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Well, Eddy, not all musts are created equal, but when I started a batch of watermelon I mashed the pulp, put a sample in a blender then stained it through a mesh bag and checked the specific gravity of the juice. It came in at 1.031. Yours could be higher or lower. I also checked the acid levels...

As @Carolyn P said above, I'd love to visit and think it's a great idea (and I don't see why, under the newer law local wineries would not be interested... at least some of them) Please keep us posted on the progress of this. I am curious about it for a couple of reasons...

Not bad advice... especially about being more generous with those who return bottles! I may be good on bottles for a little while now, though. I found a local home vintner who is now putting his wine in kegs and will be moving later this fall. He had 20 cases of empties to find homes for. I was...

I have broken several hydrometers over the years... It's not hard to do, tbh. They can be pretty fragile. At this point I believe (mostly through buying used equipment that include one or two of them) I believe I have about five spares. If I don't buy any more, I hope to still have two or three...

My problem isn't too many empties or too many full bottles... my problem seems to be having enough to bottle all the wine, lol! I save the bottles that I drink, but don't get many back from the friends I give wine to, so nearly every batch finds me looking for more bottles...

Thanks!

It definitely is like therapy for me as well. It appeals to both my analytical side and my creative side. In ways it reminds me of my early-life passions. I studied music in school, and chose engineering as my initial college major (first college level trig course and I changed that major to...

Hi Sipsey. I had not heard of an algorithm that could adjust the readings of a refractometer once fermentation begins. I can tell you, however, that in roughly a decade of making wine I have never had a problem with pouring the hydrometer sample back into the batch. You just needs to be sure to...

Try to be patient, my friend. The bottom line is that, at this point, you can't be sure if you wine has a fault or not. Rack it to fresh carboys (and top off with the extra that you bottled) every 3 or 4 weeks. Degas it if you want to finish it quickly (although with a long enough aging process...

Don't panic MoeJay! Your wine is, as you said, no ready for consumption. At this young age you may detect hints of what it will taste like later, but the flavors and aromas have not all begun to develop. The amount of CO2 in suspension will also alter the flavor. Once you get those smaller one...

Hi MoeJay. I have never had negative experiences with the affects of those additives on flavor, but to be honest I've never made a wine without at least using Potassium metabisulphate (aka K-meta). I have used Potassium Sorbate often, but only to stabilize wines in which there will be...

Hi MoeJay. Glad to hear your batches have fermented decently! It seems like you may have a bit of residual sugar (assuming fermentation is complete) but unless you wanted a super dry wine, it should be fine. Now that your SG is down to 1.000 (or close) your next step would be racking to carboys...

Hi MoeJay. I do believe sourgrapes hit the nail on the head. A refractometer will definitely not give you accurate readings once fermentation starts. Go back to using the hydrometer. Based on the SG of your resulting blends and the SG of the original batches when you blended them, I would say...

This reminds me of a similar mistake I made not too long ago with a batch of apple wine - added way too much sugar in chaptalization and then the yeast couldn't ferment it dry (they hit their alcohol tolerance level of about 13% and shut down). Without some more information I can't be certain...

Thank you so much for sharing your journey, Hokapsig! I am learning so much about what I might expect on my own journey, which (tho similar to yours) is really just beginning... Congratulations on your progress, even if it is expensive and probably slower than you'd like. You are still moving...

AJ, the additive pack sounds like exactly what I'm looking for... and I can save the enzymes for my fresh grapes in fall (just a few vines so a pack meant for a 6 gallon batch might just be about the right size). Thanks!

Thanks cmason. I had been thinking RC212 for the yeast but your suggestions are looking good as well... will have to mull that one over for a bit. By the way, where did you find that information about yeast for Pinot? I can't find it in my copy of the morewinemaking red wine manual... As for...

I ordered a bucket of Pinot Noir juice from my LHBS... and THEN stumbled upon this thread. I emailed the LBHS owner to ask if he had any thoughts on how to make the juice into a better wine or if I could get skins as well, and this is how he described the way the juice is processed "grapes...

I will definitely check into that dna testing. If I can't identify them with certainty based on what sprouts, it would be a good option. Thanks!

This shot was taken after clearing enough of the tangle to determine that the trunk looked nothing like a trunk. This was the point at which I stopped, scratched my head and said "now what?" and then decided to try to re-create the trunk. Here is what was left after pruning - one shoot that...