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Use grape skin extract--it only adds color,no flavor

Just ferment the grapes. Niagara is such a good white wine and it pains me how you tortured those grapes for nothing. We like to ferment them on the skins and the pulp----don't press them and use the juice only. You lose a lot of flavor that way. Niagara grapes should not be treated like a...

Next time you make plum, add some tannin. 1/2 tsp per gallon. Also, a light dose of bentonite with the tannin will help too with clarity. If any of you can get a plum called Green Gauge, try making wine from them. A couple years ago we made quite a bit of wine from that plum and it is...

You'll find out on your own.

I agree with Johnd. Lack of nutrient is the reason for sluggish ferments.

Service berry wine ends up tasting similar to cherry wine. Montrachet is a nice choice, just be sure to use a nutrient feeding schedule with this yeast as it makes quite a bit of H2S if it doesn't get sufficient nutrient. We like the PH around 3.4 Sure--it's always a good idea to use tannin...

WAY too little fruit for 3 gallons of water. If you want to make excellent strawberry wine, use no water.

I agree with Dan,too. Grape skin extract does a great job for color and it has no flavor.

His boastfulness was only an act.

I don't have to stand out in the sun to make wine. But working in a garden always requires being in the evil sun, which I hate. A garden becomes a JOB, and after many years of doing it as a kid, I just can't see the value in it.

Why plant a garden when you can find a million veggie stands that sell produce for pennies? My mother made us kids slave all summer in our 1/2 acre garden. I vowed to never grow a veggie after that. Way too much work.

He was one cool dude.

Time will often not clarify whites. I have lots of experience with that problem. Two things that affect how well the bentonite will work--one is PH and the other is tannin. The lower the PH, the stronger the positive charge is on the proteins. So when the negatively charged bentonite...

Sorbating a kit is different from non-kit wines. And believe me,there's plenty of science---and logic--for not sorbating cloudy wine.

Six or seven months is pretty early to be bottling. As you've found, not all the CO2 is necessarily gone in that time frame. A wine like elderberry also needs at least a year in bulk aging to get all debris out. We have some elderberry in long term storage--5 years. It's really nice after all...

Depends on the white. Bentonite was actually first used specifically for whites. We use it on whites and it makes the wine crystal clear. A lite dose is 1/2 tsp to 1/2 cup of hot water for 5 gallons. A mid level dose is 1 1/2 tsp to 3/4 cup of hot water. Mix in a blender to eliminate lumps...

Be sure that your wine is clear before sorbating because it won't work when the wine is loaded with yeast cells. You must have bulk aged and racked off the bulk of the cells, THEN sorbate. In truth--it's the bulk aging that stabilizes a wine---not the sorbate. All sorbate does is prevent the...

To me, Pinot Noir tastes strange as a fruit forward wine. Meaning to say--no MLF. This is one wine that really needs an MLF to bring out all its flavor characteristics and smooth it out. And the thing about this grape is that it takes a long time aging to bring out its flavor. While young...

It's stuck because of lack of nutrient. One upfront dose of nutrient is not enough. Step feeding nutrient in 2 or 3 doses is the way to go. Do some reading on nutrient, as posting the entire protocol would take a lot of time and there is much already written on it at various sites.

MoreWine carries the Lallzyme. Regarding the bentonite---To figure out how much you need, it's a nice idea to know your PH, as bentonite is more effective at a lower PH. The positive charge on proteins is stronger at a lower PH. So a low level addition of bentonite may be all you need which is...