Craft Forum / Winemaking / Brewing / Winemaking / March 2007

Looking ahead to bottling up 5-gallons of Shiraz I've been out in the
garagecleaning up some bottles.
   I've been using vinegar to soften the labels and the adhesive and then
scraping them off with a gadget that holds a single edge razor blade. A

And boy, does that yeast make a racket!
anyway a wineshop owner I was talking to last friday said I should
completly skip step 2 in the instructions. anyone do this before? I'd
like to hear some comments

I now have eighteen 375 mil and four 185ml bottles of Mojave Spirits (my
brand) Pomegranate Wine. The final numbers going into the bottles are:
       SG:1.011
       pH: 3.67

without explaining so much as to make me an expert, can someone tell
me the differences (if ANY) in sugar, granaulated sugar, and fine
granulated sugar?
got 5 different recipies. some just say sugar, etc.

Honestly how many hydrometers have you broken?
I started in 2002 and this is my 7th batch of wine.
2 - hydrometers down
1 - 6.5 gallon carboy (empty thank goodness)

This wine is Zin and Cab . I had a problem with S02 (rotten egg smell)
early on I used copper sulfite to get rid of the smell it worked. Now
I have a off oder well it smells like the wine is just fermented.I can
only describe it as a vegatable smell or a harsh smell the wine tasts

...but no-one seems to have asked this before......
do hydrometers 'age'? Can a hydrometer become unreliable simply
because it is old?
I have some, to say the least, "suspicious" readigs on mine lately,

Will different yeast give me a different taste in the same wine i make?
I see thier is different ALC content,but will this make for a taste
that is not the same?

I brought my Australian Shiraz (Selection International Kit)  in from
the garage refrigerator to do Step-4 of the instructions, rack it in
preparation for bottling in ten days. Since it had cleared very nicely, I
didn't think it needed any more cold soaking so I plugged the bung ...

I just realized that!
anyone care to make a recommendation? simple and cheap are good words.

Something odd has happened:  I made (or rather am making) a Selection
International Gwertztrimner kit.  Now, in retrospect, I admit that I was
a bit too hasty stabilizing and clarifying this wine. (SG 0.996) I am
new at this after all.  Any way, I stabilized using the ...

Whilst perusing a popular on-line beer and wine making site I got a yen
for buying a plastic agitator rod -- retail $14.95US plus shipping. Being
somewhat of a cheapskate, I looked around for alternatives. I found a
plastic rod used for opening/closing window blinds for sale at a ...

Looking for some input.
I recently bought some pineapple juice from Trader Joe's. The juice is
listed as 100% and is apparently not from concentrate. HOWEVER, it
says it is fortified with calcium (calcium acetate) and Vitamin C

I just did a blackberry wine and the fruit still smells lush on coming
out of the primary in the strainer bag. Thought of washing it and
putting it into my rumpot. I decided not to on this occasion, and put
it in the composter as usual, but I thought I would ask......

boy, you'd think I have nothing better to do but think up questions
all day.....
anyway, while reading some older posts. I noticed someone mentioning
sealing their corked bottles with beeswax.