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Hi CWKirsty, I don't have experience with wine kits but let me ask a few questions that may help others answer your question. When you said the wine is done, at what stage it is done and when. Is it finished with the primary fermentration? Secondary fermentation? or are you at the bottling...

I would recommend racking the wine a final time to get it off the fine lees if you are going to bulk age it in the carboy. To be safe from the potential of oxidation I would suggest adding sulfite at a reduced amount for this racking, an 1/8 tsp should give you about 25 ppm (qa 1/4 tsp gives...

Same here. Merry Christmas, Happy holidays and a Happy New Year.

Making one gallon batches of wine is probably as much work as making a 5 gallon batch. The benefit is that if you are making a wine for the first time or you are experimenting and the wine does not come out as you expected it is a lot easier to dump 1 gallon than 5.

To measure the starting sugar in fruit you need a hydrometer. To determine the starting potential alcohol multiply the brix reading (one of the scales ranging from -5 to 30+) by .55. For example, if the brix of the orange juice reads 10, your potential alcohol would be 5.5% (10 x .55). To get...

I would highly recommend buying a Hyrdometer. A hydrometer measures the sugar content in the fermenting wine. In order to really know when the sugar is converted to alcohol. When all the sugar is converted the fermentation is completed. Without a hrdometer you really never know except when...

I haven't heard of this happening before. Perhaps it was the food. Your wife drank the wine and did not get sick. Did she eat the pot luck as well and not get sick?

The original post did ask about the date for fruit wines but a subsequent post asked about the date for commerical wines.

Welcome GrapeStomp. I am always looking to learn more myself.

I don't like using chlorine bleach for any of my equipment. I use "One-Step" cleaner and potassium metabisuphite. If you do use bleach use the unscented kind, scrub with your brush and then rinse a few times. I don't recommend soaking the equipment in bleach for any length of time.

The year in which the grape is harvested is what goes on the bottle for commercial wines.

If using fresh fruit I use the date the fruit was harvested. If using frozen fruit I use the date of when the wine was made.

I think either way will work. However, I prefer to keep 4 187ml bottles on hand. After topping off simply transfer the remain wine from the 750ml bottle to the 187ml bottles. If you end up with less than one of the small bottles filled then share it between yourselves to get a really good...

Depends. If I am making wine from fresh grapes I make enough to fill my 2 30 gal oak barrels plus enough for regular topping off and racking so usually about 40 gal each. If making from frozen juice I make anywhere from 3 to 6 varieties.

1 tablet per gallon is what you will need. I don't see a need for potassium sorbate if you ferment to dry and don't sweeten later.

As a general rule, after you transfer your wine from the primary fermenter you want to rack 7 -10 days later. The important thing is that you want to get your wine off the gross lees sooner rather than later. At the first racking add 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite (50 ppm) for each 5...

Thanks Luc. I have seen various recipes for using raisins. I haven't used them yet but never considered rinsing before but that make sense as does the soaking in warm water.

I simply place the lid loosely on the pail without an airlock. When the primary is done I transfer the wine to a carboy and then put on an airlock.

Muscadine, you referenced 1.02 in your post. The SG chart I have shows a SG at 1.02 is the equivalent of between 5 and 6 on the brix scale, which would mean the wine still has a way to go in the primary fermentation. 1.002 would put the wine at nearly drt fermentation. I usually ferment to -1...

Steve, I have heard about the Better Bottle in other forums but I am not familiar with them. I'll have to do some searches. I have been using glass for many years for smaller batches. I have at least 20 carboys and they do get heavy to move around. For larger batches I have some ss variable...