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Recognizing this question has a huge element of personal preference involved, I am curious which varietals you think produce the best wine when starting from a juice bucket and the tweaks you use on them. COVID wine-making has me eyeing the juice bucket pre-orders as something to play with this...

Nice improvement on the 'experimental design'! I like it (and can expand on it).

Thanks for responses. While I perhaps didn't articulate my ultimate question well, I think it is answered. There is likely little or no advantage to asking my mother to go to the effort of moving the wine to another part of the (still warm) house. While the temps were okay until early May, they...

Last Christmas, I took several cases of a 1 year old merlot/carmenere to Texas in preparation for my son's April wedding. Stored in a part of my mother's house that is neither heated nor air-conditioned unless there are visitors (there aren't). Figured I was okay for Jan - Apr. Fast forward -...

Thanks - given record-breaking temps here, the thought of warming it up, throwing in some spices and drinking it sounds tempting. I may continue to try getting one gallon to ferment more fully using a starter (KV1116) and some Fermaid O.

I started two gallons of hard cider back in Sept - cider was from a local orchard, pasteurized for retail sale (no sorbate or other additives other than citric acid). One with QA23 yeast, OG boosted to 1.070 with brown sugar (also added pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient) Second gallon used S-04...

Just decided to add a small amount tannin riche to a Pinot Noir kit that has been in bulk for 9 months - was aiming for .2g/gal (1g for 5 gal), but I think my kitchen scale is either not reliable or just not sensitive enough. While I think I am okay as I was dosing quite low, I am pretty sure I...

Thanks, all - sounds like the vote is consistent. Given the aging timeline, I want to go with my best shot. LHBS has En Primeur series with skins...might be next up.

Interested in trying an amarone-style wine, recognizing that there is a lot more to amarone than just the grapes. Trying to decide between a higher end kit or a frozen juice bucket tweaked with raisins (or other options - open to suggestions). Pros and cons?

Forgive me if I missed this (have read many of the 91 pages, but not all) - when you use grapefruit zest, how do you clean/prep the zest? I understand the microplane and zesting just the top layer, but wondering if you just wash the grapefruit before zesting, or "sterilize" it in vodka (or...

This was helpful. I took a sample this evening (Tilt reading 1.006) and tested with glass hydrometer after shaking: 0.998 Looks like CO2 was contributing to confusion. Hoping it will continue down a bit more - working in the right direction! Thanks.

Thanks for responses. I still have the Tilt in the carboy. I can check with a standard hydrometer when I get home, but I have not had any problems with my Tilt being inaccurate since I started using it (3 or 4 kits, a batch of cider and a juice bucket).

En Primeur Wine Series: Pinot Noir Rose OG 1.092 (using a Tilt hydrometer) Pitched D47 yeast, added yeast nutrient, 73 degrees (never heavy fermentation activity, but constant) 9 days later, SG 1.018 - racked to carboy Continued slow bubbles - and SG tracked down to 1.012 before stopping 12 days...

Spent some time reading previous posts on this - comments somewhat neutral, not overwhelming. Curious what you consider the advantages of the system for wine? Or just that it works and there is always value in another fermentor (which is, oh, so true!)?

I just came into possession of an unused FastFerment (7.9g) - any thoughts or advice about using this versus standard fermentation bucket/carboy process? Worth setting up?

Thanks for the suggestions - some good tricks to try. No manual unfortunately (have looked around for one). Sunday afternoon task...

Is there a way to evaluate if there is damage? I have rinsed and cleaned well, but can't remember if I ever left sulfite solution as the last rinse. The fittings are tight (no leaks). Thanks!

Anyone have any experience with the anti-gravity pump (Northern Brewer)? I received one for Christmas - worked fabulously for several times, then stopped self-priming. They replaced it - second one, same problem. Have been trying to find work-around, but not much is working consistently and I am...

Thanks for response - wouldn't be leaving on lees. I would have time to rack and stabilize, but would likely have to bottle with less than a week of clearing or wait for several weeks. Thinking it would be better to allow extra time for clearing than not enough (although waiting and starting the...

Thinking of starting my first batch and wondering if there is a problem with letting this clear for 3-4 weeks? Or should I wait until a time I am more available?