Recent content by dog

Alright, I guess I'll probably go with some combination of jugs and wine-on-tap bags. I'll see if I can pry the bags back open after they're empty to reuse them. Thanks for the replies everyone.

Safer maybe, but they don't sell cheap alcohol 'round these parts.

I was wondering if people have any ideas about skipping bottling day and just serving from bulk storage without going all out for a keg+gas. The main thing here is the 23L wine kits I'm making will be consumed within two months and not by people with sensitive pallets so maybe I have some...

I could only find 283mL (9.5oz) FAJC, they say "Makes 1.13L" (38oz). I don't know how that would translate to the 12oz ones in the recipe since they might be more concentrated. What do 12oz ones typically "Make"? How much they make is probably a good proxy for how much sugar/apple-ness they have.

Is there a reason for making up the syrup 24 hours before bottling? Also I noticed the next day the syrup already looked like the sugar was settling to the bottom. Won't this end up happening in my cider bottles?

There's someone selling empty Grolsch bottles for $12 a dozen or less almost every day in my area, on my area's version of craigslist (Kijiji). You can make an RSS of your search and it will tell you when someone makes a posting matching your search parameters. So I just set it and wait for it...

I'm a noob myself but a few things; If you're bottle conditioning I don't think you're supposed to add PS, as this is meant to stop the yeast from starting up again. You need the yeast to start up again to bottle carb. They're not related; -You use pasteurized juice so there are no wild...

Can you pasteurize flip-top bottles? I think my tops are some kind of hard plastic, not ceramic.

Has anyone else who's done this found crud from the other dirty dishes getting into their bottles? That's what happened to me today, which is disappointing because this seemed like the easiest way to go about bottle cleaning; just sticking them in the dishwasher as you drink them.

Another question. As I said I added stabilizing and clearing agents on the 20th. The instructions say to keep it around 22-24C (72-75F). It was pretty much exactly that for the entire fermentation. But yesterday and today are kind of warm and the stick-on thermometer says it's 26-27C (78F)...

In what way does a non-degassed wine taste different? Or do you just feel the bubbles?

Alright, glad you both think the oxidation will be minimal. Thanks! As Yooper said I was supposed to add some water anyway (with the preservatives mixed in), just not as much as I ended up having to use because of this. So if it lead to an infection that would be happening anyway. I was more...

I'm doing my first wine kit, a Vintners Reserve "Liebfraumilch". Today I did step 3, "Stabilizing and Clearing." This was my first time using a drill attachment for degassing. I started on high speed and a bunch of CO2 came out at once, causing it to overflow and lose maybe a cup of wine...

Why is it that oxidation isn't a problem?

What are the advantages of stirring every day for so many days? Shouldn't the yeast be done multiplying long before then, and thus need to run out of oxygen in order to start using sugar to make alcohol? I've only made a few batches myself so I wonder if I could speed things up by stirring as...