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I appreciate all the replies. While we are on the subject of bottles I need to know the common practice for prepping bottles (cleaning/sterilizing) as this will be my first time using wine bottles. I though maybe just ask here rather than start a new thread. Years ago, I just put my mead in...

I guess I should try some of the wineries in Livermore. There sure are a lot of them. Also, I remembered I had some dealings with Gallo Glass Company. They are about an hour away. They make all the glass for Gallo. It's a huge factory. Have to see if they will deal with home wine makers.

that doesn't seem to find anything sensible. Possible typo? Or post an actual link.

You can buy new caps. In fact, the sources I am looking at tend to sell the caps and bottles separately anyway. I would love to use my LHBS but there is no longer anything near me. Hop Tech closed. There are any number of big wineries within 5 miles of where I work in Livermore CA (like Wente)...

Can anyone suggest a good source for bottles? I mean other than Amazon or do they have the best price? I have read about the different closure methods and am leaning towards screw-tops. I have about 40 gallons of plum wine in secondary so I will need around 200 bottles if I use the typical 750ml...

oops. Thanks. I will edit

I found this "cheat sheet" very useful https://www.prairiefirewinery.com/Cellar/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Formulas-and-Conversions.pdf Look in the lower right corner for the 10% and 3% K-Meta solution tables. This makes it really easy to dose your must and/or wine. Make yourself some 10%...

I have a question about pectic enzyme timing. I am seeing conflicting information about when to add it relative to when I processed the fruit. My original recipe says to wait 12 hours. My bag from LD Carlson says to wait until 1 hour before yeast. So that would be like 23 hours after processing...

yup. 110F. Its right on the TDS.

OK thanks for that. I thought I saw somewhere it said to add Go Ferm while "hot". Probably got that wrong.

I started a batch yesterday and used Go Ferm for the first time. The TDS says to use 1.25 grams of GF per gram of yeast. Right or wrong, here is what I did. I boiled about 12 oz of water in a Mason Jar. I let it cool a little bit (down to about 150F) and added the Go Ferm. You sort of shake it...

I got a hold of some Fermaid O. Dang, that stuff is amazing. I added 1 tsp to a 5 gallon pail of fermenting must and the foam level increased almost immediately. I wasn't expecting such a dramatic change. 1tsp is about half the suggested dose for 5 gallons. When I set up my pails I used "Yeast...

Thanks for your nicely detailed reply. See that is what I was thinking :)

I get the idea for sure. Hard to know how many live vs dead cells are in there at any given time. I guess my concern was that I see the activity (foaming) slow down after a few hours. My worry was that if you wait 12-24 hours, all the sugar has been used up and the yeasts might be dying off...

I need a decent plum pitter. I have looked at all the ones I can find on Amazon and other Googled links. The Leifheit model seems popular and someone in the questions section said it would handle 2 inch plums. There are a bunch of Wesstmark products but it's not clear if they can handle a 2 inch...

That works great. Thanks.

Just wondering if there is an actual device or gizmo to take a sample from must with (plum) pulp co-mingled with the liquid. I have a wine thief on order but I am guessing that will get clogged in the pails where I didn't use a mesh bag. I was thinking about wrapping some nylon mesh on the end...

That is very different that the reference in post #22. I understand this is the nature of forums once you diverge from the manufactured TDS. Five mpeople with have five different response.

I can now say I am a "starter solution believer". I've had a chance now to compare dry-casting, OEM rehydration, and starter solution. Maybe not surprisingly, OEM rehydration works almost as well, maybe the same. Rehydration per the EC-1118 data sheet added in the morning was starting to...

OK Thanks. I think maybe I will stop boiling the water/sugar. Note that I was NOT using the boiled water to kill the stuff on the fruit. I was just doing it because the recipe I am following says to. I assumed it was to kill any organisms in the water. The process does say to add Campden but...