Hello From Maryland:)

[cindy]

Hi, I'm Cindy
I am very new to wine making and hoping I can get lots of idea's and info from the experts here, I have my 1st 5 gallon batch of Strawberry wine fermenting now I added the yeast last night and this morning it's bubbling but I'm not sure how long to keep it in the primary or when to transfer it to the carboy any advise would be great!
nice meeting you all!!

 

[Julie]

Hi Cindy,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. Stir your must daily and take a hydrometer reading every few days. When your it gets down to below 1.010 you can either rack to a secondary or snap the lid down on your primary and add an airlock then let it fermetn til dry. Dry would be when have a hydrometer reading of less than 1.000

 

[cindy]

Hi Cindy,

Welcome to winemakingtalk. Stir your must daily and take a hydrometer reading every few days. When your it gets down to below 1.010 you can either rack to a secondary or snap the lid down on your primary and add an airlock then let it fermetn til dry. Dry would be when have a hydrometer reading of less than 1.000

Thanks Julie,
I have a hydrometer so I guess I will need to learn how to use it.
I have so much to learn and it's kind of overwhelming. here is the kit that I bought it came with recipe books but no real instructions.
Thank you so much for your help!

 

[robie]

Welcome to the forum, Cindy.

You are in good hands with Julie.

 

[cindy]

Thank you Robie, this is a bit off topic but how do I set it so I get email allerts to my posts?

 

[robie]

Thank you Robie, this is a bit off topic but how do I set it so I get email allerts to my posts?

Go to your account settings and then to your control panel and choose edit options.
From there go to Default Thread Subscription Mode. You can change it there

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!!

 

[Boatboy24]

Welcome!

What part of MD are you in?

 

[cindy]

Welcome!

What part of MD are you in?

Hi, I'm near Frederick Md. I just tested my 1st wine and the hydrometer said 20 dessert wine lol I'm not too sure what that means

 

[Julie]

Cindy,

I know it sounds overwhelming but to be honest it really isn't. Look under our tutorials on how to read a hydrometer, it will take you a couple of times to get it right but you will, it's not hard, just don't be afraid of it.

LOL, forget the recipe book and we will help you with starting whatever you want to get going. My suggestion is to buy a kit and start with that first. This will give you the basics. What types of wine are you interested in making?

 

[Runningwolf]

Cindy, welcome aboard. I'm glad you found us and see the value of this forum. Feel free to ask questions and post comments and pictures any time. We love to help and share our experiences.

 

[cindy]

I know I think I'm a little afraid of my wine making skills this is a new hobby my other hobby
is saltwater reef keeping with live corals and seahorses and I use a refractometer to test my salinity
all the time plus testing PH,ALK,PHOS,MAG,CAL ETC..LOL and here I am afraid of wine!
I like the idea of making fruit wines because I also garden and have tons of grapes,blue berries and strawberries
to make good use of, I am open to any kinds of wine I love them all. I will check out the tutorials as well.
I really like this site and its nice to know if I run into trouble I can always ask questions here.
I put all the ingredients together for my strawberry wine on wednesday then waited 24hrs to add the yeast I was
very careful to sanitize everything that touches the wine including me, today I have been seeing bubbles here and there
in the air lock thing so I guess that means its fermenting right?
I do want to try a wine kit sometime soon I am planning on buying a 2nd equipment kit so I can play around with different wines.

 

[cindy]

you guys are awesome! I'm still fumbling around getting to know the forum.
my avatar hasn't shown up for some reason and still even after changing my setting
I'm not getting email allerts?

 

[Deezil]

Welcome to WMT

I know I think I'm a little afraid of my wine making skills this is a new hobby my other hobby is saltwater reef keeping with live corals and seahorses and I use a refractometer to test my salinity all the time plus testing PH,ALK,PHOS,MAG,CAL ETC..LOL and here I am afraid of wine!

Being a freshwater-fish guy myself, i've gotta say the chemistry here isnt/cant be much more difficult than dealing with a saltwater tank (which always made me nervous ) Just unfamiliar tools

I like the idea of making fruit wines because I also garden and have tons of grapes,blue berries and strawberries to make good use of, I am open to any kinds of wine I love them all.

Gardening goes great with winemaking, theres a lot of people here who also grow a lot of fruits & veggies

I will check out the tutorials as well. I really like this site and its nice to know if I run into trouble I can always ask questions here.

It seems like a lot of information at first, but once things start making sense, they're really easy to remember.. Definitely can always ask here, glad ya found us.. Like Julie said, you can pretty much use that recipe book to see how dusty your house is over time, 'cause we can help you put together just about anything you'd want to drink & some of us have tried flavor combos that others of us wont drink

I put all the ingredients together for my strawberry wine on wednesday then waited 24hrs to add the yeast I was very careful to sanitize everything that touches the wine including me, today I have been seeing bubbles here and there in the air lock thing so I guess that means its fermenting right? I do want to try a wine kit sometime soon I am planning on buying a 2nd equipment kit so I can play around with different wines.

You wont need a whole 2nd equipment kit, honestly... Just some pieces, that you need more of, when you make more wine - glass carboys, rubber bungs & airlocks to go onto of the carboys.. bottles & corks eventually.. Most everything can be cleaned, sanitized & reused when you're checking several batches in a day

 

[JSPL]

Welcome Cindy. My "handle" is JSPL but my name is Jim. I'm also new to winemaking. So new, in fact, that I haven't made my first attempt yet. Been on the board for a week and one thing I can say is you found the right place. Folks here are so nice and very helpful. I get such a charge out of reading all the posts and learning as much as I can before I make the plunge. I think, too, one of the things that have me a bit nervous is that I'm in a small condo. Someone was talking about exploding wine bottles the other day. That's not something my downstairs neighbors would be very happy about. As for the email notifications, I seem to get an index once a day of any of the forums I'm subscribed to. Much nicer than getting an email every time someone responds to a post. That can get rather cumbersome. Good luck with the new hobby.

 

[Deezil]

Also, you two, look up at the top of the page - the black bar at the very top..

Search function with the drop down arrow - can Mark Forums Read, cause sometimes they dont do that, dunno why, but this helps when you're moseying through the site... Can search the forum in the search box... To the right..
Todays Posts is everything from Today
My Replies is everything you've replied to
My Theads is every topic you've started - keeps track from join-date to current-date

They're nice to know about, as they'll help you in future visits to the forum when you dont have time to click through everything.. They'll point out everything new to you, in a hurry..

 

[cindy]

Thanks for the tips Deezil! I did figure out why my avatar wasn't showing up

 

[Deezil]

Gorgeous pup.. Must be a rotti, one of my fav breeds

 

[cindy]

my favorite breed too! they are my family. he was just a baby in that pic. I took these the other day.

 

[Deezil]

Holy Moly
Him's purdy

I like the biggest picture, on the fence with the "What do you think you're doing" look.. It's almost a "Coming up here? I dont think so!" but it has a hint of "You know i love ya" in it