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Tonight I had some of my JOAM, which I pitched a little more than 4 months ago. At bottling I was worried that it was too "pithy". Tasting it today that has improved considerably. It's actually downright tasty! I think I need to leave it alone a few more months before having my next bottle...

I guess I need to pick up some sweet cherries to go in it as well then, as well as a little more juice. I doubt I've got a good cherry selection right now in the stores. Although at this point (with the pending snow) I think I just need to get the french toast fixings (milk, bread & eggs)...

I'm discovering that even the Vacuvin doesn't work so well on a plastic carboy, which is what all my 3 & 5 gallon ones are. I guess i'll need to stick with the whip for those.

I only have 1 container (32 oz) of the cherry juice right now. I can buy more, but I'm not looking for it to be so strong I start thinking of cherry-flavored cough syrup! I do think you are right in that the sugar from the juice and from 3 pounds of honey is potentially overkill. But I've...

The other day at Trader Joes I bought 32 oz of tart cherry juice. Not from concentrate, no preservatives. I'm thinking about making a cherry melomel, but I'm not sure exactly how to translate from the recipes I find to using the tart cherry juice instead. If I've calculated it out...

Well today I transferred from primary to secondary. SG was .998. The taste was . . . kind of bland. For all the spices I had in it I had hopped for something more. I rinsed off the cinnamon stick and vanilla bean and threw them into the secondary. I'll leave them there until the next rack...

Welcome to the forum! I'm sampling today a triple berry melomel that is starting to come around nicely. I don't have that much honey, so I've only got a small amount going. (I think 5 gallons total of mead at the moment.) I look forward to hearing more about how it all comes out!

I did do a lot of active degassing when it was in the primary. It amazed me how much settled out once it got into secondary. (I squeezed the fruit bag like crazy daily. It gave me a lot of fruit bits!) One thing that is interesting is that the 3 gallon carboy has a pretty small layer...

I think I'm above a gallon a water, which is keeping the SG lower than expected. The original recipe called for a tsp of acid blend, but I only added 1/2 tsp figuring I'd wait till the end to see if it needed more. (The original also called for 1/4 tsp tannin. I have some, but haven't added...

OK. I'll bite! On March 3rd I started a "Fall Spice Metheglin" recipe. The recipe says to bulk age a year, and then 6 months in bottles. I started it now so it would be ready for fall 2018, but I'll be drinking some in a year's time frame. So I'll see how it ends up then! (I think this...

So you are looking for something off of the beaten path for this club? I just started a Metheglin, but it's a recipe I found online. (It's a fall spice one, which should be really good next year.) I'll have to think of something that I haven't seen a recipe for yet that I might want to try...

I guess I make wine from fruit since it's not something I can easily get in the store. Although most of what I've done from fruit has been frozen fruit so far. I can't wait till this summer to see what I can get to make something from fresh fruit. I know I'd have more success (probably) doing...

Welcome from a (former) Texan! (Who now lives in the DC area, but still has a rental property in Wichita Falls, TX)

Tonight I stabilized and back-sweetened my semi-sec blueberry wine. I drank what wouldn't fit in the gallon jug. Since I used grape concentrate to back-sweeten, I essentially added whatever was left from the can into the leftover wine. It's more sweet than the actual wine is going to end up...

IIRC, there are several stages that the yeast go through. During the initial growth phases, the yeast cells need oxygen to make needed cellular components. Most of the articles you can find online about the yeast growth cycle relate to beer, but there are some good reads out there about it...

Thanks everyone for the advice. Now I'll go invest in some chicken wire ;) The hardest part is I don't know if this will be a one-off for me or not. I guess what I should do is find some other winemakers in the local area and "borrow" their stuff! if this first batch ends up OK, then I might...

https://harfordvineyard.com/grapes/ You have to pick them up in person, as they don't ship them. They are located in Maryland. It's an excuse to visit the local area with the family who it comes in. At least that's what I'm telling my wife!

I do have an acid titration kit, but no way to test pH. I'm looking at meters, but I might just get some strips for now. How important is MLF chromo testing? For the volume of wine I'll be making it doesn't seem like a cost-effective purchase. I think I'd rather just add the MLF bacteria...

Thanks for the advice. I have a bag that I use for fruit today that is probably the same as the paint strainer one. (My last batch had 10 pounds of berries, and there was a lot of room left over in the bag. I think it will deal with this ok.) I was looking at fruit presses, but I guess that...

Well after 10 or so batches of different country wines & meads, I've decided to take the plunge and try and make some "real" wine. I've ordered a 5 gallon bucket of Cab from Harford Wineries, and I also picked up 20 pounds of Cab grapes (that will hopefully be delivered around the same time!)...