Search results

A learning experience for sure! Racking as you describe (including rack-and-return) will maybe cost you a few ppm SO2 but will not wipe it out. In future I would recommend testing after your racking operation and adjusting SO2 accordingly.

On this post July 4th weekend we took inspiration from the 50th state and made Huli-Huli chicken. Served with an Asian noodle salad, cabbage with garlic and juniper and my 2022 white pinot noir...

Any plans to harvest some of those flowers and make elderflower wine? I try to make an elderflower 'shampagne' every year...

I'm sure that will be enough unless you want to make commercial quantities... I have a single bush that gave me 35lb last year, enough for a 7 gallon batch and I think there is even more fruit on it this year... Here in N California my European cultivar is well into fruting, thought there are...

I try to top every month... I would not worry about 6 weeks but 3 months sounds like a lot. I don't think the difference in concentration will be that significant, though I haven't worked with barrels that small. If you must go that long without topping, I would at least check once a month and...

I would protect from light if at all possible; there is a phenomenon called 'light strike' which can damage wine. Can you maybe just drape a cloth/tarp over your wine?

I built a riddling rack! I plan to disgorge 2 cases of my 2022 Blanc de Noir towards the end of the year so I put this together from some wood offcuts. It tilts the case at 4 different angles; ~35, 45, 60 and 75 degrees. I plan to give each bottle an eighth turn at each inclination once a day...

'Briny' is definitely an adjective used in description of some wines. Can't say I'm a fan.

It's rated 0.35um absolute which should get rid of all yeast (and other microorganisms as well!) The challenge for home winemaking is sterilizing all the remaining parts of your filtering and storage (not to mention bottling) apparatus. At the winery where I work, everything downstream of the...

Just a small word of caution - the term Campden tablet is used for both sodium metabisulfite and potassium metabisulfite. Make sure your is the potassium version; sodium can leave an unpleasant salty note... And a belated welcome to WMT!

I opened a 2021 Elderberry to see how it was evolving - Still a bit tart, but much smoother than when I last tasted in January this year. That being said, some of the elderberry character seems to have gone away. It's a bit more 'generic red wine'. Some nice fruit flavor, but a bit empty mid...

You may know this already but the standard Italian floor corker is not compatible with champagne corks; there is a separate champagne corker (which doesn't work with standard corks): https://morewinemaking.com/products/ferrari-italian-floor-corker-1.html...

From Costco - I don't recall the exact price but I think ~$21-$22? Big jammy fruit with savory herbal notes and soft tannins, punches way above its weight 👍

Late to the party here,but I just fermented an elderflower wine at starting pH 2.91... my mistake, I overacidified, but I'm not too worried as I think it will make a great sparkling base wine (which is what I was planning to make anyway...) Here is a sparkling strawberry wine (and subsequent...

Here is my recipe, enough for a 3 (US) gallon batch of elderflower sham-pagne: 18 large elderflower heads (about 2 loosely packed US pints) 0.5kg sugar 2 lemons, washed and zest removed in strips (no white pith) 500mL water Remove the elderflower florets with a fork, removing as much of the...

Lamium (or Lamiastrum) galeobdolon, common name 'Yellow Archangel' (There's a great app called 'Seek' that you can get for your phone: point your camera at some living thing and in many cases it'll tell you what it is. I knew that this was a Lamium ('false nettle', related to mint) but using...

I use a fork... I have one with a small hole between the middle tines which is perfect for fitting a stem through. As I'm sure you know, you have to be patient and not try to strip too big a bunch at one time, though you inevitably have to go back and trim a few that didn't quite strip off. It...

2022 Field Blend - grapes that I picked myself, about 50:50 white pinot noir : chardonnay with maybe 5% viognier. It's become much smoother after a year under cork and very drinkable, great food wine with a savory note from the white pinot noir.

Check out this thread for some detailed discussion and references. As a rule, 4g/L sugar gives you ~1atm (15psi) pressure. The maximum you should add is about 25g/L; if this is your first sparkling wine I would suggest aiming a bit lower than that, say 16-20g/L. Some useful discussion in this...

I would recommend finding out more about this before investing your £20. As far as I'm aware, a hydrometer is for measuring density of liquids (which is a surrogate for sugar concentration in the context of wine and beer making). I don't see how a hydrometer would be of any use in measuring SO2...