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Many serious vintners will dismiss Dandelion wine as "Fermented Sugar", however, we have been making it for 5 years now and it remains our second most requested wine right behind Blueberry/Honeyberry/Maple Syrup. So I thought if you'd like to try it, I'd give you the recipe we use . There really...

Training I used left over electric fence wire from the bottom wire to the top wire. Just tied as the vine grew up. Worked very well.

Interesting tangent. We make a lot of Dandelion Wine. Even though it is bone dry(1.096 down to .992), everyone classifies it as semi-sweet. They say it tastes like a field on a bright sunny day. So my takeaway is that flavor profiles have a lot to do with perception of sweetness.

As already stated, the secret is initial maceration, oak and age. My Hill People partner is my wife. She has the nose and palate. Typically after 10 months to a year I'll have her taste it. In the case of reds, her answer is almost always, "It hasn't gathered itself up yet." Back into storage...

We do make quite a bit of Blueberry/Honeyberry/Maple syrup here. It's one of the most requested. This year we did 70 gal. and used K1-V1116 at a pretty stable 62-68 degrees. Starting SG at 1.092. Added Fermaid K at 1.030. Pressed then racked at 1.010. Finished at 1.002. Added K-Meta. Cold...

We make a Blueberry/Honeyberry/Maple Syrup dry wine and this year did a pure Honeyberry. We get them from Wayside Farm just down the road. http://www.greatnorthernberries.com/ Also Aronia berries (chokeberry). Google the health benefits of Aronia.

Those readings are somewhat typical for northern cold hardy grapes, i.e. low pH (2.9-3.0) and high TA (9-12). Also, you didn't mention the Bx, but northern grapes typically will be a little low, say 18-21. So I would say the first order of business is to get the Bx up to 22-23 with the addition...

We invested in a Lancman bladder press and have never regretted it.

I don't think your ABV is much more than 7.8% which might account for some of the sweetness. Personally I would have taken a more standard route, i.e. chapitalize to 1.090, skip the sorbate, 1/4 tsp. K-Meta per 6 gal, let it sit for a day, pitch your RC-212, MLB at 1.030, wait 3 months, SG-...

Just happy to be alive...

Yes to Turock. The best thing that can happen to you is if you run across a carboy of something you meant to bottle a year or two ago, but forgot all about it.

IMHO- sorbate and backsweeten after a couple rackings when it's completely clear. Since I detest any hint of sweetness in wine, you probably shouldn't listen to me, but due to the mass public taste, I hold my nose and do it occasionally.

Time is your best clarifier. But I have used bentonite (cooked into a slurry w/water, let sit overnight, whip it into a wine sample and add, then stir.) for some stubborn fruit wines. If the bentonite doesn't clear it, I've added SuperKleer on top of it. But I've found that all clarifiers strip...

IMHO- wait. See what transpires. Pruning time is essentially over.

I feel for ya Greg. It's tough to watch promising growth get nipped in the bud. We've been fortunate here in the mountains of NH. Buds on all my vines are puffy and pink. They are lagging well behind all the native vegetation here, which is all leafed out. Probably a good thing. It was 34 last...

Pruned all of the Marquettes on March 30th. As of today they are still sleeping 4/14 Nights still below freezing up here in the mountains of NH

You can always keep the headspace full of CO2 at every stage. I do this with all carboys. A CO2 tank is a good investment IMHO.

Thanks! Use the AIO all the time!

Add "Bottle Shock" to your list. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy5rkvYCVIg

I've never done a blueberry kit, but we do make a lot of blueberry/honeyberry/maple syrup wine. I've always mashed the berries using about 64 lbs. berries, added water to make ~25 gal., added 2 gal. maple syrup, added sugar to bring the SG to 1.096, added pectic enzyme, acid blend to TA-7 and pH...