Anybody involved in Winemaking?

[flobadob]

Thank you Brewer-again.

[Brewer-again]

Re-starting stuck wine

Hi! Flobadob,
Re-starting stuck wines can be difficult which is why the consensus was to accept what you have and mix it with a dry wine. If you try my method let me know how you get on, you need to be sure that the wine is alive and working after each addittion. If it seems a bit quiet wait untill the yeast has made its mark and it is all 'plopping' (thanks Maddebatt for this word).

Went to my local waste transfer site today and picked up two more demijohns for £1.00. one now has blackberry and pear the other is awaiting red wine.

[madderbat]

Hi ! Madderbat,
Trees to look out for in your wanders are Oak, cherry,ash,chestnut and juniper. These appear to be the most popular woods used for balsamic barrels. Let me know how it turns out??
Happy wandering

I'm not going out in this, so it may be a while, but will let you know. thanks for the advice.

[Brewer-again]

Looks like snow.

Hi Madderbat!
It is probably not the best time for a walk in the woods, but it may well be the best time for wind blown trees. Good harvesting

[Brewer-again]

making better wines better !

We have talked about using wood to flavour balsamic vinigar but it can also be used to flavour your wine. The kit I was given for christmas had some oak sawdust ( table spoonfull per gallon ) which is added at the start. I was suprised how much the finished wine tasted as if it had been stored in oak casks. This could be worth trying with a fruit wine
I would like to hear from any one who tries it out, I certainly will. The oak sinks to the bottom with the lees. After racking the wine will clear

[madderbat]

Hi Brewer Again
That is interesting news, which I haven't tried yet, but felt I'd like to share my recent experience of Blackberry wine. I brewed early in December, and (due to desperation) opened some this weekend for a friend's birthday. It had gone from acidic, through horrible, to the most wonderful almost chocolatey liquorice tasting stuff.
Have only got one bottle left, but I really will try and keep it for 6 months. It's beautiful. Isn't it magic?

[Brewer-again]

HI ! Madderbat, Yes it is, magic. I am not sure what process your wine has been through but I can surmise.
'chocolatey liquorice tasting stuff.'

I can only think that it may have been a very dry and acidic wine but not vinigary when you first tasted it . May have had some natural free floating yeast working on it like the lymbic brews of germany.
Glad you are enjoying it as I am tonight.

[angie loves veg]

HELP!

I am making my first wine.....

I have just strained the must into the demijohn, and there is not quite enough to fill the jar - it reaches to the bottom of the 'shoulder', leaving perhaps a 2" gap at the top.

Should I top this up with water/sugar solution/anything alse. The books imply that I shouldn't.... but I don't want to get it wrong at this stage.....

[shirlthegirl43]

HELP!

I am making my first wine.....

I have just strained the must into the demijohn, and there is not quite enough to fill the jar - it reaches to the bottom of the 'shoulder', leaving perhaps a 2" gap at the top.

Should I top this up with water/sugar solution/anything alse. The books imply that I shouldn't.... but I don't want to get it wrong at this stage.....

If you don't want to risk adding water or anything, you can sterilise glass marbles and add them to raise the level of the liquid in the dj.

Good luck

[angie loves veg]

That's a good idea! thanks Shirley!

[Brewer-again]

space in the demijohn

Hi! angie loves veg,
The space at the top of the demijohn, or whatever container you use, at the start of a brew is to allow for frothing as the brew starts. It tends to start out fast(first week) and then settle down for the remaining weeks.

Once the fermentation has settled down then add some warm water with some sugar in it. Same ratio as you used to begin with.
eg 3.5 lbs to 7 pts of juice equals 0.5 lbs per pt,so if you were adding another pint to fill it then add half a pound of sugar as well.

Enjoy your brew

[angie loves veg]

Thank you for the advice brewer again......

more problems though I am afraid, never really got the fast/frothing stage, just went to a slowish plop-plop, lees falling to the bottom etc..... no real problems though until today (about 1 week after putting in dj)...... the bubbles in the airlock are going the WRONG WAY...... ie air from the outside is going in. I know this surely is wrong, but what on earth do I do about it? and why is it happening?

HELP!

[Birdie Wife]

Has the temperature changed? If you have heated air in the top which gets colder, it contracts and the change in pressure might mean bubbles are sucked in from outside the bottle. This shouldn't happen unless you have quite a lot of space in the top of your bottle... mind you I'm not an expert...

[angie loves veg]

Thank you. It would seem that I have a fair amount of space at the top of my dj's

Assuming that I now have some demijohns to rehouse....
What should the air temperature be in order to keep the wine at the best temp?

[Brewer-again]

temperature

Sorry to hear that your wine has been sucking air in instead of ( plopping ). The usual temperature is blood heat or warm house temperature. You know the sort of temp your mum would have turned the house up to if she thought you were coming over.
This is why they are often kept in airing cupboards, or stored in the kitchen.
It should have gone ballistic for the first week and then calmed down to a regular plop for weeks to come.
Please let me know what you are brewing as I have a method for restarting stuck brews which I posted somewhere.
The idea is to rack the brew off the dead yeast before it adds its own mousey flavour to the brew. Then restart it.