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Mine never stay put, whether I put them in dry or not. I use coated wire and make a cage. Criss-cross around the airlock, continuing down the neck of the carboy on the side opposite of the handle, then pass the ends through the handle. I bring it back up and around the airlock, then back down...

My pineapple wine always somehow ends up at a higher ABV than I plan for. My first batch was awful, but could have been simply something that happened during fermentation and my lack of experience at the time. Learning from it, though, I changed up my next batch, using pineapple concentrate...

Hi Big Dave! I'm hoping to start my Big Dave inspired daisy wine today or next weekend. They've been in the freezer, I'm hoping they are still OK. I didn't make any wine all summer, it's just too hot, and my ferments run the same. Going to try for more winter cooler temps and ferments...

Funny (math-disabled, apparently) moment for me making DB - I reduced the recipe to a 1 gal. In doing so, I miscalculated the amount of fruit, and was using 3x the fruit in a batch. I thought wow, this is a wonderful, rich berry wine! Four batches later I realized my error. So, I will try...

Man, you all are lucky with your wild blackberry harvests! I've been picking mine for 2 weeks now, and am giving up. My arms look like Newbie Mel's, too! I have a whopping 4.5 lbs. We've had a terrible drought, having only had rain twice in a month. The berries are tiny, and nose-crinkling...

To add to the good advice here, I used frozen pineapple concentrate. I also did use white grape juice instead of water, and used white grape juice when I backsweetened. It turned out incredible, absolutely incredible. I would suggest trying the grape juice with preservatives, just let it sit...

Glasshouse is a good hike from C'ville, and in a spot where there is virtually no cell reception, but worth the visit if there's time or if it can be included in the return trip home. I'm personally not a huge fan of their wines, but the winery itself is very pretty.

As someone who lives 30 minutes from Charlottesville, I've been to most of them! Not sure about how far you want to explore away from Charlottesville, but I can recommend the following: Veritas, which is beautiful and their Star white is my favorite there, but this is a little drive from the...

When you make wine, And have the Best Girl.... you make a wine with her nickname.

OK, BigDave! You inspired me with this post some time ago! I don't have redbud trees, but found two after a nice rain in, of all places, a rural Goodwill store's parking lot. The buds had dried off a bit, and I got permission to forage. With some traffic near the trees, I thought that after...

The glass loop handle on the carboy. I only make 1 gal batches because I'm too small to wrestle with 5 gal carboys - I'm guessing the larger ones don't have that handle. But in my head I can still see my method working on a carboy without one, just twisting the wire along and down the other...

I use plastic coated wire and build a kind of cage. I loop the wire once around the airlock and twist it away from the handle, make a few twists down that far side of the carboy neck, then bring each side around the neck toward the handle, pass them through the handle, bring up in a...

I use shrink caps. Boil water in a pot deep enough to insert the length of the cap plus a little more. When it comes to a boil or nearly there, hold the cap at the bottom - the lowest part on the neck - with your finger. The moment it the top is in the water you can release your finger and...

I can only answer to my experience, but when both of my fig wines formed this kind of film, it only got worse and reappeared even after rackings. My current batch has been racked twice, and the film is forming around the edges again but less of it and more slowly, likely because I've treated it...

I've had trouble twice making fig wine - both batches got flowers. The first time it was really bad but I salvaged it to become a really decent wine. The second time I added more kmeta to the must try to prevent it and got flowers again, but not as bad. That batch is currently bulk aging, and...

Can you use the acorns from any oak tree, or just specific types? I'm intrigued.

I ferment in my kitchen, and this late summer they have been awful. Having little to no success with a traditional vinegar/wine and dish soap trap, bleach down the sink drains, etc., I bought a trap that is a UV light and fan that sucks them down into a sticky trap. However, my trap also has a...

I'm making a peach with about 10lbs of peaches and a gallon of white grape peach juice. Interested to see how this turns out. I was shocked when the ph came to 3.56. Last time I made peach with only peaches and water I had to significantly raise it.

I made a fig last year that turned out great. Doesn't taste like Figs, like a strawberry will taste like strawberry, which was nice because I don't love figs to just eat. My dad gave them to me, and I said What the heck, I'll go for it. Glad I did as it is a nice, subtle wine. I made another...