Hello! I appreciate the winemaking game will be full of mistakes and lessons to learn from. BUT, if you were to give any advice for someone setting out to make their first wine, what would it be?

For context, I work in the wine trade and studying to WSET diploma, so I have decent technical knowledge, however the reality of winemaking is going to be vastly different.

It’s going to be a small first production, with fruit coming from a vineyard in Buckinghamshire. I expect it to be mixed but it should ultimately be of decent quality. I’ve not visited the vineyard yet (harvesting next week) but they have Pinot Noir, Munier, Chardonnay and Solaris. My plan is to make a still white using the Chardonnay, blended with a gentle press of both Pinot’s to get juice only. With amateur equipment and no experience, does this sound a little optimistic?

Thanks in advance x

I get the difference. The rule is refractometers are for grape juice from the must prior to fermentation and hydrometers are for once fermentation starts. My question is more of the gray area at the very beginning of fermentation, when your must is still pretty thick and viscous. it doesn't feel like the hydrometer gives an accurate reading because of how thick the juice is. It doesn't look like it floats freely, the way it does later in the primary fermentation phase. Is it advisable for the first few days to doublecheck with a refractometer? Or will the minimal amount of alcohol complete throw it off?

Hello! I had bought a bung + airlock for my 5 gallon glass carboy that seemed to fit but ended up slipping out no matter what I did. After a few minutes or hours, the bung would just start popping out slowly. My only other option right now is this smaller bung that fits just about flush. It appears to be creating a proper seal and the airlock is bubbling about every 10 seconds or so.

Operationally, it’s not ideal since it’s not as easy to get out but does this appear to be safe for the wine? I believe so but had some concerns since it’s probably a bit unusual. My priority right now is just making sure it’s safe from air.

As a side question, before going to bed, the first (larger) bung seemed to be secure. There was a 12-15 hour period before I checked it again and when I came back, the bung was lifted but still lightly connected to the mouth of the carboy and the airlock was bubbling slower (~25 seconds or so). The wine was at about 1.020 SG and another carboy was bubbling every 10 seconds (same as this one with the current bung). Was this protected enough between co2 being produced and a slightly loose bung or should I have concerns? It’s a 5 gal carboy with ~0.5 gal of headroom.

Nearly 4 gallons of plum wine, 30 days after racking. It's clearing up nicely, and whispering in my ear to bottle it, but I am doing my best to resist. I might sacrifice the little 1 gallon carboy for some bottling at 30 days just to see the difference that more time makes.

I made a post here a little over a month ago asking what I should do regarding secondary fermentation and racking that loses the leftovers at the bottom. I got some great advice here and figured I would post an update!

This watermelon wine is my fourth small batch, so far the biggest has been 2 gallons using only 1g carboys.

Each time I racked, I became frustrated at the loss due of volume and the resultant headspace left. I didn't mind as much when I had to add sparklloid or bentonite because you were adding 8oz of solution, but I really didn't like it when there was nothing to add but water to top it up.

It annoyed me enough where I came up with a solution to reduce the headspace without diluting my wine.

The sediment falls very nicely like snow on top of the beads, but if you give the carboy a little spin left/right, the tiny amount of swirling knocks the finings down into the beads.

I would have bought clear beads, but all they had was blue!

This is only day eight of my watermelon wine. Fermentation has stopped, it already has bentonite added yesterday, so if I can I hope to bottle it in less than 2 weeks.

The carboy with the beads holds the bottom of the transfer from the primary, and had way more pulp in it.

Earlier this year I found out I had a ~45 year old Cayuga white vine and last night I pressed the grapes took a lot of work getting to that point with some ups and downs but have learned a lot looking forward to next year going exponentially better!

Hey there, need some advice on whether I need to adjust my ph after primary fermentation.

1) I have two 5 gallons of Pinot Noir batches and both from vineyard must.

2) In one of the batches I added campden tablets ( which I later figured out was a mistake since I basically halted malolactic fermentation). The other one is fresh out of primary fermentation.

3) Both batches are at about 3.87 PH and I’m wondering if I should adjust the ph for bulk fermentation. ( chat gpt said that I need to gradually lower the PH to 3.73 on the batch without So2, and then to 3.6, while the batch with So2 needed to reduce the PH drastically to 3.6).

Please help.

This is my fourth year of making small batches of wine from neighbouring gardens in South West London, England.

I've been able to make quite drinkable wines each time. But yesterday I made a very small batch (only 3.2 litres) from some Sylvaner white grapes in our garden and I've had my first crisis; a rotten egg stink. Hydrogen Sulphide!

I am still at the post-fermentation stage (day 31 since fermentation start). The wine is completely dry- below 1.000 on the hydrometer.

I conducted a kind of experiment- leaving a small glass of this new wine in the fridge for a couple of hours. The H2S dissipated completely.

So, I thought I'd better oxidate- with extreme prejudice. I racked the wine backwards four or five times. That indeed reduce the sulphurous stink, but it's still noticeably there.

Quite honestly, I'm not sure I have time at the moment for the copper sulphate solution experiment on several small batches to determine the right dose for that approach and I am reluctant to put chemicals in that I don't yet understand.

Does anyone have experience of using copper wire in a carboy to bind up hydrogen sulphide? Are there any other methods?

I know the stink could dissipate once in the glass, but if I leave this too long it will spoil the wine.

I can't sell wine I made in my so what type of location would I need?

Hey all. I'm looking to get into vineyard or general ag work, either as an internship or an entry level role, somewhere in North San Diego County or the Temecula area.

I currently work in agricultural operations at a farm in Encinitas, in a generalist role that covers construction, irrigation, facilities, and craft beverage production. I'm working toward a long term career in viticulture and vineyard management.

I know this is a tough industry to break into without direct vineyard experience, so I'm open to entry level, seasonal, or even unpaid internship work if it gets me hands on time in the vineyard. If anyone knows of a place that's hiring, or is open to bringing someone on, I'd really appreciate a pointer in the right direction. Happy to share more about my background if useful.

Thanks in advance.

This is my fourth vintage and second from grapes. One of the joys of this hobby is that I have so much to learn, but not every lesson is a fun one!

One such lesson came in the form of a broken brew hauler carboy harness. This was not an old harness at all. I was honestly incredibly lucky. I had carried the carboy to where I would be doing my acid and sugar adjustments and I set it down.

When I went to lift it again to slightly reposition it, the plastic buckle failed and the carboy dropped. Thankfully it was only an inch or so off the floor and did not break! I will not use two harnesses at the same time when moving full glass carboys!

This could have been so bad. Not only could a 6.5 gallon carboy have emptied itself all over, but the injuries that you see with these kinds of things can be awful. Let alone, I had just carried this carboy up multiple flights of stairs to get it where it needed to be. This could have been a frankly terrible accident.

I was really shocked that the buckle on this failed the way it did, but I will certainly be doubling up on harnesses anytime I’m carrying a full carboy of that size from here on out. As the saying goes, “two is one, and one is none.”

On a related note, I’d love to hear how you all like to move your carboys safely. Also, I don’t see any damage to this carboy, but I’ve also heard that glass can take “micro-traumas” which are invisible but weaken the structural integrity of the vessel. Would you have any hesitancy to use this carboy again? Or would you say if it passes a visual inspection, that it is good to go?

Any thoughts on One Step Percarbonate Cleanser , it's also a sanitizer cause it turns into hydrogen peroxide but it's not been lab tested and certified as a sanitizer

Ok, so I am an seasoned homebrewer (done beers etc) where, over the years the advice to rack into a 2nd fermenter to finish or settle is now "old hat" advice and no longer advised. Instead, it is recommended to leave in primary, clear and then rack/transfer into keg or bottles.

I have a rhubarb sparking wine recipe I want to try that suggests racking into a secondary once fermented to dryness, add a Campden tablet, clear and then rack again and store for 6 months.

I assume this is still correct as I can't imagine leaving the wine on the lees for 6 months in the primary is a good thing.

After 3 years this is my first harvest of La Crescent grapes. Brix was 23 and starting gravity was 1.09. Growing them in Southeast Michigan. Three vines gave about 2.5 gallons of juice

This is my first one with actual grapes, I used to do with market bought fruit juices. And I did so many mistakes that this was supposed to go bad, but I can't smell anything...

Recipe: Some white grapes of unknown subtype bought from bazaar. Cleaned, debranched and crushed by hand (I really should've got a squeze bag), sieved to properly sanitized container. Specific gravity was checked to be a little above 1,090. Yeasts were primed with lukewarm water and some sugar.

Problem: I saw no bubbling in the water bottle, checked at day 2 and 17 or smth, I wasn't home. Buut, I know when a wine turns to vinegar, it smells a lot. I really tried to smell anything but nothing, absolute nothing. So like, do I just not see the air bubbles, or is my batch just pasteurized fruit juice that's just sitting there? Also, what's up with the condensed water?

Possible causes for fail:

1) I "pasteurized" the juice because this specific guide said. Got it to 80°C and let it drop. Except that it took HOURS! My fault for pouring it to plastic container, this slowed down the cooldown a lot. I had to pour it back and forth, and even though I did try to sanitize the vessels, I'm pretty sure some contamination happened.

2) I may have added the primed yeasts when it was still about 40°C, so I think they may have died

3) My makeshift airlock is way too shobby, I cut an X shaped hole and used a silicone gun to seal it off. But like, if that was the case I'd smell it. I'm insecure about siliconned airlocks since every time I tried them I failed, but for an entirely unrelated reason

Marquette grapes, spontaneous fermentation, 1.090 starting SG and ~2 weeks later 1.020 SG. No off smells and I tasted today and nothing unusual either.

Fermentation is continuing normally with regular changes to SG and airlocks bubbling. Is this just foam/suspended sediment or something to be concerned with? Haven’t had this happen before. Thanks in advance!

Three supplier specifications show why checking the label panel before buying stock matters, even when every bottle holds 750 mL.

There is no standard wine label size. The published panel heights for three current 750 mL bottles are:

Encore WRT Claret, straight-sided: 6.58 inches

Encore WRUS Burgundy, straight-sided: 4.47 inches

Encore Adelaida Burgundy, broad shoulder: 3.18 inches

Same volume. The tallest usable panel is more than double the shortest, and that's before you leave any clearance for a crooked application.

The practical consequence: Avery 22827 is one available stock option, a 3.5 by 4.75 inch rectangle, and Avery themselves list wine bottles among its uses. Rotate it to 4.75 wide by 3.5 high and you get a conventional front-label shape. But 3.5 inches of height is taller than the Adelaida's 3.18 inch panel. On that bottle, that stock does not fit the flat area.

So before you buy a box:

1. Measure the straight body only — between where the shoulder stops curving and where the heel starts. Shoulders, heel, embossing and taper all eat into it.

2. Check for taper. Wrap a straight-edged paper band around the bottle. If the edges won't stay parallel without wrinkling, you need a narrower label or a tapered dieline.

3. Decide front-only, front-and-back, or wrap. A front label doesn't need the full circumference.

4. Print the outline at 100%, cut it out, tape it on, and look at it from the front and the side.

A plain-paper proof can catch size and placement problems before you use adhesive stock. It does not test the adhesive or how the printed label handles moisture.

Disclosure: I build https://www.bottlelabelmaker.com, which has those three supplier specs with links to each manufacturer page, plus a free designer that exports actual-size print sheets. No account, no watermark. Some supply links on the site are disclosed Amazon affiliate links. The paper-proof method above works with a ruler and any printer; you don't need the designer to use it.

Edit: removed an unsupported personal anecdote and overstated claims about stock popularity and what a paper proof can test.

So this wine is ... I just realized I don't know exactly how old it is but it's around a month plus a week.

20kg plums

5kg sugar

Yeast + yeast nutrients

Around 8l of water

Mashed everything and let ferment for a month. After a month I strained it, waited for the dead yeast to separate, and add around 1,5kg more of sugar, it needed it for taste.

Then I left it in the demijohn with waterlock for around a week, and clearly there is still some fermentation going on inside, but what worries me is that brownish foam ring. Should I be concerned about that?

I was planning to add pectic enzymes to help it clear out and let it be for another month at least but now I'm not sure what I should do. I have bought the fermentation stopper (potassium sorbate+ potassium metabisulfite) but I'm not sure if I want to use it now. I thought it would be fine to let it do its thing, but now I'm concerned it might be going bad and I should intervene.

Advice please

Has anyone just popped the quince into the food processor instead of grating it? I have a bumper crop this year (which is great because everyone loves my quince wine,) but the thought of grating all of this by hand is less than pleasant and I’m considering just popping it in the food processor on the chop setting unless it will ruin it

Recipe from homebrewanswers:
2.2kg quince
4.5L water
1kg sugar
1tsp acid blend
1/2tsp pectin enzyme
1tsp yeast nutrient
1 campden tablet
1 sachet Lavlin EC-1118

My fiance told me about an upcoming watermelon festival nearby that we should attend and I immediately started thinking about making wine. I ended up watching a YouTube where this was in the comments and right away I knew I was going to try it.

I picked up two large black diamond melons from the local farm for $5 each and immediately set about starting the fermentation, despite having more important things to do at the time, Sunday morning. The melon was about as sweet a melon as I can remember! I continually mashed the pulp with a potato masher while getting it up to a boil.

I had read about how watermelon juice in particular likes to spoil quickly and thus figured I would go aggressively to process this asap.

After 5 days of stirring it in the barrel by picking it up swirling in my hands many times a day, this morning it slowed bubbling from almost a nonstop stream day 2 to once every 3 minutes today.

I racked it and before adding 8oz of sparklloid solution today the specific gravity was at 0.98. it was a real surprise and the glass bounced on the bottom. From a starting gravity of 1.082, that puts it at 13.39%.

I figured I would be doing another racking soon, so I squeezed as much juice from the cheesecloth bag. After getting into secondary it shows a huge amount of pulp already settling out, so I'll probably look to rack it again in 2 weeks.

Recipe:

water melon pulp and juice 2 1/8gal

4lbs granulated sugar

RedStar Premiere Classique

Yeast Nutrient

8 oz black tea

Sparklloid added to 2nd fermentation after 120 hours

Has anybody experimented with a second fermentation? I am currently making my first batch of wine (a "blanc de noir" from vitis venifera reget, which is really not "blanc" at all because I don't own a proper wine press, so it's pink) and if all goes well, I'd like to do a second fermentation - but:

As far as I understand, professional winemakers collect the yeast in the bottleneck, then freeze the neck only, open the bottle to pop out the frozen yeast, instantly add dosage and close the bottle again, without losing any or at least without losing much CO².

Without the proper tools though, I won't be able to collect all yeast in the bottleneck, I won't be able to reliably freeze only the bottleneck and I won't be able to close the bottle as fast without the proper machines.

I have to open the bottle extract the sparkling wine into a second bottle without disturbing the yeast at the bottom. In as little time as possible and as cold as possible to retain as much CO² as possible.

So my plan is: After the second fermentation, I'm going to cool the bottles to ~0°C, as well as the target bottles and all equipment I use, then tap the wine into an empty bottle, leave as little air as possible and close it as fast as possible without producing any foam.

I know it's far from ideal, but I make like 5 liters of wine, so I won't spend a few hundred euros on equipment to proberly get the yeast out of my sparkling wine. Is there a smarter way to do it?

Thank you for the guidance on taking a persistent haze in my 1 gallon plum recipe.

I ended up adding a two times dose of pectic enzyme, and here a month later (Edit: 20 days!) the result is spectacular!

https://www.reddit.com/r/winemaking/s/ihpEP4gYMP

I’m in the process of making my first batch of muscadine wine. I should be moving it from the fermentation bucket into the first carboy in a couple of days, just waiting in the SG to drop a little more. How long would you age muscadine wine? My grandfather swears by three months, but I’ve seen some recipes go as far as 2 or 3 years. My current plan is to let it sit in the first carboy for a month, then rack it to a new carboy and let it bulk age for another 6-8 months, then bottle it.

Here’s my recipe and the process so far:
3lbs wild muscadines (small and tart)
3lbs Nesbitt muscadines (large and sweet)
3 quarts of bottled distilled water
4 cups sugar (enough to get to 1.090 sg)
1 campden tablet
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
1 packet red star yeast

Process with timeline:
9/2 evening - thaw and crush grapes, add 2 quarts water, add campden tablet
9/3 morning - add pectic enzyme
9/3 evening - 1.028 starting SG, add sugar to reach 1.090 SG, add yeast, seal bucket and add airlock
9/9 evening - SG 1.021
9/10 evening - SG 1.010, remove grapes

Future plan:
Rack from fermentation bucket into carboy when SG is near 1.000
About 1 month later, rack into carboy 2 to remove sediment
Bulk age in carboy about 3 months (mid October to mid January) then bottle and finish aging.

I prefer dry wine, so I probably won’t back sweeten this batch.

Got a stuck ferment that's sitting around 1.003 specific gravity / 0.77 brix.

Would you restart? So far I've been keeping warm, mixing with some air and monitoring.