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If I might suggest this based on your qty planned. Perhaps those 4 gallons of tart cherry then one or two quarts of sweet. That will keep you flavor strong without complicating it. Assuming you are good with making it a tart cherry wine. Or, if you want to do a sweet cherry you could just flip...

In my little chart you end up with 1/2 bottle (Enough for 1.2 gallon their standard dilution rate.) If you go with Columna then you can toss that guide aside. I just use a standard 4 bottles of 16oz concentrates for 3 gallons using 3 tart and 1 black cherry (sweet of course) You could do a...

So much depends on the batch size. I also tried a batch with a 2 & 2 mix of tart to sweet - Tart dominates and I agree that I prefer the tart cherry flavors over the sweet cherries. I'll keep snagging and eating fresh sweet cherries in season but when it comes to wine, preserves pies, Tart...

I've made at least 4-5 batches of Cherry Wine. Tart Cherry with varying ABVs. For any concentrate I would start with between 2/3 to 3/4s as much water added to start with, otherwise your risk having a watered down wine. There have been a number of folks who reported that they sweet cherry...

Ah there is good news though. Most commercial vinegars are filtered and/or pasteurized to kill off those little critters. You might be eating a few 'body parts' but no live eels unless it's home-made vinegar that has not been "Purified." I remembered this from our 8th grade biology class in...

Enjoy your salad dressing with oil and vinegar. :HB

Me thinks, some folks are enjoying too much of their own holiday cheer.

Well, first off it's unlikely that there has been actual fermentation for more than at most a month, not impossible but unlikely. It is possible that what you have been seeing is CO2 gasses being released. In any case the one thing you need to check on is the SG of the wine. Hopefully you...

Making vinegar? Then you have "Eels" in that stuff. Well actually they aren't eels but little worms about 1/16" long and the are part of the process of making apple cider vinegar. Not sure if they are present in wine vinegar but for apple cider vinegar they are just part of the process...

The volume you will have is what will probably be the biggest influence along with how often you may have access to the fruit. For 5 gallons or less an hand coring as suggested might be the most cost and time effective method unless they are soft enough to use something like a large potato...

First thing is let's put this in perspective. You may have seen the story about a man arrested for emptying his bladder in a water reservoir (image of the reservoir and "The Act" below) . The reservoir was an small open air lake with trees vegetation and of course wildlife surrounding it...

Yeah, we seem to have has a couple lately one simply copied my post, altered a few words and posted in the same thread. I responded once but that only seems to feed the troll so no more. On this one, I think I'll do the same now. Remember schools are out now and the children have lots of...

I only do fruit wines and time helps but it's not always a guarantee. Had a peach remain hazy after bentonite, pectase etc. I gave up and bottled it hazy at 17 months in. It's all gone now so the haze wasn't an issue for consumption. :b

Well now you've gotten rid of the gross lees in your blackberry. With the blueberry those tiny seeds will get through so don't be shocked when you see them in your freshly racked wine. They tend to fall out with the yeast residue at the end of the ferment. I've had more trouble with bits of...

Pectic enzyme is not going to do anything negative to your wine. So it's a no risk option. OR bentonite I've never had any color stripping or flavor lost due to it.

The thing about Bentonite and the other fining agents is that they are not cure-alls. If your wine is seriously cloudy/hazy the agents may help but time works better along with proper prep - use of pectic enzyme in a timely manner. They are great for polishing up a wine but when I've had a...

Remember that oak barrel will be forever committed to vinegar use unless you do some REALLY extensive sanitization on it. Also while I know it's cold weather, if you have central AC/Heat, that upstairs air is going to get into the basement unless it is totally sealed off. Again, if you are...

Well on way would be to use the largest fine mesh strainer you have to capture the gross stuff. I've done that but it's slow going as you have to dump and rinse that strainer often. Even a mesh bag is going to let a lot of blueberry seeds through. If you use a strainer it helps to have a...

Blackberry & Blueberry are about impossible to totally keep in even a cloth bag so some seeds will make it into your carboy. I've even had a few seeds in my wine 2-3 rackings in. (Stubborn little @#*@)(#*)@() In any case tilt the bucket and keep an eye on what is coming up the racking...

Safest bet would be two disconnected buildings. Like a detached garage for one production area and a room or basement in the house. Airborne bacteria is not uncommon and that means just walking through a room you could pick up the bacteria in your breath or on your clothes. How much does it...