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As I read about clarifying agents, some come and go. There are two I see used for beer that I don't really see any mention about using with wine: Biofine and Whirlfloc. Does anyone have experience using these with wine? Or are they really beer-only?

How do you then deal with the growing headspace in the carboy you're using to top up the barrel with?

I'm left scratching my head as to how people deal with the ever-increasing headspace from all that racking. Just how much extra wine are people making initially beyond the capacity of the main carboy? And as they pull from that "extra" vessel to compensate the space lost due to racking, how do...

Interesting... so it will actually taste salty from those? If it does... would cold stabilization help? From my reading, that seems just about the only way to clear (precipitate) the "salts" out. I can get a small 5 cf freezer for like $160, might not be a bad tool to have... CS seems to be a...

Well, too late for that to help reduce the amount of potassium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate I added. :( I suppose I could dilute before bottling... or just let it bulk age as-is, bottle as-is, then dilute when it's served. At that point we could determine what dilution factor appeals to our...

More good news: my careful following of the instructions for using Go-Ferm Protect and hydrating the yeast seem to have paid off. I was getting some signs of CO2 being given off not long after pitching the yeast. A day later, there was strong bubbling in the airlock. From other testimonials...

I actually did end up using a combination of adding warm water w/ sugar dissolved, and then warming up the juice, to get enough sugar to hit 1.090. So that much was accomplished. What disturbs me now is how much potassium bicarbonate, and calcium carbonate (because I used up all my potassium...

Oh boy. I doubt that much sugar will dissolve easily directly in the juice. Which means I'll have to dissolve it in warm water first. Which means more sugar since I'll be diluting. I only have 10 lbs of white sugar on hand... Most of my sugar is organic and so is light tan. Would using that...

Here's my calculator (FermCalc):

Ok mixing things up today. I have 5 gallons reconstituted 1:1 then 20oz of crushed berries added. I'm getting a SG right now of 1.012. By my calculator, to get to 1.090 I'm going to need to add almost 10 lbs of sugar (!!!). Does that seem correct? SG was read at calibration temp of 60'F.

Why calcium carbonate to raise pH over the generally more-recommended (for grape wine) potassium bicarbonate? Is it something unique about cranberry?

What's the best clarifying agent to use for cranberry wine? I was thinking isinglass but it seems that's not available anymore. So that leaves... Kieselsol? Chitosan? Combo of both? I've read somewhere that those (or maybe just kieselsol?) can be harsh on wine and so maybe not good on...

Is there a reason to use calcium carbonate vs. potassium bicarbonate? Also, the instructions for things like potassium bicarbonate say to use it after fermentation. But that doesn't help if you need to reduce the acidity in order to get fermentation to even occur. Perhaps this is the reason to...

Hmm.. Any customs issues bringing wine kits over the border (being food and all)? I live very close to Canada and cross over frequently (I even have a NEXUS card). Next would be if there was a shop I could pick it up from either in Montreal or between Montreal and the border with VT/NY/NH or...

Thank you. I'll check with them about the Eclipse. Are all of those 6-gallon kits? Any subjective opinions on relative quality?

So in a few months (July?) I'm going to want to be doing another kit. My local shop is out of premium (WineXpert LE) kits. Any suggestions on where I can order premium kits (preferably 6-gallons) this time of year? I'm a newbie so I'm not experienced with what kits are considered "premium", and...

Yeah I intend on aging most of it until next fall, but I might steal an early bottle for this fall. Does cranberry wine put together this way tend to need acid adjustments at all?

Ok, thanks for that good info. So by my math, I should target a starting SG of about 1.090. Is the normal practice to put your juice together, then just add sugar to adjust the SG up to where you want to start?

So for all sorts of reasons, I'm motivated to have my second wine ever be a cranberry wine. My research has already revealed that there are some unique challenges here, but I'm ready and willing! One head scratcher I'm up against is radical variation for starting specific gravity (and hence...

I'm sorry, I guess I'm missing something here. If I was 3 bottles short of 6 gallons, then I had 5 gallons + 2 bottles (5 750ml bottles in a gallon). So I would've filled a 5-gal carboy but only 2/5ths of a 1-gal carboy, resulting in most of the 1-gal being empty so still a lot of headspace...