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Not to jump in, but, I added new yeast. Roy

AJ, I got my vented, no s trap needed bung, and solid bungs from Vadi. Also got a 2 hole bung from Steve, Vacuum Pump man, so I can vac rack into the barrel using the lowest vac as possible. So they should be available. Roy

AJ, I top off to almost the bung hole, then push in the silicon bung. Never had wine oze out after the bung was pushed in. But we only put stabilized wine into our barrels, not fermenting wine. As to wine leaking, I have prepped a barrel with no leaks, then when I put the wine in I had a slight...

I’ll recommend Vadi barrel prep instructions to every one. In the process of doing my 3rd as I type. Now have 2-40L barrels & a 23 L one. They are awesome. Roy

I too save our skins in the freezer for future use. I do MLF on our buckets, almost co, I add MLF as I transfer from primary to secondary at SG 1.000 ish. But I only do the MLF on real grapes after we press and put the must into carboys. Been doing this for years with good results. Roy

Fred, We use the same yeast because we mix up the 3 buckets into one barrel plus top off wine. We save the buckets, from juice pails of past years, in the attic so we have plenty of buckets. I also use loose lids & towels to cover the fermenting buckets. Mac, We crushed 4 lugs which filled 3 -...

Gyspy, I assume you got your grapes from Vince Pardo. We picked up our s Sunday in Riverview. Look at the post prior to yours. We hand de-stemmed and crushed ours. 8 lugs. We are in N. Ft. Myers & our Mom lives in Gulf Gate area of Sarasota. Love your crusher!! Roy

Fred, I understand your Pain. I now have 3 barrels. A 23 liter which is for 6 gal kits only, and two 40 liter (10.6 gals) barrels which I use for real grapes that have gone thru MLF. Thinking this might be the last time I buy the MLF enzymes. Time will tell. I’ve also put a BlackBerry/Elderberry...

Ok, We HAND de-stem & crush. Picked our grapes up Sunday & did 2 lugs, then 3 lugs on Monday & Tuesday. Also did 4 juice pails. I built a press a few years so pressing will be easier! Roy ps think we need a de-stemmer/crusher asap!!

Thanks John, after 5 hrs of driving to pick up our grapes we de stemmed & crushed 2 lugs. The Petite Sirah grapes look great, and they said the brix was 25. Roy

Dawn & I were just talking about you & how we haven’t seen much from you on W T. If there is another bottle left I’ll save it for us to share. Do hope you & your wife make it down this year. Roy

Wow!! Wife said we are having Vovka Alle Penne tonight, can you find us a special Wine? Well I pulled a 2011 Barolo from our chiller it was from the Wine Toy Store. It’s probably the best wine we have had in years! And we did 2 weeks in Napa last year, also Oregon & Walla Walla. Awesome is all...

Jim, we pick up our Cab & Petite Sirah grapes tomorrow, our two Fav wines. What % blend do you like? We won’t blend until after some bulk aging, but want to think about it while we HAND distem & crush! Ouch! Roy

JohnD, what to you consider a light dose of Kmeta added to the must? Say blank per gallon or Lug. Our grapes arrive Sunday, Thanks. Roy

Always good to Welcome a fellow Florida Winemaker. We live in N. Ft. Myers. Roy

Fred, We too were “ lazy/intimidated “ with our Vin 300! I made some easy to read cheat sheets sealed in plastic binders for the 3 tests. Now we do a bunch, sometimes 10-12 wines at the same time. After the 2nd test it’s a piece of cake. Roy

Not to discourage you but Watermelon Wine is the Only wine I ever thru out! Try and keep the must cool, it can spoil easily. Sorry no other advice. Roy

Thanks for this post. We are leaving in 10 days in our RV heading to Maine. We have 4 nights reserved in the Finger Lakes area. Cayuga State Park, but we will be traveling around that whole area. Haven’t been there in over 15 years so really looking forward to it. Roy

Yes the aroma & taste is unbelievable!! We have some Peach Wine that is 7 yrs old & better than at 2 yrs old!, All our friends Love it. Roy

I always take an original S G reading. While the must is sitting there with K Meta I dip out a bunch & put it thru a strainer to get the sample, little time consuming but it works. Roy