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Yep, it's going really, really slow right now. I think I'm going to go ahead and add the port at 1.020, which is not too far off. The extra sweetness might be needed to balance the strong alcohol.

Any wine juice concentrate I've ever used, usually the Alexander's, said to use two cans for 5 gallons, but I found that 3 cans was best. 2 cans seemed to be a bit watered down and thin-bodied. I'm not sure what kind of concentrates homewinery.com are selling, but I'm wondering if you should...

As for a recipe, try Montrachet yeast and shoot for 12% alcohol. Then once it's done fermenting backsweeten it and make it relatively sweet. It makes a very good wine after it's aged about a year.

Yes, you should always soak your filters in water before installing them. Anyone else laugh at the packages because the French word for filters is "tampons?"

The thing about the batch of high alcohol wine I made, which ended up at 17% ABV, was that it was so harsh that it took a year of aging before it mellowed out enough to be drinkable. After that it wasn't too bad but you could tell it was pretty strong stuff, and didn't compare at all in quality...

Personally, I'd throw them in the freezer and add them to next year's crop.

Checked the SG yesterday and it's down to 1.026. It's taking its time but it's getting there. I may go ahead and add the brandy when it gets to 1.020. As slow as it's fermenting, I won't have to worry too much about missing the mark.

Honestly I don't know what fruit would be best for a high alcohol wine. The high alcohol level will affect the taste of whatever fruit you use. On another wine forum it seemed like we always had newbies asking how to make high alcohol wine. My standard answer was that wine is much better at...

I think they mean "or." It's legal for personal use OR to put in a competition. What I'm interested in is a possible "grey area." Is it legal for someone to pay you to make a batch of wine? It's not like you're actually selling them the wine, since they're paying you to make it, but yet on...

I would treat it just as you would any other fruit juice. Either keep it in the fridge if you will get some yeast soon, or stick it in the freezer if you know it will be a while before you'll get some yeast. Either way, make sure the must warms up to room temperature before adding the yeast...

I think it would be a very harsh wine. Cranberry is high in acid as it is, then add a high alcohol content and you'll likely end up with something hard to drink. I'd probably shoot for more like 11% or so, and then backsweeten with sugar or concentrate.

That's also something I was wondering, if refreezing will help release more juice, since the ice crystals tend to cut through cell walls. I just hope I have time this weekend to press them. It's supposed to be 100 degrees out this weekend so I may wait until next weekend if we're not camping...

Seems like 2 lbs. of sugar in a 1 gallon batch is a bit much, and if the yeast ferment it all out then you'll have a high alcohol level. 1.117 works out to around 15.5%. I personally prefer to never go over 13% alcohol in my wines and prefer lower levels like around 10-11%. There's nothing...

Water breeds bacteria.

Same here. I put two or three campden tablets in a 1/2 gal. jug of water and use that as my sanitizing solution/airlock liquid.

It depends on how much fermentation there is left to do. Personally, I think at that point, even if the yeast isn't creating a lot of CO2, there's still a lot of CO2 left in the wine which is slowly degassing and leaving a CO2 layer on the surface of the wine. Usually what I do is try to...

Checked the SG tonight and it's down to 1.030 from the 1.038 I restarted fermentation with the EC-1118. So it's taking off and doing its job and should just be another couple days before I need to add the brandy.

I think so, too, but didn't know if anyone had any evidence to the contrary. I just wish I'd had time to press them. Hopefully this weekend I will.

I've got several pounds of grapes which I had in my freezer since last fall. I got them out and put them in the fridge in my garage with plans to press them soon. However, it doesn't look like I'll get time to press them for a while, and I don't want them to go bad so I decided to put them...

I wouldn't even do that unless there were a specific problem with the wine not clearing after 6 - 8 months. I've found that very few of my batches have ever had a problem clearing after waiting that long or longer. Now I will say that I do notice a huge difference in my whites between...