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Quick question Got a quick question ... it appears there are two types of "yeast nutrient" for sale .... does it make a difference? For that matter, can anybody tell me how a yeast nutrient stimulates fermenation? Fermax Yeast Nutrient, 4 oz. powder, contains Di-Ammonium Phosphate...

I limit my drinking wine to no more than 168 hours a week ... Naw, seriously, my wife and I usually have a glass or two of wine each night with dinner. If we have folks over, maybe open a second bottle. Alcoholism runs in my family ... and I'm always on guard about drinking too much...

Jeese, what a wonderful place to live .. in the Okanagan Valley. Not only a great winery area ... but a place that welcomes "Snow Birds" because of the mild winters. My wife and I spent 10 days there last year and hit every winery from Elephant Island to Nk'Mip, Ok, maybe not every winery...

The movie bottle shock is a couple of years old. I would say any reasonably stocked video store should have a copy. If not, it's worth buying it on Amazon or somewhere.

Fingers on the keyboard, awaiting another chance to beat Wade to the punch .... Ha! But seriously, everyone, rent the movie "Bottle Shock" ... it's really about the shock the wine world felt when the new California wines kick the French wine butt in a blind taste test. It's a true story...

Probably tasting what folks call "bottle shock" .... most say to wait at least 30 days after bottling before cracking into a bottle ... this will give the wine time to settle down. By the by, sometime watch the movie "Bottle Shock" about the early days of Napa Valley ... and how bottle shock...

We have both glass and BB carboys that even have slight volume differences ... ie one six gallon BB that holds a little bit less than another six gallon BB ... and one Italian six gallon glass that holds a bit more than another six gallon Italian glass carboy. Keeps us guessing ... and honest...

Haven't heard anything about my Cabernet Franc Merlot RJS Restricted Quantity kit from my brew shop. Has anybody heard anything. Wonder if they are shipping. I hate the anticipation of waiting for these limited edition kits ... the longer I wait, the longer I have to wait to make it ...

Looking at the culprit bottles which broke the carboy .... reaffirms my dislike of burgundy style bottles. Unlike bordeaux which stack like a dream, burgundy bottles just don't stack worth a darn. A stack of two burgundy bottles is unstable ... not enough bottle to bottle contact ... as a...

I don't think "which kit" you start matters ... only that you continue to start another kit, as soon as one kit gets into secondary. We're finding that "internal corporate consumption" is able to outpace our production schedule ... so the question is not so much "which kit," but "how many kits"...

Appleman>>It will begin to pick up off flavors from decomposing yeast The OP racked off the gross lees after 8 days ... I assume from the fermenter to a carboy ... so his wine has been sitting on the fine lees, so he shouldn't have a problem with off flavors. I was also under the...

Oversight>>Just playing devils advocate Sounds to me, however, like you are trying to question the advice of veteran winemakers ... and the way vintners have produced wine for hundreds of years. Please feel free to make your wine however you want to make it. But when you are learning...

As fermentation slows .... you really need to move the wine from primary into a carboy. Even though you are under airlock, there will still be a lot of "head space" in the primary fermenter. You need to move it into something with less headspace where it will have less chance of oxidizing.

We've made a couple of the WE World Vineyard Savignon Blanc kits and and have happy with both of them. Both kits were slower fermenting and clearing ... but we feel the kits produced a nice drinkable wine ... and yes, we'll be making more in the future.

Agree with Dugger .. make some sort of carboy cover ... an old sweater, blanket ... personally, I bought a large roll of that aluminum covered bubble wrap (in home improvement stores by insulation) to make my own carboy covers. You can also purchase ready made ones in brew shops. After I...

Yes we switched to Better Bottles a while ago and use brew belts all the time. The brew belt folks say not to use the belts on glass carboys but like Wade said, folks use the belts on glass too.

Island Mist kits usually ferment out quickly. I'm in Illinois where my basement is usually around 62 in the winter. Here's what I do. I leave the brew belt on during primary. After 5 days in primary, rack to a carboy. Keep the brew belt on the carboy for another 3 days. After that, remove...

The podcast you reference was by the inventor of Star San ... in the podcast, he mentions that in a perfect world, a bleach solution is a good sanitizer ... but the problem, he goes on to say, is that not all bleach is created equal ... and that some bleach formations don't sanitize at all. He...

Thanks Hector ... now I know why my "nose" was telling me that mixing k-meta in distilled water seemed to work faster than mixing with tap water! Like I said, we already bought distilled water to mix up Star San (as recommended by the manufacturer) ... so we just kinda started using distilled...

My Petit Verdot is in secondary. I used all the oak up front. It fermented t0 near dry really fast ... so there was little time to be on the oak in the primary.