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I only grow my own jalapenos. We do grow other things on the property, but none are near enough to produce commercial wines.

I think I read something like Merlot or Pinot Noir as the fastest growing wine type? I do believe that the most sold wine is a white. Chardonnay? Oh, and thanks for noticing my mistake. A 1.12 wine would be crazy sweet. I'm more of a dry to semi-sweet, with pH's in the 3.3-3.5 range.

I do like Rieslings myself, but I can pretty much drink any wine, as long as it's less than 1.2 SG or so. Real sweet wines are hard for me to drink. I used to drink more sweet wines, but as I get older and the more wine I drink, the dryer I seem to get. Part of the reason we started our...

As a newly opened commercial winery, there have been a few things that I have noticed from customers. The biggest is sweetness. From my observations of people that make wine (many of us on WMT) seem to like wines a bit dryer than what the typical wine drinker usually does. Myself, I prefer a...

Some of them are going commercial too. :) Welcome!!!

My dad has met with them before on multiple occasions. They are not far from us. I am looking now, so that I may have some when they ripen. Never know if a bigger winery is going to grab all the grapes up! :( I would like to know if you can get any. I am looking to experiment first, so...

Anyone know where to get norton juice??? I may be in need of 50-100 gallons. :) Would love also to get just 1 gallon to experiment with.

Nice work! If you only had chambourcin.... :p

I have one too (higher model 121 or 141???). In fact, we have used 3 of them. The first one died after about 3 years, but I think something happened to the circuit because it read wrong with new electrodes/batteries/etc. After making a few bad batches, we figured it out. :( Now we have 2...

http://www.lalvinyeast.com/images/library/ICV-K1_Yeast.pdf It will go to 18% abv. I have used this yeast MANY times and it is particularly fast and strong. I keep it on hand at all times for stuck fermentations. When wine drops 8 hundredths or .08 on the hydrometer (NOT .008 - watch the...

congrats! Just beware, making wine can be an addiction. I make so much now, I have to sell it! LOL

That is closer to my average as well. I will say though, it depends on what you want to do with the wine too. If you are making a wine to age for 3-5 years, such as a blueberry or elderberry (or maybe even longer), then you want more acidity to protect it. It will mellow over time. If you...

I typically add about 75% of the sugar that I think it may need (according to a recipe). Then slowly stir in more sugar and check the SG until it hits the desired spot. You will get used to how much it takes over time per wine and wine batch size. It will vary some, but starting low will make...

Grapeman is right. Don't forget zoning. That can be an issue. With our bonded winery, we can get fruit from anywhere, but we pay more for the license as indicated.

Technically, I think you can use the fining agent, but you have to put it on the label. The label has to be approved AND then the gov't/health dept will consider cross contamination (racking lines, pumps, bottle filler, etc). It just becomes such a hassle to ensure that there in no way for it...

Yep, me too. Not used anymore. You can, however use egg whites to do the same thing. Time is your friend. Degas and let it sit, if it still stays cloudy, I use bentonite first (depending on the wine) and used to use SuperKleer.

it looks like the vines are pretty well established. I am not a vineyard owner, but I do have 2 very old concords on a makeshift trellis (2 other new concords last year that don't quite make it up to the first row yet). LOL. Looks good. I'm glad we buy our fruit because we are so busy as it...

Yes, but remember the lalvin 1118/1116 are very strong yeasts to begin with. In a scenario with any other yeast, I'd assume those would take over.

I think that you may have put too much acid in. I use a milwaukee pH meter. They work great. Gotta store the electrode in solution at all times and sometimes re-calibrate it, but it does ensure you get consistent results.

You think you guys have the addiction bad? LOL. I went from 5's to more 5's and within 6 yrs to 100's, 200's and 300's! :)