Search results

I used lemon juice as well, then, since the pH was higher than 3.6, I decided to adjust further with citric acid. It worked out well!

I didn't pull the seeds, I had already frozen them and it was too much of a mess once they thawed. But I didn't crush the seeds either. Just pulled the hips open. I have read that rose hips are second only to grapes as a fruit for wine. Much better appreciated in Europe than here. We shall see...

Reviving this thread to ask a quick question. I just started my first gallon batch of rose hip wine. This was a banner year for wild hips. Pretty much I am following @BigDaveK 's recipe. But I am wondering about oaking. Has anyone here done it or have an opinion? The one quick suggestion I found...

Reds like your Cab will benefit from at least a year's aging, probably more. The reason to bulk age is so that all of the bottles are generally the same. Always measure the Specific Gravity out to 3 decimal places. That's what we're all looking at. I often wait until the SG is down below 1.030...

Thank you so very much for the interesting suggestions. I realize the tomato wine by itself will be nearer the color of Chardonnay, (which makes the "Guess what I am game I play with friends more fun) but your thought about blackberry made me think about the wild blackberries I have in the...

BigDave, when my friend told me he was bringing fresh picked tomatoes, I immediately thought of making wine. Then I read your thread, which really got me excited, and I learned enough to ask more questions! I adjusted the pH of my must this morning to 3.6 with a mix of triple and citric acids...

Mixing the triple acid and citric is a great idea! And yes, I already have learned about putting the genie back into the bottle with chaptalization during backsweetening of other wines! Thanks, Bryan!

Thank you for your generous suggestions, Bryan. You are correct, the chardonnays I like are barrel aged. I'll follow your advice and add medium oak for fermentation and then check again in 3 months. I only have citric acid and LD Carlson triple acid on hand, and couldn't put my hands on...

I am starting out on a red tomato wine and would greatly appreciate some advice. I have the basics, but would like some suggestions from those who can maybe help! I do 1 gallon batches because that's what equipment I have, and I like to experiment. Plus, much of the wild fruit I can collect is...

My guess is you won't be sorry if you triple the pectinase. Or more.

No stems. I carefully picked them out. I also picked out the few unripe berries. My biggest question is how to get this out of the wine and how bad it is. Currently, in bulk, there is still an oil sheen at the top. I've gotten most of it out, but I can't imagine any is desirable.

Maybe I should have started a new post, but I am going to put this question here so it's easier to search. I recently made two batches of elderberry: one "pure" and one 50% blackberry. Both of them developed an oily, greasy green-black material (looks like bile to me) that floated on top of the...

I vote MASH!😋

At fairly low concentrations, cyanide will prevent fermentation in yeast. That would be the first clue! https://academic.oup.com/femsyr/article/15/8/fov083/2467692

Elk and deer hit the wild elderberries hard where I live. Birds are nothing. The herds move in and eat the berries and leaves down to stalks within a few days of them ripening. That's my competition! ☺️

In the same vein as Bryan, swing-top bottles work as well. I have a variety of sizes of those for sparkling wine/cider and put a drilled cork into them for overage.

Green berries are not ripe and will be more toxic. Pick the purple berries and come back later for the green ones. We picked wild berries on Monday last week. About half of the clusters were purple/ripe. Went back Thursday and we could find hardly any green berries, and many of the ripe...

I will let others with more experience chime in, but I think that is too acidic for some (many?) yeast. Maybe adjust pH up?

Thanks! I am willing to try, but I am nervous about letting it go dry for several days as the original recipe for the reasons you say. I was hoping to find anyone who had done it that way recently so they could tell me it's OK, but it sounds like most people would not. It's at 1.010 now 3 days...

This is the recipe for Danger Dave's Dragon Blood from the very first post of this thread! 😀 I have been trying to follow his original recipe as he first posted it. Well, adjusted for 1 gallon. It's just that he doesn't seem to airlock it until it is bone dry for several days, or he didn't...