speaking you are better off stating with a lower SG and then doing one or more step feedings. Published alcohol tolerance numbers...

So True - With an abundance of lawyers ready to toss a lawsuit on any company or even individuals, those dates HAVE to be safe dates for them.

As with many products, the makers want buyers to be happy. If that means a little or a lot of overkill so be it. At the cost of MOST yeasts out there, using more than is really needed is not a problem. Not enough and a slow starting ferment could open the door to bacteria, and other wine...

A lot depends on how much pulp/meat of the apple is on the skins. In many fruits immediately below the skin is some of the most flavorful part of the fruit. Not sure about apple but....I'd make sure every bit of pulp/meat is off of that skin. I've used a slow juicer for apples in the past...

Remember that there are at least 2 different types of juicers. High Speed juicers with blades and Slow Juicers that crush and press the fruit/veggies/nuts. Juice extractors typically are of the first variety. The one most folks are use to seeing use a blade to slice whatever you are juicing...

Some fruit wines are ready to drink a little faster - like grape wines typically it's the lighter colored fruits the are drinkable faster. For me peaches are more demanding of patience because they take so long to clear and have so much pulp/gross lees.

Best solution is to start BIG - start with a least 30% more wine volume than the amount of finished wine you want. AVOID using water to top off. I've done that before but it does dilute your wine down and unless you are really into doing a lot of math calculations you won't have any real...

I use the wand and I've managed to lick the problem with punted bottles although they are a pain sometimes. What is nice about the wand is I can let the bottle fill to the brim and then when I remove the wand the level is just about perfect. Starting the flow is the big issue for me with a...

The alternative to simmering the berries directly would be to do a steam extraction.

Just as Salcoco said. Peach will be the slowest to clear possibly taking up to a year (Yeah, it's patience tester, but worth it.) The blackberry should clear on it's own in a few months. Personally I would age both of them a year for the best, smoothest mature flavor. Depending on how much...