Craft Forum / Winemaking / Brewing / Winemaking / January 2007

We started our first batch of apple cider back in November - we just put the
juice in a carboy and let it perk away...  our house gets down to about 62
degrees at night, 70 in the day.  It's still perking away - slowly as it's
cool.  Any idea just how long we'll be watching ...

I made some basic observations of the bottles and caps/corks used for  
different types of bottles. For wine/champagne/sparkling juice:
-The average bottle of wine has a simple cork that requires an opener.
-Jugs of bargain wine usually have wide and tight metal screw caps.

I hope my question is a simple one.  Basically I am making a wine at the moment and due to a schoolboy error I made just
over 28 litres (just over 6 UK Gallons) rather than 23 litres. That meant that I had to hold back 2.5 litres of water
(from a final 28 gallon must) until I ...

Chateau Trailer Park (21st Century Ripple)
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Mix 17-1/2 lbs of sugar into 5 gals of water at 150F.
Dump into 5 gallon pail.

Three days ago, I added Kielosol and Chitosan, racked my pomegranate
wine into two one-gallon jugs, and put them away in an old 'fridge in the
garage at ambient temperature about 35 to 40F.
   After racking, I still had a bit less than a quart of wine left over --  

I made my first 6 gallons of Cranberry wine late 2004, it was bottled in
September 2005 after following the Jack Keller web site's recipe. As
racking occurred - it got lighter and lighter pink. When I bottled it,
it was very pink, light pink, but pink. Now after not looking at it ...

I am just getting into making my own wine, and had pretty good success
with my first attempt with a white zinfandel kit. So now I thought I
would try some apple wine from some recipes I got online. But I think I
screwed up when I used potassium metabisulfite instead of campden

Just bottle a kit I made. and I had extreme difficulty in putting the
corks into the bottles. I was re using the bottles I had used before
(after washing & sanitising them & letting them dry). I tried the hand
unit (plastic) that I had used on a previous batch with no problems ...

All:
I am currently making a Estate Series Washington Valley Reisling white
wine & am thinking about trying to make it a bit sweeter as I prefer
sweeter wines.  From what I've read the way to do it is to make a simple

Jack Keller’s instructions on how to make yeast starters
(http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/feeding.asp) suggests that a total of
less than a cup of must/juice should be added during the starter’s long
time of creation. I realize that his instructions are based on a

I  have just started out and on following the recipe below nothing is
happenning, After adding the yeast the next day I added some yeast nutriant
but still nothing, help.  I am new so any advice welcome
thanks

Had a H2S problem in my Pinot.  Followed Margalit's instructions per his
book and decided that 0.3ppm did the trick.  However, when I should have
added 6ml of CuSO4 to 19 liters, I added 60ml of the 4.1g/L stock
solution I diluted for the tests.  Bumming.  So, question is, how ...

I forgot to add the Campden tablets with the must start up.  It has been sitting for 12 hours with the pectin enzyme in
but hasn't yet had yeast added.
Can I add the campden tablet now or am I best forgetting about it till I rack?  I have always read campden then pectic
enzyme ...

Any ideas where to find one?

I have a question that involves the fact that I am on a well, and Septic
system.  I am not as concerned about the well water, if I were I would
just buy bottled watter locally.  The Septic system however relies on
bacteria to function.  Will the ingredients used in winemaking,