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I would avoid adding liquid smoke to any of my wines. Just use oak, its easy.

I assume this is a kit correct? If so, you don't really have a need for high temperatures to gain extraction from any grape skins or anything like that. I would be tempted just to do it low and slow. Cooler temps tend to lead to fruitier flavors. Which can be desirable for certain styles.

Corrrrect, what you did not see though was my entry that did not place lol. I thought that my pyment would have done better than the dry mead. Did you send an entry in?

It worked lol, neat trick! Thanks all, I really enjoy being a member of this forum. I hope that others will be able to learn from the somewhat meandering cookie trail I have left in my threads. It took a bit of time to figure out how to make mead that was worth sending to competition. I hope...

I have read it is possible to do that... Kind of a pain from what I hear, but if I remember correctly the procedure goes something like disgorge and then make up the lost volume with a sweetened component. The method I read did not call for sorbate because I believe the idea is that the yeast...

You do not add sorbate if you are bottle carbonating. I estimate that for your batch size of 3.5 gallons and wanting 6 volumes of co2 ( I read that 7 is the max a bottle could handle) that you would have needed 8.7 oz of sugar by weight. I estimate that your cup of sugar weighted 7 ozs.. So...

I also advocate the bulk aging approach, I cant think of many wines that are ready to drink before they are naturally degassed.

Syrah with heavy toast oak... Done!

I would follow the wait and see as well... I would also reconsider your procedure of dipping your fruit in sulfite. Excess So2 can lead to cranky ferments.

Could you be smelling excessive HS2 from perhaps a stressed fermentation? Ie rotten eggs? Failing that, I would also say brett. I have intentionally fermented with brett before and some of the descriptors for it can include barnyard and horse-stall. Check out some of the flavors listed on the...

If you can buy pear juice, that is not fresh it would likely give you an idea of what a fresh pressed pear cider/wine would be like. However, I would think that freshly pressed pears would be just about as good as it gets for making a fermented pear drink.

I think you are under estimating how much I dislike e&j. To me it kind of had this over the top bubble gum flavor. I used to make cocktails with it and never liked them that much. Then I tried using a hither quality spirit and it was like night and day. So that is the argument I bring to...

Well, and that is the question I bring up, is the BAD flavor (IMHO) from cheap brandy worse than a half as small amount of everklear? I would not mind testing both ways out, but to be honest it seems for some reason that the whole port argument with cheap non grappa like brandy vs high proof...

Want to try re testing your TA? I would think that your PH would be lower with a TA that high.. What does your brix look like?

So, this guy did not end up placing at the MCI, however I am still eagerly awaiting the score card. I wonder if perhaps the grape flavor was not strong enough for what they were looking for in the pyment category. They gave good feedback last year, so I look forward to seeing what they have to...

Annd the MCI has spoken, the dry mead took 2nd. So, both meads that were born from this batch of honey took 2nd, at different years. The traditional dry mead and the cranberry mead. Woot!

Or perhaps the frozen must pathway would be a good compromise between kit and juice..... If you can make a kit, the only thing that separates you from working with frozen must is a simple press. The whole debate of everklear vs brandy is an interesting one. Ideally, you would use high proof...

wine from grapes is fun (:

Pretty much, plus if you are making wine from juice or some sort of grape product, you starting YAN should not be that bad.. So, it should not be THAT expensive. I tend to buy fermaid in bulk since I make a lot of mead...:p

My pinot Rose mead I let age for around 15 months, my dry mead is two years old.. So, I am looking around 15-18 months for meads with fruit in them, and 18-24 months for dry meads.