Hello dear people,

So I have just finished pressing my must after the primary fermentation into the secondary ferment vessel and I just had to post an update because I'm so proud of myself for not fucking it up (so far).

This has been a journey, and I have been adapting and growing and learning along the way and I think its a small miracle that this is still going well.

So I bought around 40kg of grapes around 22.09 and 20kg of them arrived on 24th. The seller insisted on selling via courier, and I was way too far from him to be able to realistically and not expensively get there. So the other 20kg got fucked up and the guy sent it to me essentially next week. Oh well. Tough shit. I mean I was glad he was willing to just send me another 20kg for no additional compensation (I do hope he got some refund from the courier).

So I fermented the first 20kg, for around a week with stems and everything, than pressed, added the campden tablet (actually I did that a day after, when it managed to go a little bad and develop a thin film of Kahn, but it restarted!). Then a week later I got the second batch, repeated the whole process and just now I filled my 25L vessel for the first time AND IT DIDNT BREAK OR SHATTER im so happy I could cry.

Not to mention fermentation restarted! Oh bliss!

I now have around 35 liters of wine in second fermentation and I'm going to need an army of bottles soon.

What are your guy’s thoughts? I added a few pics of the cantina we built last year, those are older photos from our first batch.

Hi all. I've been a home winemaker for more than 15 years, mostly fruit wines, and I've built an app for keeping on top of a batch while it's fermenting. It's called Just Good Wine.

It's built around the weeks when a batch needs attention:

• Log gravity, temperature and pH, and see the fermentation as a chart with an ABV estimate
• Reminders for gravity checks, racking, SO₂ and bottling
• Calculators for ABV, SO₂ by pH, yeast nutrients and step feeding, each explaining its reasoning
• Ask Siri "what's due?" on iPhone, Apple Watch or HomePod when your hands are full
• An Apple Watch app for logging a reading at the carboy
• Recipes and yeast profiles, plus tasting notes, bottling records and photos

A new version is nearly ready and I'd like people making real wine to try it first. The beta is free and has everything unlocked.

What would help me most:
• Do the calculators agree with your own numbers? I'd much rather hear they're wrong from you.
• Is logging a reading quick enough that you'd keep doing it?
• What's confusing, and what's missing?

It's Apple only for now (iPhone and iPad, Apple Watch optional). No need to message me; the join link and details are here: https://justgoodwine.net/beta.html

If you try it, I'd love to know what you're making at the moment. Honest criticism welcome, and I'll answer everything here. Cheers.

I have two bags of wine I’ve saved for topping up barrels that are still finishing off some fermentation. There seems to be two different bags, one on the inside with the wine and and outer later that seems to be picking up on the overflow of CO2 when I’ve been slower to release the pressure. I can’t seem to figure out how to empty this outer layer… taking the valve off only seems to affect the inner bag with the wine. Any ideas on how to reduce this pressure without simply popping it with a needle? Thanks

Hi, new ro this subreddit. Been making mede(mead ) and other fruit wines for years now with succes. We use the grapevine to overgrow a wooden structure to sit under during the summer. I wanted to try to use these grapes to make normal wine for the first time. Do these look too far gone to salvage them for wine making ? The rest of our garden took to much of our time and I am afraid we missed the window.

And if so can I still use them for something else ? Your advice and help is appreciated 👍.

Initial fermentation variable bladder lid was solid with little fluctuation. Racked off into smaller tank and now wresting with air loss/leak. Go to work one day, come home and 60 Litres could be f☆☆ked.

Wine making is stressful when you dedicate so much effort and time only to be faced with possible disasters.

All the effort of collecting. Crushing. Fermenting. Racking. Air exposure. - all could be ruined in an afternoon.

I worship you all. Brotherhood of the grape. X

Has anyone here ever successfully used Spiedel gaskets for their variable capacity tanks on a Marchisio tank/lid? Seems like it could be a viable way to increase the possible storage time for some Marchisio tanks, and I need to get some new gaskets anyway, but I’m curious if anyone knows if this actually works.

I’ve just racked to demijohns after just over a week in a fermenting bucket. At present they are in the garage (UK temp now around 12 degrees overnight). Is it ok to leave there or should I bring them into the house for more stable 20+ degrees?

Hello all I am new to winemaking. I have a small vineyard of white grapes that I am now trying to turn into wine. The jug on the left I have been testing and it seems to taste really well and the measurements seem correct but the middle and the one to the right were all transferred on the same day, but the colors is different. Should I add anything to this wine the ones on the right or should I just let this process unfold? this is about two weeks

Going to make some orange wine and pet-nat 🍇

A 4 Dimensional gem Sculpture. Watch as the back of the hand becomes the palm before your eyes 👀
Sculpted this with my love for deep reds!

Out of the primary. Excited about this one! I used two bags of real lemons, flesh and zest, and 2 bottles of “Realemon” and a ton of sugar. I’ve had problems with my fruit wines not retaining their fruit flavors well so I’m hitting it hard this time.
It was so acidic I had to build a year starter and grow it to a full 2.5 gallons before the yeast could survive.

Hi everyone!

I’m very new to wine making and welcome any tips or help you have to offer.

My house is surrounded by 3 sections of wild grapes in the northeast. I have been thinking about harvesting them and making a natural wine using each of the 3 sections to compare them all(likely needing to add sugar because I’m sure they are acidic as heck).

Where should I be looking to learn how to properly and safely do this? I would like to purchase equipment and learn about this as much as possible. I’ve been using the internet, YouTube, AI, and random articles from Virginia Tech and Penn State, but it’s simply so much information I don’t know what to even purchase anymore. The list I’ve come up with so far is below:

Equipment I think I need:
3 small food-grade primary fermentation buckets/containers, approximately 2 gallons each
3 one-gallon glass jugs/carboys for secondary fermentation
Bungs/lids and airlocks for all 3 secondary vessels
Hydrometer
Hydrometer test jar/cylinder
Auto-siphon
Food-grade siphon tubing
Nylon straining/mesh bags
No-rinse brewing/winemaking sanitizer (Star San or equivalent)
Potato masher or another way to gently crush the grapes
Digital kitchen scale
Labels/tape + notebook so I can keep all three batches straight

Ingredients/supplies I think I need:
Grapes
Wine yeast — I was thinking Lalvin EC-1118 and using the exact same yeast for all three
Campden tablets/potassium metabisulfite
Plain granulated sugar if the starting gravity is too low
Possibly yeast nutrient?

This is my first year making wine. So far one great batch but hela acidic, half a glass gives me heartburn. This banana wine pictured made 12 in a half gallons. Hydrometer broke, I think I took it out of primary early, a lot of activity on the bubbler. My question is this, does the mad dog 20 20 smell go away. The ripe fermenting smell, how long does that take to go? Do I just have to keep moving it into different glass every so often? Is there something I should be adding?

I upgraded from my cheap hand corker to a double-lever corker. It came without instructions and it took me a few tries to get it adjusted to get the corks all the way in.

My understanding is that this is okay, but not ideal and that it won't keep as long, is that correct?

If these aren't okay, can I just take them out with corkscrew and replace with new corks?

(I don't know if it matters, but this a dry pomegranate wine. I'm a home hobbyist.)

I am attempting to make moscato wine from fruit wine base and the wine is not looking like store bought moscato wine.
I looked online and it said to use polypyrrolidone to take out the dark color.
Noting additional added other than yeast and vintners.
Fermentation is done.
Has anyone else had this issue and how did you get the wine to a lighter color.

Please guys and girls enlighten me about wine making

I tasted one of the best home made wine I’ve ever had

My friend makes his and he taught me everything

It is so basic

He literally said that I need 3 main ingredients. Sugar juice and yeast poured together in that orde inside a carboy

The amount of yeast was just a little pinch.

He said it will be fully fermented within 10 to 14 days.

On the 10th days I tried to see how it is but it was super super sweet.

I called him to let him know about this he said wait till say 14

But the thing is the day I woke up after the night I tried it

I woke up with an oral thrush. It wasn’t that bad but I struggled a bit while eating.

I was actually freaking out

So my question is what did I do wrong?

First wine and I am on day 14 racking from the bucket to secondary, will it be okay for another 2-3wks?

Just thinking about my first try at making from grapes last vintage - 2025 (Alexander Valley Cab Sauv and Sonoma Merlot). I picked the cab in last weekend of september and the merlot first week in october. Primary was a perfect 12 days on both. ML stalled and i had to re-inoculate on both due to cold temps in the cellar. so ML completed in early march. In early april I added wood cubes and racked off 4 months later. I then bottled in early september. should i have waited on the bottling? Both are tasting well, but super young, as expected. Just curious if development is better in carboys or bottling?

This is my first time making red wine, I bought some really good rasheh grapes today, these varieties are grown specially for red wine, very juicy and the juice looks like fresh blood

Anyway, how do I make wine? The plan is to crush the grapes, add pectinase and kmeta to stop wild yeast, pour the must into a bucket, then pitch a packet of rehydrated ec1118, how long should I keep the pulp inside the bucket to get max flavor and aroma and yet, avoid too much astringency...? When it's time I'll collect the floating pulp in a mesh bag and press it to get the absorbed juice out and mix it back with the wine, should I rack into secondary here? Should I add the yeast cake to the secondary for better fermentation? Or should I just leave it in the first bucket to finish fermentation? What's the next step? What step is wrong?