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Thanks, George! :) I hadn't planned on clearing or anything. Winemaking is seriously a hobby of patience, lol. And thanks everyone for the help!!!

Thanks :) I mainly just want to get it off the gross lees. I assume not to add k-meta? This is just a hypothetical question, but if after, say the next couple days after secondary and the SG is still the same, is there anything I can try to get that final push?

Alright, so I'm going to be racking tomorrow. SG has stayed a 1.001 for three days straight even when I bumped the temp up to 72. Kit recommends .998 or lower. Should I just go with the flow and let aging take its course? I assume it might turn out a bit sweeter. I will be bulk aging in 4 oz of...

Quick update: Day 16 and it's at 1.005. I upped the temp just the smallest bit (~69-70), but I'll be going to secondary within the next day or two. :)

While others may do it a little differently, but this is my re-hydration method for a 6 gallon kit. You'll need some yeast nutrients: Go-Ferm and Fermaid-K. Think of Go-Ferm as your morning coffee and Fermaid-K as Gatorade during a marathon. 1. Make a slurry 7.5g of Go-Ferm to 100ml of tap...

Welcome fellow Midwesterner! (I'm in Fort Wayne, IN). I like to slip a large black t-shirt over the fermenter and a carboy bag when I'm bulk aging. Light and temperature can have negative effects on wine (ie strip away flavor, potentially kill yeast prematurely). Like cmason, I like to try and...

Just wanted to give an update. The SG is at 1.023 and the temp is staying steady around 67 degrees. However, I am noticing a few things. Once I start stirring, it begins to look like lees, has the consistency of a smoothie and gets close to flowing over the fermenter. When I pulled the stirrer...

What yeast are you using? Most typically like it around 70-75ish. This happened to me with my Riesling; it got up to around 82 so I ended up having to make a swamp cooler to regulate it.

Hallelujah! Just checked it, and it dropped to 1.084. Maybe it was the addition of the Fermaid-K that kicked it into gear? I'll keep an eye on it for the next few days to see what happens. Thanks you guys for all the help!!! This is why I love this forum. :)

Update: I just talked to the winemaker I worked with and told him the situation. Here is what he said: "When you do your yeast addition you bring 10e6 yeasts/mL, they need to reach 10e9 to start the fermentation. Lots of biomass creation but no sugar transformed. First they consume all the YAN...

Alright. I just checked the SG again when I got home, and it's still the same even though it's producing more foam. Could this be a faulty hydrometer? If it helps, here are my notes so far: Day 1 - Sunday 3/10 -Added 7mg of GoFerm + stirred into a slurry -Added yeast to it and let it sit for...

I forgot to mention that I pitched the yeast on Sunday. I checked this morning and it's alot more foamy. Will check the SG again when I get home and update :)

So I stirred for three minutes today. The wine temp has gone up around two degrees (now at 71 degrees) and has the slightest bit of foam (kind of looks like jelly) but the SG is still at 1.102. It is a low-foam yeast, but I'm at a loss right now :? Since it's been four days, should I consider...

So I started the wine on Sunday. Nothing really happened until today. In the spec notes of the yeast it says that it's low foam, but when I stirred it I noticed that the bubbles were kind of "chunky" (looked like the consistency of a jam). Is that relatively normal for a low foam yeast? (this is...

I just stirred it for about five minutes and turned the heat up just a small bit in my room, so I'll check tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for the replies!

That's odd! It's right at the six gallon mark on the fermenter. The reading was 1.100 and the temp of the wine was 68. IIRC, wouldn't that be +.002?

I just started a new kit (RJS Chilean trio) on Sunday, and the instructions say that the starting sG should be between 1.070 and 1.090, but the hyrdometer read 1.100 (1.102 after calibration). I'm assuming that's nothing to be concerned with too much, is there?

Thanks! I was reading the directions, and it says if a short lag phase is desired add it to 10% of the must. Is there any benefit for the shorter lag phase?

The best kit I made was the RJS Sangiovese Merlot, which funnily enough was the first kit wine I ever made. I used D80 yeast, then added medium toast French oak cubes when I started bulk aging. I let it sit for seven months, then dropped a M+ French oak spiral for the last month. I was a little...