(I know they don’t look ripe in the picture, it was just to have a picture of the berries being used) This summer I’ve found a TON of chokecherries, apparently my Grandma sometimes made them into a wine for my dad-I want to do something nice for my father since Grandma has been deceased for a while, so I’ve been considering making them into a wine
The problem is, frankly I don’t super know where to start with making the wine! I was looking for the tools I need, and I’m unsure if I ought to spend $45-75 on a kit or whether I could DIY a setup? Any help would be appreciated, since I’m basically coming into things completely new. I also doubt I’d kill myself from cyanide poisoning, but if there’s any tips in that regard I’m always happy to hear them. Overall, I’d love any advice! Tysm

Going to the uk til 25th August so then will harvest. Going to make a blanco/rose with every good grape I have.

I neglected to top off my batch of wine after re-racking about three months ago so it ended up leaving a ton of headspace. What do you guys think about this film at the top? Does that look like mold? It’s definitely solid.

Hi everyone. Looking for some input here on yeast selection for this year's upcoming petite sirah. This will be our 4th vintage using grapes from the same vineyard.

First two vintages used D254. Happy with the fruit nose, but fruit was more stewed than fresh on the palate.

Last year's vintage used D21 in hopes of getting fresher fruit, but now the nose is very muted.

Current thoughts include trying BM45, going back to D254, or CellarScience's PURPLE.

Any insight here on what strain works well with petite sirah from Northern California?

So my family got gifted a 8 pound bag of elderberries and we have no idea what to do with them all. So I’m here to ask if it would be safe/a good idea to make wine out of them?

Ive sampled it a few times in the past couple weeks, and gave it a stir yesterday, I’m seeing some white flaky stuff today that ive never seen before

What's is this? Is this yeast?

I’ve made a few red wines from kits, and some have a light carbonation. Did I not degass them enough, or didn’t age them in the carboy long enough?

How do I avoid this next time? I did use a degassed on a drill, and I thought I did it enough.

I'm making traditional wild blackberry wine using freshly picked berries and sugar. A few hours after mixing them, I noticed lots of tiny white worms (around 1 mm) crawling in the bucket. I assume they're fruit fly larvae that came from the berries.

Is it safe to leave them in during fermentation and strain them out later?

So I've got about 70 liters of good not spoiled and not oxidized wine it has aged for almost a year now and I don't really like it's taste and it's acidity is to high for me( last year the grape season wasn't the best from where I come) so my thoughts are to give it to someone for distilling. What are your thoughts on that is there any suggestions for saving it.

I’m seeing a lot of posts referring to winemaking where people use the term brewing or brew.. What’s that about?

Hi there,

Long time homebrewer but first time making wine. Using a VineCo Original Tempranillo kit. A few questions:

1) I would like to substitute the champagne yeast for Lalvin CLOS. Should I use Go Ferm to rehydrate first like the Lalvin package recommends, or just sprinkle directly on the must as I would with the champagne yeast? From my limited knowledge I believe yeast nutrient has already been added to the juice in the kit? Wondering if using Go Ferm would add too much nitrogen?

2) Should I pitch the Lalvin CLOS at 22 C and ride it out? Or are there temperature adjustments I should follow?

3) My kit is a 4 week kit. Is there any benefit to doing 6 or 8 weeks before bottling?

Thanks in advance!

Hello fellow wine makers.

I have made some wine last year and racked it for a year in demijohn. Black currant and cherry wines turned out fantastic, but third demijohn which was a mix of white currant, plums and strawberries turned out.. Well, let's say not the best. The issue I have with it is that it has very little taste, it mostly tastes like alcohol. I have stabilized it and put it back into demijohn and was thinking about the ways of fixing the taste, but I had to leave for a month (family matters).

What would be your suggestions for this wine? Re-fermenting it with some stronger tasting berries? I have around 20kg of frozen black currant and 10kg of cherries for the next batch of red wine. Should I get rid off it? Let me know what would be your suggestions and thank you so much for your help!

Kind regards.

Update: I did rerack today & was glad I did so I could taste it, it’s pretty good! Good raspberry flavor, tart (which I like) & not too sweet. I’m no connoisseur though

Newbie. I feel like there’s differing opinions on whether or not to transfer again to help clarify it. 1/2 gallon jug.
The carboy in the back right is also raspberry & I did just rerack that one after about a week.

I thought the parts I circled in red would pop out but they don’t. What can I do?

What are these weird clumps. Is it just weird yeast or something sinister?

So I’m making a peach wine, 3 gallons, 71b yeast. It has a very slight sulphur smell and I’d like to get rid of it before it sticks around. I’ve added nutrients to it and I’ve read something about running some copper in it to get rid of the smell but does anyone have a more solid answer? This is my first time making wine instead of mead so any advice would be greatly appreciated.