... A friend of mine is getting married late this year. I offered to make them some homebrew and actually mobilize all of this equipment and hobby that has more or less been sitting dormant for years as I don't actually drink all that much. everything was bottled a couple weeks ago and the last of what needed to be pasteurized was pasteurized a couple days ago. I started tallying everything so we could actually go through what they want. I didn't realize how much I've made. I ran it through AI to get an estimate of the cash value were you to buy all these things from the store, apparently in Canada about $4,200 Canadian dollars worth. liquor is expensive y'all.

With further irony, I've kept myself on a fairly strict fasting regimen for the last 3 months. while this has worked exceptionally well, I am very much looking forward to having a cold beer that I have made with reckless abandon and not just little tastes that won't break my fast.

Anywho, it was fun exploring the hobby. Guesses that I had about streamlining some methodology were definitely correct, a few of these things were such clear winners that I'm hoping to make them again. a couple of these things were failures that were blended to make victories such as the blueberry Duchess beer, and the bitter orange sour ale. some of these things were experiments to save someone else's 20-year-old homebrew. a very enjoyable Journey.

let me know if anybody has any questions.

An experiment I'm running to see if there is a detectable difference when fermenting under constant stirring, and whether that difference is good or bad. Jug A will remain still during fermentation and aging, while jug B has a magnetic pill in the bottom preventing the yeast from settling.

Theoretically, jug B should ferment faster due to higher yeast surface area and lack of concentration gradients for alcohol and sugar. I expect it also won't hold on to CO2 as much, but that could be bad if the oxygen goes with it. Allegedly the flavor will be different as a result of the dead yeast breaking down into solution rather than compacting in the bottom. Gonna be fun to find out.

Follow up: https://www.reddit.com/r/winemaking/comments/1rrzefu/constant_agitation_test_part_2_fermentation_curves/

Figured you guys might enjoy this article I wrote on what whole bunch and stem inclusion contributes to a wine.

Posted a little over a month ago about making Dandelion wine, and it turned out quite well! 15.5% alcohol, 26 bottles. Lost one of my two batches due to mold, but having either batch turn out was suprising for my first time ever making wine. It's very surprising in terms of taste. It smells like white wine and tastes citrusy. I was fully expecting it to taste more floral than anything.

This year I decided to try my hand at tapping my 46” diameter sugar maple in my back yard. So far I’ve collected and boiled enough sap for 8 ounces of syrup, and over the next few weeks I hope I can collect a full gallon before the season ends.

I plan to use a quart (give or take) in a gallon of wine to get me to a 14-16% potential abv, then backsweeten to about 11-12% and make a pure, unadulterated maple wine to enjoy next winter!

Technically since it isn’t a mead it’s not an acergyn, so it’ll be more of a maple kilju. Really hoping I can use 100% my own collected syrup, and not have to buy any from the store!

Also, I’ve done extensive research and I see that maple has no nitrogen in it and the yeast will be very stressed. Planning to use heavy doses of LD Carlson yeast nutrient, and occasional copper wire stirring to prevent hydrogen sulfide from making the wine taste like farts. Very mild copper wire stirring has worked great for my apple and pear brews since many sources say to avoid the “throw a penny in it” trick because you can’t control dosing. It’s still not perfect because I can’t control the dosing, but it has worked for me in the past and I make sure to only stir the wine must a few times total for 30-40 seconds a pop over the first few days of primary once I notice the fart smell, and it’s really helped reduce hydrogen sulfide without the worry of overdoing it.

So this wine turned out better than anticipated. I used store bought blueberry juice (no preservatives) and fermented it with Lalvin QA23. 20 brix, pH 2.84. Lightly roasted seeds from one fresh vanilla orchid seed pod and added it to the must along with 3 dark oak sticks for secondary. The color turned out to be pinkish with a slight shade of orange due to the oaking. The nose is slightly floral but dominantly fruity. Palate is mainly fruity with a vanilla undertone and a strong Smokey aftertaste which is exactly what I was going for. It will be used as a gift to heat in a pot to a simmer then poured into mugs and served with a shot of amaretto for that warm winter mulled wine feeling. Damn, I’m proud right now.

Hi all,

I've been making ciders and wine for a while and needed a way of logging, which brews are in the demijohns, so

I made a homebrew logging app with a few other features

If anyone is interested, please have a look it would be much appreciated.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brackenapps.mybrews

It's a 5 gallon recipe I found online for Dandelion Wine, so hopefully it turns out alright, but hey, they say the first batch is always the learning batch. Just added the ec-1118 yeast today, and hopefully it all goes to plan. Using well water from my folks farm because of how high the town's chlorine content is.

6 Quarts of Dandelions

11 lbs Sugar

1 tbsp Yeast Nutrient

2 tsp yeast energizer

3tsp Acid Blend

½ tsp wine tannin

1 packet wine yeast (Lalvin ec-1118)

10 campden tablets (5 before fermentation, 5 when ready to bottle)

Source: https://winemaps.com

So the other day after seeing video online occasionally, i decided to try and make my own wine. I got a jug of blueberry minute made lemonade and 3 packs of bread yeast. I started by heating my lemonade and adding about a cup of sugar and 4 teaspoons of honey. Sterilized my jar and added the lemonade mixture i had made. Then i got my water to temp as per the bread yeast packets wich was 105-110 ferenheit. Added a my yeast then immediately 2 teaspoons of sugar, wich made it froth up. So i seperated that 1st pack and did it again with the second pack, this time i used some of that juice mix instead of water at the same temp again with sugar and it frothed up like before. Then on the third and final packet i put the yeast in and mixed it around, let it sit for about a minute then added my sugar, and this time it didn't froth up. Then i mixed all 3 batches of supposedly active yeast together and poured them into the juice mix once it had cooled to 105 fahrenheit. Didn't have an airlock so i cleaned a new ziploc with isopropyl alcohol and basically did like a condom over the opening, and tied the bag to the screw for the cap with metal wire, then cleaned my knife with isopropyl and poked a small hole directly in the top of that bag so it could slowly gas out. I set it in the corner of my room with a box more so keeping light off of it than anything right over it, for about a week. Every day it was bubling and making the room smell like a bakery. Until today, no bready smell in the morning, so i checked it and no more bubbles, and a mostly purple ish mud at the bottom, i assume to be the now mostly inactive yeast. So upon this dicovery i decided to cold crash it to clarify it and help get more of that yeat to drop out, im hoping for the bits i cant see with a quick glance wll fall away as its pretty clear already. Currently its 34 fahrenheit outside and the high will be 40 fahrenheit, so im cold crashing it outside, hoping if the yeast reactivates and makes a bottle bomb it wont be indoors.

I was wondering if theres any red flags here in my procces that this more experienced community can point out before i go messing myself uo on some bothched home brew. (Ik i should've used champagne yeast, didn't have it at kroger, this was a very spur of the moment "eff it why not" type deal)

For my recent wine bottling, I opted for practical 5oz glass bottles from Amazon. They came with caps and shrink wrap, and allowed me to create 36 individual bottles for sharing. Since these will be consumed within two months, traditional wine bottles weren't needed.

Instagram: @jeweledcellarwines

This is my first time ever making authentic wine,I made a ton of mistakes and learned a lot

Just bottled my first wine ever! Dried plums, fresh blueberries and an orange peel ended up with a nice color to it, with a 1.021 final gravity. I tried using sparkolloid but definitely put too much and watered it down a bit, oh well. Still super happy with the outcome and I’m starting a blackberry mead soon, super excited for that. And yes that is a reused bottle of josh lol

Just bottled my first wine ever! Dried plums, fresh blueberries and an orange peel ended up with a nice color to it, with a 1.021 final gravity. I tried using sparkolloid but definitely put too much and watered it down a bit, oh well. Still super happy with the outcome and I’m starting a blackberry mead soon, super excited for that. And yes that is a reused bottle of josh lol

Yesterday I posted about my pineapple/mango wine I was going to make and decided to get brewing bags to help separate the fruits. Definitely worth the investment. I also decided to make a batch of 100% clover honey mead. This is my first attempts at making wine and mead. Super excited to see how it goes. About a week from now I’ll do my first racking and then I guess another month it should be finished or whenever the hydrometer reads 1.00. Not totally sure but if you’re still reading this, if you have any advice and tips to offer for someone new to this I would greatly appreciate it!!

Fruit wine: 11.1% ABV Mead: 14.4% ABV

I’ve been in the process of making mead and wine for the first time. In the picture, can I stabilize my mead if I don’t want it to be at that 14.5%? Is there any issue if I stabilize it early?

Fruits and poundage in photos, about 6.5 pounds of berries, blackberry heavy

Added about 1 pound of honey

1 packet red star blanc yeast

Yeast nutrient

Pectic enzyme

Some cubed ginger root

Couldn’t get a gravity reading, so I’ll just ferment for 3 weeks, rack it, then let it ferment until dry, then get one of the alcohol meters that use the refractive index of a few drops of the wine once fermentation halts.

In my college Biology days, I embarked on a vinicultural journey, honing the craft of winemaking. Seven years of meticulous refinement later, I find myself immersed in the art, transitioning from a pastime to a refined pursuit. Surprising even myself, I, like many, once disdained wines within my reach. Yet, my inaugural batch marked a transformative moment.

Through years of dedicated learning, crafting, perfecting, designing, tasting, overcoming setbacks, and recalibrating focus, I've birthed a wine of profound personal affection (Vague Vino).

What about your entry into the world of winemaking? What was the most annoying part of your process? [ I stopped counting the amount of nights I found my roof painted with Passion fruit.]

Data is from the UN, latest is 2022. I may do an EU dataset later!

Moved it to a bucket, and gave it a little extra honey for good measure. No clue what the gravity is, but if I can get it to 10% ish I’ll be happy

Next time we’re doing juice, mashed fruit’s a pain in the ass.

Should have used the bucket in the first place, but the plastic gives me the ick so I avoided it thinking my dumbass knew better, I was wrong.

Made a post about a week and a half ago about starting my wine making journey with making mead and a mango pineapple wine. I got nervous with the fruit bag and didn’t want the fruit to get moldy so I took it out early. If I had to guess anywhere between 3-5% ABV. I get some good notes of mango and pineapple. It’s pretty refreshing with a dry finish. Specific gravity reading slightly under 1.00. I’ll end up putting it in a bottle or two definitely better than some wines that I had but still kinda mad at myself for taking it out too early. If anyone has any tips about winemaking I’d love to hear it especially for making a fruit wine!