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My Cabernet Novello went from 1.090 to 0.998 within 5 days. It's kind of fast. I will wait 2-3 days to see if it goes lower. I'm not sure if by adding the dried raisins to the must I didn't increase the speed of fermentation.

This subject was discussed many times and I'm sure you can find some better answers using search in the forum but I can give you some options that I used. I went to a local restaurant that sells a lot of wine and a bartender was very nice to leave empty bottles for me 2-3 times a week. I gave...

I was not familiar with the Novello style wines until now. What I found out is that this style of wine should be consumed within approximately 5 months and it is not intended for aging similar to Beaujolais nouveau. Since the lifespan of the wine is relatively short I do not intend to age it...

I started Cabernet Sauvignon Novello yesterday. I decided to add 12 oz of dried raisins to the must. After 24 hrs fermentation is going pretty strong.

I recently backsweetened Chokeberry (aronia) wine and I found it still very astringent. I like the very earthy, full flavor, deep dark color and quite mouthful, but it's very astringent at the same time. I had about 2 liter extra that didn't fil the carboy so I decided to add several chips of...

I don't measure SG when backsweetening. I do it by taste only. My notes from previous wines help sometimes too.

Fantastic flavor, mouthful, dark color, very cherry taste. I decided to go with only one pack of conditioner so far. Close to bottling time I will decide if more sweetening is necessary. When I started the fermentation I bumped up OG to 1.110 and at the end the fermentation stopped at 1.002. It...

Thanks again guys and dolls (if there are any). I returned from abroad just a few days ago and I missed you all and all the info that I swallow every day. Right after my return I started the Petite Shirah kit that was sitting in the fridge and I noticed my Dragon Blood supply (my wife's favorite...

Thanks. I was not sure what to do and you are right, I could have waited a few more days and followed the next step but it’s done already. Just another question. Do cubes expand a lot or nit at all while in carboy? I don’t want to fish fir them later and break the carboy to remove them.

My PS went from 1.100 to 1.000 in 5 days. Unfortunately my bucket has no lid so I decided to rack it to 6 gallon carboy. I removed all skins and most of the oak chips so I'm afraid that 5 days was not enough to extract all flavor. I think that I will need to keep cubes much longer now.

Everclear 190 proof is definitely good but a friend of mine gave me a bottle of this spirit from Slovakia. 192 proof and the price is hard to beat. As for the calculation I found this on line calculator. Very easy to use. Fortification

I have Petite Shiraz kit in the fridge. I will be leaving abroad for a few weeks soon so I don’t want to leave anything unattended. My wife likes only the final stage of the process which is drinking. The rest is on my head.

I think I made a mistake in my post. I checked my notes and I added 1/2 of full amount of nutrients at the beginning and then the remaining 1/2, not 1/3 as I stated in my post. It was Fermax.

Another way to get slightly higher ABV but starting with low sugar is step feeding, however, since it is your first wine I wouldn’t go that way.

I had this and it was great.

That's actually a great idea! Another batch! Well I like the coffee wine in 3 bottle carboy as 5 or 6 gallons are a bit too much. But both of my 3 gallon carboys are occupied. I will need to wait a few months. BTW I bottled my coffee wine in 375ml bottles. I intend to have a glass with my wife...

I was reading this thread and I planned to backsweeten my coffee wine with brown but I did with white one. Damn, I totally forgot. I started it in January and bottled in late March. I didn't open even one bottle. I'm not sure how long coffee wine should be aged.

Thanks. I guess I'm still learning the "P" part of winemaking.

Here is an update on my FWK Black Cherry. SG still the same 1.002 but the wine is still degassing. I can see tiny bubbles traveling up to the neck. So it is 17 days after manually degassing, adding superkleer, packet D and 1 pack of conditioner. Did anyone experience the same with FWK?

I use Oxiclean Free (green top) for cleaning primary mostly. About 2 tbsp and a 1/2 gallon of warm water, paper towel couple of minutes. Sometimes for rinsing carboys too. Works very well.