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I'm with you here. People can be far too precious about this sort of stuff ... most of the equipment winemakers use (timber slatted basket presses, oak barrels, etc etc) are miles away from 'food standard' vessels. Commercial wineries have no problem transporting their grapes in big generic bins...

Hi gang. Here in Aus 2018 vintage is pretty much upon us and I have sources for some Primitivo (aka Zinfandel) and Nero d'Avola grapes. I haven't used these before - only Grenache and Shiraz - so I was wondering if people had any specific tips about handling these varieties? Like: should I be...

I wouldn't use corks in screw-finish bottles. Reusing a screwcap, however - no problem, unless you care about how it looks versus a bottle with a new cork in it. My father-in-law reuses screwcap bottles all the time and it works out fine. If you're keeping it for many years there may be a tiny...

How long will a yeast culture last in the fridge? I am planning on taking some fermenting must from a batch of mead and holding onto it for a month or so....

Could be anything from complete disaster to glorious revelation! Definitely worth a crack!

Apparently there are 2 types of paw paws: what we call pawpaws in Australia are very similar to papaya. Then there are 'American pawpaws' which are completely different, like a custard apple. If you're talking about the former they have a reasonably low sugar content and a bit of a funky...

Pulque ... Regurgitated Limberger and wallpaper paste, this stuff is sounding more and more tempting by the minute....! Got me some gesho so I am going to start fermenting this weekend. Gonna do 12L of traditional mead - nothing added but yeast - and a 4L batch of T'ej. The gesho just smells...

Cool. I have also come across this one: Patrick McGovern, an archaeologist who has worked to try to reconstruct various types of ancient booze. Worth a read for anyone who's interested! https://www.amazon.com/Uncorking-Past-Quest-Alcoholic-Beverages/dp/0520267982

I'm in Australia so doubt I'll be able to buy online from a shop in the US. There are a few Ethiopian and Sudanese grocery shops in Adelaide .. and some Ethiopian restaurants .. so I'm hopeful I can turn up something!

Thanks! This looks like a very good place to start: https://ethiopiantej.wordpress.com/2016/05/12/5-making-tej-at-home/ Just gotta get my hands on some gesho ...!

So, I'm putting together a course about cultural and social approaches to wine & fermented drinks... One of the weeks will focus on prehistoric / early booze. There is tasting involved throughout this course, so one thing I am really keen to do is try to make / approximate some of the sorts of...

I reckon in some cases it's the yeasts (often winemakers will do skin-contact whites with a 'wild ferment'). I have also read that white grape tannins themselves can often be really astringent.

I have had a few commercial skin contact / 'orange' white wines (which are not necessarily actually orange). They seem to be rather fashionable at the moment. Some are pretty good and you can get some really interesting aromatics that you don't get with straightforward white wines, but for my...

And fwiw I see no reason to stop making wine just because you're away from most of your equipment. You can ferment at whatever scale you want, and if you're in Seattle you'll have access to some great fresh grapes nearby.

I'm the other way around. Getting into winemaking partly as a result of my postgraduate studies. Just finished my PhD in Anthropology where I was looking at approaches to landscape & land use in McLaren Vale, a peri-urban area in South Australia ... which just happens to be an important wine...

Thanks guys. I will definitely err on the side of caution. Do you think it might be wiser for me to only introduce oak once primary fermentation is done? If so, would that mean leaving the chips in contact with the wine for longer?

I have ~30L of Grenache must starting the fermentation process. I have been fermenting & maturing in inert containers (plastic and glass) and last time round I felt the wine lacked a bit of tannic complexity that I would like to introduce via oak. So I picked up a bag of medium-toasted French...

Yeah - thought I'd be fine with the nicotine as I am an ex-cigarette smoker. NOOOOOPE. Empty stomach=poor move.

Not tonight, but recently I had some homemade prosek (a Croatian sweet wine - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro%C5%A1ek) made by my partner's grandma ... about 30 years ago!!!! Amazing. There are still a few bottles floating around.

A 20L barrel is a lot of surface area contact with the wood, wouldn't surprise me if it's imparted a lot of flavour into the wine (keeping in mind that commercial wineries usually use barrels that are like 225L and up). Sweet = vanilla = American oak? I don't have experience with using barrels...