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I used the press again this week and figured it out. I can now just ratchet it tighter without it imparting rotation to the wood blocks. I think it was just sticking with age and non-use for a long time.

As a followup, this filter did not work well. The star-san solution went through it ok, but when I tried to pull wine through it, it was going so slow, I was concerned it was going to create so much vacuum in the carboy it would cause it to implode. The wine was crystal clear before going into...

Usually none or maybe 5 micron. If I back sweeten, which is rare for my reds, then 1 micron ( and still some sorbate as 1 micron isnt sterile)

Bottled my 2017/2018 Muscat, I blended the 2 years, got 72 bottles of that. Also bottled the 2018 merlot, got 50 bottles of that. Now I have carboy space for the 45 L of Riesling that is fermenting, and the similar amount of syrah I am picking this week.

Wine making of course, beer brewing. I formed a whisky club with a couple dozen guys last year. I also grill and smoke meat a lot, make homemade sausage. My wife and I garden and preserve and pickle a lot. I'm also a DIY kinda guy so usually some sort of Reno going on at home. I used to have a...

Yep, press right away. I picked and crushed, then pressed, 200lbs of Riesling last week. got 45L of juice. It's been very cool here, so while I started at 1.08 sg on Tuesday, it's only down to 1.073 this evening.

I picked about 200lbs of Riesling from my cousins farm today. 19 brix. There was more brown/split/rot grapes then I expected, see photo. My own Muscat grapes never look this bad, nor have the other grapes I've gotten from him over the years. I'm guessing most of this is due to the late season...

Not sure the cause of your floral notes, sorbate can cause geranium event but you said you don't use it. Chlorinated Tsp is a good cleaner, but I wouldn't use it as a sanitizer. You need to rinse away the bleach or you'll pickup flavors from it, and rinsing defeats purpose of sanitizing. Some...

Started building a kegerator/keezer for beer and possibly wine. I'd like to have 3 beer/ciders on tap, and 1 wine (on nitrogen or beer-gas rather than plain co2) evenually. For now just 1 tap, couple beers made will be kegged tomorrow.

For white wines, look into getting Titrets. Can get a pack of 10 tests for under $20. They do technically work with red wines too, but since they operate by viewing a colour change, it's very hard to see with a red wine. These will give you your approximate SO2 level, so you know if you need to...

No, the residual amount left on the surface of the carboy after sanitizing is next to nothing. 1/4 tsp k-meta is about 1.6g. That will raise your sulfites by about 50ppm above whatever they are now. I wouldn't be adding that much each time I rack, probably half that. However I test my levels...

Yeah it's pretty cool, they are all grape growers that sell to different wineries, but they keep some of their grapes back each year and make a few hundred liters of a couple different wines. They have a name and a label for their stuff which is only for internal consumption.

Did the grilling for my cousins wine club tonight, followed by a 15 bottle tasting of different Syrah's from around the world. First some bacon wrapped shrimp, then steaks.

I wouldn't re-use corks. Not worth the risk for saving a few pennies. And screw cap bottles are thinner at the threads, there is a risk of the cork breaking the bottle as you insert (or remove) it. Often it's OK, but sometimes it's not.

As others said, you want to get the wine of the lees. Over time, sitting on a bunch of lees can develop bad flavours. If no other carboy available, sanitize a bucket well, rack into it, clean carboy, sanitize it, rack back. Used carboys here are usually $5-10 each for a 5-gallon. I'm picking up...

Racked the 90L of muscat today. I'm now officially out of carboys, will pick up a few more tomorrow as my Dornfelder is down to 1.007 as well. I have 11 cases of empty bottles ready to go, just need to find some time for a bottling day, 3 or 4 different wines to bottle. Man i love that...

Lol, I just downgraded size wise to this one, old was was twice the size but a pain to store and move around.

that works if everything fits in on the 1st pressing, but with two batches I did yesterday I had just a bit more than I could fit in without squishing it a bit first, and then adding the rest after. I wouldn't want to try to open it and then reclose the basket again.

I got 80 liters from 6 lugs. So about 21 gallons.

What do you use for destemming? I zip tie two wire shelves, offset from eachother a bit, above my crusher. I put several clusters on and just rub them back and forth until all the grapes have fallen off. 350 lbs took me about 1 hour this way. You get a few small bits of stem on this way, but I'm...