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Sorry - central WI location. Thanks - it's a tough, old plant - I'm sure it will recover. No grape wine this year, tho. I think it was all the water - ground was saturated last fall before freeze up, then too much rain this spring. My garden is still too wet to till and the yard is "spongy"...

I think all the water last fall and this spring may have nearly drowned my grape vine. Excuse my lack of proper grape vine terminology - I am but a humble mostly vegetable gardener with 1 very hardy grape vine that is about 30 years old. None of the lateral vines have swelling in any of the...

I did the same except I added some of the wine I was sweetening (instead of water) to clean out the cans.

Not sure what the "muck" is, but I just added it to the wine and it dissolved and disappeared. I think it may caused by the freezing of the juice. If it's too sweet - I'd let it sit in the carboy and blend it with a new batch of Dragon's Blood. A dry Rhubarb wine would also work, or a dry...

I don't take a sg reading after backsweetening anymore. I generally rely on my taste buds (and my wife's taste buds), tho it's not a bad idea. I found different wines need different levels of sweetening & I have to know about where she likes it. I do take PH reading before bottling. I use 1...

That should work! Adapt, improvise and overcome.

Where do you live? And how much do you need? I'd buy some and ship it to you, if you want. What about white grape juice concentrate? Do they carry that? Another alternative - buy some natural flavor concentrates and use those along with some simple syrup. I've used Brewers Best to...

I typically use a screw-top bottle for the last 2 or 3 bottles of a batch. That way I can easily identify bottles from "the bottom of the barrel" - in case I bottled some sediment. I drink those first and do NOT give those away to anyone. I use a double lever hand corker and #8 corks on those...

I get it at Piggly Wiggly, Walmart doesn't have it in store. Not sure what a good alternative might be, but I did find it on-line - https://www.walmart.com/ip/Old-Orchard-100-Juice-Berry-Blend-Frozen-Concentrate-12-fl-oz/22257678 It definitely is an excellent way to backsweeten and flavor boost.

I made wine this spring from petals I pick & cleaned, vacuum sealed and froze last year. It was the ugliest looking olive green mud I had ever seen. But - it fermented fine, all the disgusting looking green mud settled out by the 3rd rack and it tastes & smells great. btw - I poured a bit of...

I posted this pic on pg 2 of this thread - I agree with HillPeople - the green leaves IMMEDIATELY below the flower are actually just green flower petals and do not taste bad. here - from post #30

I added several cans of Berry Blend frozen concentrate and a little bit of simple syrup to replace the lost flavor and add body. See my post - #4766 in this thread. Berry based wines especially need to be backsweetened. I made a black raspberry that I planned to leave dry, except that it tasted...

I don't know yet - this is the first time I made it. I just racked it Sunday, hit it with k-meta and po.t sorbate and backsweetened (5.75 oz simple syrup per gal). It tasted a bit flabby, so I also added 1/2 t of tartaric acid per gal - that helped bring out the lime flavor and gave it some...

This will give you all the yeast info you may need in this lifetime. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/strains.asp

Update - fermented to 1.100, racked into secondary and added about a cup of lime basil (which I had vacuum sealed last year). I left it in there for 2 weeks, then racked again to get the basil out. Sg was at .988. Nice cucumber aroma and taste, lime/citrus still there. Added Sparkalloid...

This is the Dragon Blood thread, so - I will update & comment here on the Cucumber Wine - https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/cucumber-wine.57360/ Red

You have to boil the Sparkalloid for 5 minutes before adding it to the wine, and you should stir it into the wine as soon as it comes off the heat. If you did that - then you might want to wait a bit longer to see if it will clear. It took about 10 days for the Cucumber Wine I made to clear...

Good idea. 1 can of berry blend concentrate per gallon is about what it worked out to. I did try some with simple syrup in my last batch, and because I upped the fruit to 3# per gallon, it was pretty good. But my wife liked it better with the juice concentrate, so that's what I went with.

What do you have? Rhubarb is a good topping off wine - it's neutral flavor picks up the flavors of the wine. But - not everyone has it on hand. ;-) I made a lemongrass-ginger wine last year. Check Shayne Edwards posts on his ginger wine - he made a super ginger wine last year.

You'd have to test it for yourself, I suppose. Frozen concentrated juice is not as sweet as straight white sugar. I never add just sugar for backsweetening - I use simple syrup (2:1 ~ sugar & water) and the concentrate is far less sweet than that. It's all a matter of personal taste - I just...