I plan on doing an apple wine with Granny Smith's as the main base. 2 gallon fermentor bucket, 12-14 pounds of granny Smith's apples What I cannot decide on is if I should use honey crisps or ambrosia apples for the rest of the juice. I like both profiles of honey crisps and ambrosia but I honestly can't think which one would contrast well with the tartness of granny Smith's. Input would be greatly appreciated

First time wine makers and we’re not sure if we have a pectin haze or if we need to degass our wine… or maybe it’s something else?

Context - we made apple wine. Started on March 10th. Our recipe included apple chucks inside a mesh bag and apple juice, sugar, campden tablets, yeast nutrient, acid blend, black tea for our wine tannin, and pectin enzyme. Once all stirred, we let it sit for 24 hours before adding the yeast. Our hydrometer reading was 11%. Once our yeast was added, we stirred our wine everyday, once a day, for 13 days, until our hydrometer hit 0. On March 24th, we moved our wine into some clean carboys and let our wine sit till this past Friday, April 26th. Just over a month.

We syphoned off the wine from the settled sediment into a new and clean set of carboys. We had a taste of some of the wine that didn’t fit in the new carboys and it’s like a nice dry chardonnay. It was super fizzy, until we stirred in some sugar to make it a bit sweeter, then it was a bit fizzy.

Next thing we did once in the new carboys was also add kieselsol. We gave the wine a good stir with a spoon (about a minute) put the airlock back on and let it sit for an hour. After an hour, we adding the chitosan. We gave the wine another good stir (about a minute), put the airlock back on and let it sit for the weekend. We now don’t see any clearing difference over the past three days. From my understanding of chitosan and kieselsol, it should work in a day or two to clear wine.

What did we do wrong here? Any suggestions on why our clearing agent didn’t clear our wine? We know apples have loads of pectin, so could this be a pectin haze? If so, how should we go about clearing it? Is it just a time thing or is there something we can add to our wine to help with this? Or, our other thought is our wine needs to be degassed. I’m skeptical about using a wine whip as I feel that would put more air bubbles in the wine than remove them. Should we just let it sit longer instead?

Thanks in advance for the advice on what we should do next!

Whay should I do with this 50L wine carboy ? Got it from friends grandfather 🇱🇻🇪🇺

I've recently become a bit obsessed with experimenting with wine making, but am still a total noob. The first one I did I used fermentation stopper and finings...but I'm going to attempt to let the rest clear on their own. As I'm racking off the lees though I'm starting to get more headspace in a few. Does that matter? Most of the fermenting on these has finished. Do I just keep them in the demijohns as is now until they clear?

From left to right...Parsnip, Orange, Beetroot, Plum, Honey Mead, Apple & Raspberry Melomel, Mushroom, Carrot, Apple.

Wondering if it will go bad since it wont be «fully» sealed?

We have an interview with Larry Sharrott, owner of Sharrott Winery in Hammonton, NJ. Please listen.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2W0BLONhm0MmJudYnXrBFe

Its been in barrel (new French oak) since November, but it tastes thin and doesn't have much fruit and dies on the back pallet - tastes 'thin'. Any recommendations on additives that can be used to help create a fuller bodied wine?

I’ve learned it’s apparently a good thing to punch down the cap up to a couple times a day.

What’s your process to sanitize the utensil and minimize sanitizer waste? My crazy brain sees myself going through a bottle of starsan every month just in keeping a spoon clean. Am I over thinking it? What are you all doing?

I know it could be many things like insects, soil or viruses like leaf roll etc. But maybe one of you has a golden guess? Thanks for any help

It's a Cabernet made from a concentrate kit. I've done all the steps, degassing etc., and tomorrow is bottling day. I'll sterilize the bottles in the morning and siphon all afternoon, I guess? Don't know how long this generally takes.

Anyway, what tips do y'all have for me? TIA!

Finished my first batch and it’s not bad. (I’m not letting it age in mason jars, I just ordered bottles and they’re coming in a few days)

Left is welches white grape OG1.060 and FG is .994

Right is welches concord grape, OG 1.062 and FG .996

Both came out to be about 8.5%abv.

I’m going to back sweeten in the near future due to it being so dry.

I was wondering why they came out so dry, I used Lavin 1118 and didn’t add any extra sugar. Should I use D47 next time or should I just add some more sugar.

Blueberry mead, tucked behind is an apple pie spice wine, a mint wine, and a big three gallon of grape 😜 Such an addicting hobby

i have a batch of wine that has fermented, i’m going to add in pectic enzyme so it clears up quickly and then i want to back sweeten it. i have Campden tablets but i’ve read that i need potassium sorbate as well, how do they work together and how do i use them to prevent fermentation from beginning again?

Has anyone on r/winemaking taken this certificate course?

https://ecornell.cornell.edu/certificates/food-and-plant-science/winemaking/

It is comparatively well priced ($2589.30) at time of writing. I would appreciate some input from anyone who has taken the course or has shopped around for a similar certificate.

Thanks!

I started a batch of blueberry wine for the first time to try out a fruit press and get some experience fermenting before tackling expensive frozen grapes. I need someone with experience to help me with a problem, or help reassure me. The short story is the wine has smelt both like rotten eggs and tastes off and like medicine. I think I may have botched it very early, but maybe someone else here has a different opinion. Here is the recipe and the steps thus far:

3g batch

9 lbs frozen cultivated blueberries

2 quarts of preservative-free wild blueberry juice

1.3g spring water

1.5 tsp pectic enzyme

3 tsp yeast nutrient (DAP)

71b yeast

3/4 tsp tannin

1.5 tsp bentonite

All equipment cleaned and sanitized with Star-San before use.

Mar 26: left blueberries to thaw in primary.

Mar 27: Mashed blueberries with potato masher. Added hydrated bentonite, blueberry juice, water and dissolved sugar. Starting SG 1.090. Tested PH, 3.6. Total must size 3.5 gallons. Added 3 crushed campden tabs and left for 36 hours at 71°F.

Mar 29: Stirred in 1 tsp yeast nutrient. Hydrated yeast with sugar water then doubled starter size with must sample 10 minutes later. Pitched yeast. Covered primary loosely with lid.

Mar 30: Punched down in AM and noon. Punched down at 9:45PM and smelt strong rotten egg smell. Stirred vigorously for 5 mins. Left lid on more loosely overnight. Fermentation temperature consistently 72°F.

Mar 31: Punched cap 3 times. Smell not as bad, but still smelt very strong and medicinal.

April 1: Punched down 3 times. Noted a little more rotten egg smell. Added 1 tsp DAP. New SG 1.050.

April 2-3: Punched down 3 times. Rotten egg smell much less prevalent.

April 4: SG. 0.995. Pressed lightly with fruit press. Very little sediment. Smelt musty, but not rotten.

April 5: Checked smell - awful rotten egg smell. Added 1 tsp DAP (dumb move, I know).

April 7: Checked again, still smelt awful. Researched my issue online. Found info on splash racking, so I racked back and forth from primary to carboy 3 times (another dumb move, as I understand it now). Read somewhere that adding a bit of k-meta would help. Recommended dose was 1 campden tab per gal. Added 3 crushed campden tabs. A bit of headspace, just past the point where carboy gets smaller.

April 8: Opened airlock. Rotten egg smell not as present, but still smells medicinal and not surprisingly a little of sulfur.

April 16: Taste test. Still smells off but not of rotten eggs. Took small sip. Tastes strongly medicinal but not rotten. Not very tasty, either way. Couldn't really notice the taste of blueberry really at all (keep in mind I have never made this before and have only had blueberry wine once years ago and it was a rose that was back-sweetened).

April 25 (today): Removed airlock. No rotten egg smell but still smells medicinal. Taste test was similar. Racked to primary and degassed for 5 mins and racked back to cleaned and sanitized 3g carboy with some sanitized medium french oak.

So what do you folks think? Did I botch it? Should I give it time? I know, it hasn't even been a full month yet. I've read a few posts here and elsewhere that age can fix a lot, but I am not sure. I have made a number of wine kits and blackberry wine made from frozen fruit and have never had so many off smells and flavors so early in the wine. It would suck to have to dump it, but I'm willing to bite the cost of some more frozen blueberries and juice if I get something I will actually enjoy.

I think next time, I will cold soak the blueberries, and press them before starting the fermentation. I have read in the past few weeks that treating it like a white wine with the cold soak and lower fermentation temperature produces a much more approachable wine than one fermented on the skins. I think I will also use more DAP in the beginning and maybe try Fermaid-K. Anyways, that's my dear diary. Looking forward to your much-appreciated advice.

I always scrupulously wait a full year to bottle my wines, and they’ve always come out perfect.

I did a persimmon wine 5 months back. But I bottled it just last weekend because, frankly, I needed the container and it was already crystal clear. But the real reason I bottled it was that I was super excited about it and wanted to try it.

It was honestly disappointing. It has the right amount of acid and sweetness (I like my wines fairly dry - somewhere between dry and off dry). The alcohol content is somewhere between 11% - 12%. The only thing I can think of is that I didn’t add any tannin at all because I reasoned that persimmons are already fairly high in tannins.

So is my mistake that I didn’t add tannins or did I just not give it enough time in secondary and it will get better?

So I've been brewing for about a year and this is the first time I'm seeing this bubble, it does not look right.

It's a sassparilla wine experiment. Just sassparilla, water, sugar, and yeast.

This is a plum wine I made from a tree in our backyard. I love how they look with the new labels!

Hello! I am making a Cab Sauv with an OG of 1.084 and a 2-week SG of 0.96. Is this normal? I am using very well sanitized equipment, and to my understanding, 0.96 is quite low.