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I've got a half dozen or so Italian carboys all sourced from the same vendor. There are a couple that hold considerably more or less than the others. I've never measured them, but I know, sometimes I can over flow the receiving carboy when racking a clear wine and not leaving much behind.

I’ve got one not yet started. Also picked up a Spanish red and Italian red RQ. I figured I’d get one of each of the last RQs before the volume reduction.

Those are paint liner bags to avoid having to clean the container you pour paint into. You want a paint strainer bag. I’ve only seen them in the 5 gallon size and they work well enough. I used one as you describe for a blueberry wine and the seeds and lees clogged the bag right off the bat...

Racked the wine this weekend. Managed to get just under 4 gallons of really clear wine out of it. I filled a 3 gallon carboy, a half gallon jug, a 750ml bottle and used the rest for... testing. I need to let it sit for a bit to see if I want to oak it or not. Still very sour.

For sure, Johnd! It's a vented stopper. I've had too many solid ones launch across the room. :h

Last night, 4 weeks after pitching yeast, I poured the entire batch into a kettle lined with a paint strainer bag. There were maybe a few dozen berries still floating on top. It took a while to be able to lift the bag out of the kettle. The lees had done a pretty good job of clogging up the...

Makes sense. I'm not saving these skins for a second batch. Give it all to me now. This batch is at the 3 week mark now, and I can't really call it a cap anymore. There's about 50% coverage of the surface with berries. Everything else has sunk to the bottom. If an extended maceration is not...

SG hit 1.010 inside the first week. ~70*F the whole time. I locked it up at 1.010 and haven't stirred it since. I've just been sloshing it around to keep the cap wet since. I'm sure it's done now. Just letting it sit a few weeks before racking and pressing.

Strange that I’m seeing different results. I still have a thin cap on top made up of inflated skins. They look like whole berries at this point. Maybe I failed to crush a few? I've read advice on here to keep the pressed blueberry skins to make a wine with them and white grape juice. I...

I sealed this fermenter up back on the 9th, with a gravity of 1.015. Been keeping the berries cap wet my giving the fermenter a good swirl a couple times a day. Things are starting to settle off the top onto the bottom. I am planning on trying an 8 week EM for this batch to see if anything bad...

Looks like this batch was doomed from the start! The last few small batches I’ve made have all been with frozen fruit. To me and everyone that’s tried them, have found the wines to be great. I can’t wait to try this with fresh fruit next time to see the difference. I’ve always read the...

This is my first time going raw (free berry). I usually bag skins on kits too. I need to see what the alternative is all about. I plan on pouring this all into a paint strainer bag when it comes out of this fermenter. Then I'll place that strainer bag in a new press I got to get more juice out...

That night, I stirred in 8.75g of FT Rouge tannin, which is the maximum recommended amount, and added lots of (140g) medium toast Hungarian oak shavings. Rehydrated the 71B yeast with GoFerm Protect, tempered and inoculated the must. The must level now sits a hair under the 4.75 gallon mark...

I measured 1.086 SG with a hydrometer the next morning. The must thinned out when it warmed up to 63*F. Expecting 13.5% ABV out of this one. Using a freshly calibrated Milwaukee MW101 pH meter, I measured a pH of 3.55. I also titrated a small 5mL sample of the must and measure a TA of only...

The blueberries were found in the frozen section of a local Sams Club. The label said very little: "Natural Blueberries" with a listed countries of origin, US, Argentina and Chile. These were the largest blueberries I've ever seen, about the diameter of a quarter. They were not very sweet...

After a couple of 1-3 bottle batches to figure things out, I set out to make a slightly bigger batch. If you will partake, I plan to lay out my process, in hopes of your critique for improving the next batch. Naturally, I will have some questions along the way... Details: 4 gallon batch...

Answer is no. The D21 kit was still very young compared to the first two. Having tasted these kits along the way, I can mentally (with the aid/deception of memory) follow their path along the way. I could taste the maturity between the first two as well, although less pronounced. I did some...

Bottle this kit today. Performed 8 week EM, added Tannin Complex, Tannin Riche Extra and a small touch of glycerin. Also, I fermented 3 kits, each with a different yeast; D254, D80 & D21. Blended them in equal amounts. This wine is really great. It would suck to have 90 bottles of bad wine!

Got some catching up to do... The first batch (D254), I added glycerin, same as I added to my first kit. Before I got to my second batch (D80), I had a few bottles of my first kit and found that the sourness had completely gone away. ...and I was left with a sweet wine. Not terribly sweet, but...

Took me a while to finish it up, but finally got my rack I to action: Not sure why it’s clocked. I’ll fix it later on my desktop. Thanks for taking care of that @Ajmassa ! I noticed you brightened it up a little too. You inspired me to break out Photoshop and fix that perspective: (if only I...