Search results

Don't worry about the heat I'm in South Australia and make wine from spring through to autumn. Including 1/4 - 1/2 tonne grape batches. I'd only be worried if the temp was really high I've not had issues up to 32 °c. Nothing wrong with your process but some will say your fruit is a bit light on...

I'd go for it and bottle mate. Make some space so you can make more wine! Out of interest how long do you aim to bulk age? I only have a few small carboys I use for fruit wines so most of mine are bottled a a month or so after clearing fully but I get a little sediment fall in the bottle. I'm...

Wife goes out tonight so I decide to do some racking. All up 3 gallons loquat to secondary. 3 gallons strawberry first racking from secondary (lost almost a gallon to lees), and 15 gallons of Grenache final racking to 2x 6 gallon carboys (not pictured) and bottled the remainder that was clear...

Bloody hell $20 a quart! For $20 here in Australia I get 4 ounces. Cost of some things here is insane compared to the US.

I use star san and don't rinse. Never had an infection in 15 years of brewing and a couple of years winemaking. Star san is my choice as sulfur gas can set off my asthma so I feel it's the safest option. I feel that wine is a lot more forgiving than beer so am becoming a little less pedantic but...

I haven't done a peach yet you might be confusing me with Scooter. I'd say for that amount id use a small plastic barrel or a 60litre fermenter. I use 21 litre buckets for my fruit wines and a big fermenter for my grape wines that takes up to half a tonne of grapes!

Yeah I've noticed that on fruit wines being lighter in glass vs carboy. I haven't had any issues with my berry wines clearing or dropping too much sediment but I go fairly heavy on the pectic enzyme. I reckon an extra racking and keeping em in the carboy for 6-9 months would solve it but I try...

The wine has now finished up fermenting in the secondary so will rack in another week or 2. The lees have compacted a fair bit and seems to be clearing fast. Really liking the color I got it's much darker than I thought it would be.

Still kicking along nicely. I added another 3 pounds of really ripe fruit I managed to get off another tree a day or so back. Plus added another half pound of sugar and some nutrient. The volume has gone well up I think I'll get 2 gallons out of it and it's starting to smell like wine! I tasted...

That looks like a lot better piece of kit than what I had. I was using a 'brew belt' that adjusts by slipping through a loop. As it was too big part of it got doubled over and I think that was how it overheated itself. I know lots of people leave them unattended I'm just ultra careful now but as...

Please be careful with the brewbelt and not leave it on while you are away during the week especially if wrapped in anything. I had a brewbelt melt on me last winter on a fermenter I had in a box. I smelled it before it caused a fire but was a very close call. I think my problem was a part of...

Just went and had another smell and no almond still. And my nose is very sensitive. It's funny how there can be such difference in fruit from different areas.

Managed to pick more fruit today that the birds missed. So added another 2 pounds of mashed fruit to it. This fruit was much sweeter and not tart at all. Also tasted the must and was not very acidic at all so adjusted with 4tsp tartaric and 1tsp citric acid. Now to taste seems about right amount...

From what I can see any food or drink/liquor is hard to send in to the US. But if flying in it's easy to get through you just need to pay the tax. I've had a fair few knives etc sent to me here from US so no problems sending stuff out of there I guess!

Looks like it's tricky to get things through US customs but I'll have a closer look when I have something worthy of sending.

What part of the world are you in? I'm in Australia and had a look at shipping wine overseas but it looks bloody hard/expensive to do.

That collaboration makes a lot of sense if he has excess capacity in his facilities and you have excess grapes it's win win. I'd love to have my own vines but that's probably a pipe dream right now. I kinda hope I can foster the relationship I'm building with this winemaker as he is a 1 man show...

That's the best thing about this hobby/interest. So many different opinions and preferences for a range of reasons. I now make far more wine than I can drink so getting a majority professionally bottled under stelvins for little cost and effort makes sense as it's the way most people prefer...

It's fermenting along pretty well now. Ended up pulling the fruit out and blending it as after 24hrs with a heap of pectin enzyme the fruit was still pretty much whole. So after blending added extra tsp of enzyme then pitched yeast. I took a gravity reading at 1.080 but there was a bit of pulp...

I know you were joking mate all good. I don't know about the rest of the world but I'd say over 90% of wine here is now under screw caps and cork is almost a dirty word! Hell I'm happy to put my wine in beer bottles and do so regularly.