Got one of those wild ideas because there are a lot of Prickly Pear cactus in my area. I wondered if anyone ever made wine with it? I found a few recipies and thought why not? 30 red prickly pears Iotss of sugar Enough water to fill 5 gallons Several recipies said not to cut up the pears because they release a gel like aloe Vera so i stabbed all of them multiple times. Put the pears in a brew bag and puored hot sugar water over. Put in 3 campden tabs and waited 12 hours. Next day tested SG and adjusted sugar to get 1.085 pitched 1 pack of Red Star Premier Classique and set the air lock. Will update the results. The color is amazing!

The wine is 45 days old now and one day. A jelly like layer was formed and it smells so sour i don't know what to do can you tell me what to do next ......

I entered some wine in at my local state fair and it did fairly well and got silver and 3rd in its class. Overall I entered a mead, a cider and a wine. But I noticed that on the mead and cider BJCP score sheets I got way more useful feedback. For the two wine scoresheets I got one w/ no comments and one that just said "Not palatable". Is this how it is w/ all competitions? Because if so, I wish It was more standardized like BJCP.

I’m considering sending a few bottles to the American Wine Society’s Amateur Competition in a few months and wanted to ask for any thoughts or suggestions from folks who have done this before. This will be my first competition of any kind and I’m not going into it with any expectations of winning. I’m mainly doing it because I think I’ll have a few decent wines next year and figured I’d get some experience in a year that I won’t have my hopes up!

One specific question I can’t seem to find the answer to anywhere online — are white/dessert wines that are intended to be served chilled actually served chilled for the judges? Or is everything judged at room temperature? For dessert wines especially, I always sweeten to taste at the intended serving temperature since it can be quite a different experience served at a different temperature.

Anyway, any thoughts would be much appreciated so thank you in advance!

Hi! New in wine making, where and how to start to make a pet nat? Is there any guide for beginners? Thank you!

Hi all, I’ve been making fruit wines for a little over two years now and I’ve reached the point of discouragement. So far I’ve probably made seven-ish different batches of fruit wines/meads and tweaked them in various different ways; I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on equipment and supplies, and just as many hours on measuring, testing, tweaking, experimenting, etc. I have yet to produce anything even remotely drinkable and it’s becoming pretty disheartening.

My first couple batches I let ferment fast and hot so they were loaded with fusels that never mellowed out; it was still jet fuel after well over a year of bulk aging (which in my understanding is longer than you typically want to age fruit wines anyways). Then I tried playing with the acid content and made a mulberry wine that could have topped up your car battery; I split that off into several 1-gal carboys and tested out how MLF would affect it while leaving a control, it was still undrinkable. Then I tried to get back to basics and follow a “by the book” strawberry recipe to at least get something in a drinkable ballpark and it just tasted like harsh sake (no fruity/strawberry flavor at all). Most recently I started a cranberry-apple mead and tried to control temperature as precisely as I could; it’s just about finished with primary fermentation so I gave it a taste and again it just tasted like Jet fuel without any hint of the fruits!

So I guess I’m looking for advice on where I may be going wrong, anecdotes on your beginning experience, and maybe a “foolproof” recipe that may put me back on track (not that I ever really started out “on track” to begin with!)

Do I just have an undiscerning palate and that’s why I’m not picking up the fruity subtleties? Should I switch up the yeast I’m using? (I’ve been just sticking with Lalvin K1-V1116 that came with my first kit) Do I maybe just not like fruit wines in general? Should I switch to a frozen grape kit or something? How long did it take you to produce something drinkable, pleasant, or (dare I even hope for it) that you wanted to share with friends?

Thanks in advanced for the help gang. I really love the process, care, and tinkering that goes into this hobby so I hope you all can help steer me in the right direction!

I’ve been thinking about making my own wine. (Obviously) and I genuinely have no idea where to start. I’ve discovered hundreds of Jack Keller recipes, but after reading them I’m so confused.

I understand there’s a lot that goes into creating your own wine, but I was curious if anyone here could point me in the right direction as to how to get started.

I’ve also got muscadine vines all over my property and harvested and juiced a few for jelly and was considering using those for my first batch.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

I made a gallon raspberry wine that started with a BRIX od 1.130 (estimated %17) on 07/17. On 08/16, the BRIX is 1.050 and tasted fairly sweet. I added a bit more yeast but today, there's no sign of fermentation from the airlock.

When I first mixed the wine, I added the recommended amount of yeast nutrient and pectin enzyme at the start of fermentation along with the EC-118 yeast. The pH was 3.32.

Any recommendations on how to proceed? I'm debating on stabilizing it, letting the debris settle, and moving to bottling or second ferment. Should I get a yeast that has a higher tolerance?

Hi all,

This is our first time making wine from the grapes in our garden. We followed the process described online but ended up with a weird looking colour. Does anyone know if this is normal?

Thanks in advance!

I had a great sparkling wine with blackcurrant in. It wasn't a Kir with a cassis added as you popped the top and lovely pale purple wine poured out.

Would any one know any ratio? Would it be 10% or 25% blackcurrant to grapes? Would the blackcurrants macerate in the gape juice or just use the pressed juice?

Looking for a good cider and grape press, are there any recommendations or stay aways.

Hey everyone so this is my first ever time trying homemade wine. From grapes I grew in my front yard. I followed a 2 different recipes. First they sat 2 weeks then I filtered out the debris at bottom then let sit for another 2 weeks. Today is day they are supposed to be ready. They smell just like red wine but my question is are they safe? Are they no longer "cloudy" enough etc. Thanks

Crushed and started macelation, day 8 now. Wild yeast first attempt at making some wine. Very active fermentation from day 2 onwards to day 5 calming down, then the strangest thing at the end of day 6, it exploded. Fermentation is very active with obvious fruity alcoholic smell. Jus still tastes sweet, with no hydrometer i can only guess it tastes like 7-9% abv. Head space was not enough and i dont have bigger jars. So i'v had to keep an eye on the jars very frequently and shaking from bit to bit so it doesnt overflow. Some tips on the next steps are very appreciated!

I'm located in western Europe and my country is dealing with a retirement wave of vineyard owners and in order to prevent abandoned vineyards, they are making efforts to motivate people to get into the field. Available vines aren't any of the sexy grapes (mostly Elbling and Riesling) and vary in size and slope (up to 70%). Ideally I'd like to make cremant (i.e. sparkling wine) but I am honestly quite flexible on that.

I'm honestly quite intrigued by it but rather as a hobby than a full-time occupation. I am already self employed in finance and I'm honestly (perhaps naively) considering it as a bit of a therapeutic hands-on hobby to cut off from the abstract daily work. I'd be mostly be interested in small-sized available vineyards (500 - 1000sqm) and the idea, at least initially, would be to entrust actual wine production/storage/bottling to a third-party producer to keep initial costs low.

This brings me to my questions:

- Anyone here been in a similar situation to get into the field as a complete outsider?

- What are relevant considerations to make when analyzing available vineyards, apart from size, slope and grape variety.

- How much effort (in terms of time) & monetary cost do I have to budget for in a year re. maintaining / pruning a vineyard of my desired size.

I am having a meeting with an official to discuss possibilities in a few weeks and I'd like to do my homework. Obviously any additional insight, experience, knowledge resource is highly welcome.

Thanks a lot!

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Wine is in between 1.020 and 1.030 , still actively bubbling in airlock but want my red sweeter and like where it’s at. Can I rack into secondary? I’ve read some do but I’m hesitant because of the airlock activity

Long story short: I'm making a 25l batch of molasses wine, using ~1.2kg of the stuff, 4l of 'date juice' (500g of dates boiled in 4l of water) and 4kg of sugar. At what point should I add other ingredients (coconut flakes, coconut water, cinnamon sticks) to not risk the flavours getting overshadowed by the molasses? ChatGPT said "around the 10 day mark" but I'd prefer advice from someone who has more experience than pure theory. Thanks in advance!

I have about 1/5 of air in the top of my carboy. I just racked my mead into secondary with slow fermentation still going on (.998 SG). Without a smaller carboy, what are your best tips to fill out this space? Or is this not an issue to be concerned about?

2 months ago I made a batch of blueberry wine, I had 3 pounds of frozen wild blueberries, 1.5 pounds of store bought blueberries, and about 1.5 pounds of grapes.

Fermentation went great, finished in about 6-7 days, I racked it to a secondary, it was crystal clear, then racked it again about a month later. So it's been aging about 2 months.

I tasted it yesterday and it is still quite tannic and dry, only faint blueberry flavor, not really drinkable.

The wild blueberries were tiny so there is a lot of skin so I am thinking I got a lot of tannins from there. Do I just need to age this longer? How long?

Hi everyone, I’m trying to make some blackberry wine, but despite searching online I haven’t found a recipe that’s really clear and complete. I should mention that I’m a beginner: • my first attempt ended up with a strong sulfur taste, • my second attempt is still aging (bottled about a month ago after the first fermentation).

Now I’d like to try again, but this time with a tested recipe, preferably simple, from someone who has already done it successfully. I’m also unsure whether it’s better to make a pure blackberry wine or a mix with other fruits or grapes.

Right now I have: • 2 kg of frozen blackberries, • Lalvin K1V-1116 yeast, • a fermentation vessel and basic equipment.

My questions are: • Do you have a step-by-step recipe you’d recommend for beginners? • Better to go with pure blackberries or a mix? • Any tips to avoid common mistakes (like the sulfur taste I got last time)?

I’m open to any advice or guidance. Thanks a lot in advance to anyone who can help! 🍷

Hey guys, I'm wanting to make a peach wine and did some digging about adding white grape juice to the recipe instead of water, because I'm in England white grape juice isn't the easiest thing to get, so would it be worth just buying a white wine kit and throwing peaches Into that when I ferment? Also if this is the case what kinda wine kit would be the best to compliment the taste of the peach?

I have been going here for 15-20 years. The past couple years have been spotty but I wanted to make plan to head out there in the next month or so. The juice wall was so unique and I will really miss it. The "Hot Packs" seem to be twice the price and most only come in 2.5 gallon containers. Anyone know of another place that does something similar?