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I wouldn't mind getting a filter. Buon Vino makes sterile level filter pads for their mini system, but someone earlier said that it wouldn't really work. Wouldn't sorbate inhibit any refermentation?

This is a good point. I guess it would end up around 14% alcohol and 9% residual sugar. Not a total loss, but not the 11% alcohol/13% sugar ice wine I was shooting for.

Okay, haven't done it, but I know how to make a 10% solution. But when I look at some online SO2 calculators about how much I need to add to one gallon to bring it up to 65 ppm, the results are so small, I wonder if I'm doing something wrong. As best as I can tell from my Accuvin test from a...

Not sure I follow this. In fact, I'm sure I don't follow it.

What would be the target sulfite level, 50 ppm? More?

I have an experimental gallon batch of cider ice wine in the works. It is currently fermenting vigorously. The plan was to stop fermentation at 13 Brix. I had thought I could do this by adding potassium sorbate, but I didn't do my research until now. Seems that sorbate will not help at all in...

There is some information about diagnosing and correcting the various types of haze at this link. Scroll down about halfway. http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/problems.asp

From my experience with apple wines, cooking the fruit at all aggravates the haze. I've been adding liquid pectic enzyme a day before adding the yeast. And I add it again when I clarify the wine. From what I've read the pectic enzyme works better around 70 degrees and can take 4 or 5 days. It...

I've had a lot of luck freezing fresh, unpastuerized and unpreserved cider. Once frozen solid, remove the cap and turn the bottle upside down in a pan to melt. The first 25% or so of volume that melts will be pure sweet apple flavor at a high brix. You can even refreeze the first melt and...

I'm trying to get a better handle on testing for acid levels in my wine. I have an acid titration kit and pH strips. The titration gives an acid level expressed as a percentage such as 0.65%. But pH is expressed on a scale from 0 to 14. What is the relationship between the two? Is there a...

I came across a stash of about 20 carboys in a friend's barn today. They were purchased in the 60s and 70s by my friend's father for making wine. They may have been purchased used. Most look to be 5 gallon, with a few larger and a few smaller. My friend will sell these to me and I'd like to give...

Thanks. I gave it a good stir to aerate before I added the second batch of yeast, but I didn't think of whisking it. Maybe splashing it back and forth between two buckets would help evaporate the sorbate. The label said "Less than 0.1 of 1% potassium sorbate added." But who knows what was...

Last week I started a new batch of apple cider wine. I bought the cider at a small local orchard. I glanced at the labels and noticed that it had a big warning about it not being pasteurized. But I failed to notice the fine print about the potassium sorbate they added as a preservative. No...

Thanks for the ideas! I stabilized it a couple weeks ago at 0.998 after the fermentation seemed to have stalled out. Racked it twice to get rid of the sediment. To keep this as close to a local product as I can, I'm thinking about sweetening it with some fresh (pasteurized) cider to boost the...

My first batch ever of non-kit wine is from 3 gallons of apple cider we pressed with some friends. It has been fermenting for a week. I have a couple questions: At what temperature range should I keep the primary fermenter? Second question is a bit more complicated. The starting SG was...

I'm starting an RJS En Primeur Pinot Noir kit. It came with both oak powder and oak cubes. The instructions say to add the powder to the primary, but they don't mention what to do with the cubes. Do the cubes go in the primary at the start as well?

I have a few questions regarding acid levels. The first batch of wine I made was definitely not acidic enough. Unfortunately I didn't figure this out until after I had bottled it. I'm making a couple more batches now and don't want to make that mistake again. So I bought an acid test kit that...

Bug free. Siphoned from the carboy back to the primary bucket using a sanitized metal coffee filter as a strainer. Also used a bottle filling wand in case I needed to stop in a hurry. Kept the bottom of the filter and the tip of the wand just under the surface of the wine to minimize...

They weren't in the carboy, siphon or tubing. All those had been cleaned, sanitized and put away in plastic after last use; then re-cleaned and sanitized before I used them again. Robie suggested that they may have slipped in while racking as the lid was open enough to allow the siphon through...

I had the cap on the airlock. It has five or six little holes in it, but evidently these are large enough for a fruit fly to squeeze through. If I rack it through a fine sieve would that also filter out stuff that shouldn't be filtered out? I think the wine is just about ready to clarify and...