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How many peppers would Peter use in his Cherry Chipotle wine? I made a fantastic cherry wine- 1/3 black cherries & concentrate, 2/3 tart cherry juice. It's so cherry it hurts. Obviously I've named it Cherry Cherry and I think Neil Diamond would approve because she's definitely got the way to...

I'd love to know the outcome! I started a cyser at the end of October and threw in ALL the spices: cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, cloves, bladed mace, vanilla bean, black & white peppercorns, whole allspice berries, star anise. I think some of these are in 5 spice. I used much more spice than...

Yes, though it mellowed with time. We took out a couple gallons and added blueberry concentrate which made it very immediately drinkable and delicious but I want to see what else develops with this wine in the course of aging. If I don't like how it tastes in another month I'll likely add some...

The basil rides under the strawberry flavor as a sturdy, earthier flavor w a hint of citrus. It anchors the strawberry.

Thanks so much for your insights! I'll see how it goes with calcium carbonate but as you suggested, I'm likely to end up just adding more sugar.

feed it and see if under less stress the fermentation picks up

I've got 5 gallons of spiced cyser in primary with Wyeast cider yeast and I put some brown sugar in mine too. I saw a video where some folks put dried apples in the secondary to round out and give a more "baked apple" type flavor. My neighbor still has a lot of apples on his tree so I'll grab...

Agreed. Bulk aging has become my practice since spring as has cold crashing.

Hi Steve, I fermented in January and bottled in February. The pineapple/brown sugar wine was fermented in February/March and bottled in April. I've been hoping, after opening a bottle a few months ago, that the acid would mellow with time but that hasn't happened yet (maybe 10 more months?) I...

Great thought! Maybe I could add some apple or white grape juice. The stuff is over 16% ABV anyway so adding liquid could allow for second servings instead of being stone cold drunk from one cup.

Thank you, I'll get some potassium bicarbonate and experiment with that along with the calcium carbonate already in progress. Note again, that this is a citric acid problem, not tartaric. In fact, tartaric is the lowest amount of acid of the three in pineapple. Brown sugar may just be the answer!

Yeah I tested with brown sugar. The solution may be more sugar in the solution lol.

Thank you for your thoughtful response! I need to take the Ph but the problem is evident. I am 2 weeks into a test with calcium carbonate to raise the Ph but in looking at models of the citric acid molecule vs tartaric and malic, it has twice as many branches with hydrogen (I live with PhD...

How'd it go?

I made a pineapple orange wine in February and in April a pineapple brown sugar with spices wine. Upon bottling both were very tasty (which lead to about half the 5 gallons of pineapple orange not making it to the bottle) but now both are incredibly acid; nearly undrinkable. Keep in mind that...

We made a beautiful strawberry basil wine this summer that's blowing even wine industry folks out of the water with just 16 lbs of very ripe fruit with 8 lbs sugar for 5 gallons. Strawberries are local, organic (we live in the strawberry capitol of CA) and very juicy which we helped along by...

Yes, pit your plums. Buy a plum pitter on Amazon- I have a tabletop one with a plunger that is wicked fast, effective and a bit dangerous. I have another handheld one that is messier but can also be used for cherries. Bonus is that your plums will already be pretty squished up with juice...

I'll be making a blend with the "wild" Himalayan blackberries from my neighborhood here in the Santa Cruz Mtns in CA. They are watery-er than the native smaller blackberries and wild raspberry but far more abundant though I do think they lack good blackberry flavor. I'll put Santa Rosa plums and...

I'm looking for a home wine making club in the Santa Cruz Mountains area of California. While there are loads of commercial wineries here I'm not having any luck finding clubs. My friend and I make mead and country fruit wines and want to visit with other wine makers. Any suggestions?

On another thread there's a Deathberry that's elderberry, blackberry, cherry.