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Sorry I wasn't clear, the 187's I use are not the screw type.

I use the 187's that take a #7 cork. Then regular shrink tops. Works well. When corking, I need to put a 2x4 under the bottle since they are so little the corker doesn't extend long enough.

I made 2 gallons of Jack Keller's maple sap wine last year and it came out quite nice. The only thing I'm going to change this year when I make it again is to backsweeten with maple syrup, not sugar as I did. I've asked my maple sap supply guy for10 gallons of sap this year, and might do 80...

I tried the blackberry and thought it came out rather thin. Then tried a cranberry and it was excellent. Both 3 gallon recipies.

I shine a laser light through the carboy. The laser penetrates even the "thickest" reds.

I use heating pads that have a setting to keep on continually. They seem to work really good. I bought the second one at WalMart a couple of years ago, for about $20-25. Make sure you do get the ones with continual "on".

I just received my new Mity Vac from Northern Tool, paid just over $40 for it. The kit came with all sorts of different adapters that will fit the holes in the bung. I tried it out on a couple of wines I had in secondaries and was amazed at the amount of CO2 it pulled out. And this was at...

I have a couple of heating pads I use that work good. If I recall, costs about $25 or so. If you get one, make sure it has the option of staying on continually. Some will shut off after 3 hours.

jdeer, Begicks in Bay City has a decent winemakers department.

Same situation here, I am making it now and ended up with 5 gal+. ?????

I have a 9-gal tuf-tank, it performs well.

I'm bulk aging some peach wine now that a couple of month ago, gave off a vinegar type smell. Racked and tasted it last week and it was fine, the vinegar small was gone. I've had this happen a couple of times before and I think it's just a phase it goes through.

I use a laser light. It will penetrate even the thick reds. Whites may look clear but when hit with the laser, it will pick up small floating bits of stuff that may make you want to wait a bit longer before bottling.

I just used some hot mix sparkaloid to clear my apple wine which I started last fall. It had been very hazy and was not improving. The sparkaloid worked overnight. The wine was crystal clear the next morning, and the sparkaloid seemed to make "clumps" of stuff which fell to the bottom of the...

I visited 3 well stocked wine stores on Monday. Interesting to note that the cheapest Amarone started at $46 / bottle. This is expensive stuff.

I just treated a 5 gal batch of cayuga white and a 3 gallons of apple wine that were started last fall. Both had remained somewhat hazy, especially the apple. I treated them with hot mix sparkaloid yesterday, and this morning, they are crystal clear. The sparkaloid formed some clumps in the wine...

I made this kit and bottled it last May. Opened a bottle last month and it was great. Still have a good year to wait for full potential, but it's gonna be a winner.

Al, appreciate all the really good information. I think I'm sold on the flex tank. I have 1400 vines I planted last year so they won't be ready for at least a couple of more years. Flextank has run specials on 4 80 gallon tanks at a time (about $1600) - so maybe I'll start adding that way.

Al, I'm thinking about buying a number of the thin skinned flex tanks (80 gals). Can you give me your thoughts on how they perform?

I like the idea about adding maple syrup until you get the correct SG. But I imagine that would take a whole lot of syrup. The guy I get my sap from is a fairly large producer, so 6 gals of sap isn't a whole lot to him. I just make sure I give him a few bottles of wine when it's done.