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r/winemaking

Image 1 — Finger Lakes Lemberger
Image 2 — Finger Lakes Lemberger
Image 3 — Finger Lakes Lemberger
▲ 51 r/winemaking

Finger Lakes Lemberger

Picked up 150lb of Lemberger from a vineyard on the east banks of Keuka lake, NY last week.

- Brix: 19.5, TA 0.75% pH 3.14
- Crush & destem, added 50ppm kmeta
- 36 hour cold soak @ 50f
- Pitched RC212 along with fermaid O and optired
- Second dose of fermaid O @ 15 brix & co-inoculated with VP41 MLF
- 3 daily punch downs

So far color and flavor are fantastic although the grapes seem to be better at holding onto their juice than cab cabernet family varietals.

Anyone worked with this grape before? Hoping to make a medium to full body single varietal with this batch, aging it in stainless steel for a year then bottle for another 6-12 months.

Any tips/pointers appreciated!

u/saucedrop — 5 days ago
▲ 1 r/winemaking

Fermentation Heater

Hello,

I'm making some home wine from grapes. I'm fermenting in an open top barrel and am looking for solutions to heat/maintain heat on my ferment. Does anyone have any suggestions? I looked into aquarium heaters, but I was reading the rubber and plastic on those aren't tolerant with high acid/alcoholic solutions.

I'm thinking maybe a heating belt to wrap around. The circumfrence is 116.5" at the widest part. Right now I have a space heater that I'm moving around. Trying not to run it too much though as I don't have a tarp to tent.

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u/eyeslikeemeraldcity — 5 days ago
▲ 1 r/winemaking

Beginner asking for advice

I have 9.5 gallon bags (didn’t get a weight yet) of cleaned and cut peaches in the freezer. Got a slight idea of what to do though reading and YouTube but was hoping someone would share a recipe they like. Looking to make a 5 gallon batch. Also any tips and tricks would be appreciated. Trying to make something not too dry do my wife will like it. Thanks in advance, hope everyone is having a good weekend!

u/Own_Bookkeeper_3498 — 5 days ago
▲ 1 r/winemaking

Where is my SO2 going?

Hey, making a Sauvignon Blanc and I was adding Campden/Potassium Metabisulfites to try and keep it protected.

I've added enough that we should be at about 40ppm at this point. I've used a few detectors and it doesn't look like it's too far above 10-15ppm of Free Sulphites (though total Sulphites are at least 50ppm so it's still somewhere in the wine).

The wine smells and tastes of Sulphur (and more of an SO2 Sulphur that indicates sulfites than a stinky N2S Sulphur).

We've finished full ferment though some residual sugar has been tested for an appears, BRIX is in the negative though.

Any ideas? Kinda stumped.

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u/wikingwarrior — 6 days ago
▲ 7 r/winemaking

Smells good, I hate it

It's a monster energy drink infused wine that a bunch of people in my life requested I make. It smells amazing and I hate it lmao

u/Dawn_Gray — 5 days ago
▲ 2 r/winemaking

New to Wine Making , Looking For a Sense of Direction

Hello all !

I am purchasing 6 gallons of juiced grapes tomorrow and plan on making my first batch of wine. I have on the lower end of moderate experience and some equipment from making beer a bunch of years ago but just looking to be pointed into a direction that will help me as start my first time with wine. I have the following equipment right now:

6 gallon glass carboy
5 gallon glass carboy
Drilled stoppers
Airlocks
Starsan
Siphon
Cleaning brush
TBD juice

A Reddit link I was too inept to realize was already there or any advice would be appreciated. I have a friend from work who buys this juice and puts an airlock on it and just hopes for the best nothing else added, wondering if that’s the way to go or I need some other supplies.

Thank you!!

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u/PMmeKanyewest — 6 days ago
▲ 49 r/winemaking

Going to drop some fruit

Most likely dropping some fruit next week. I sold 10 tons but still have about 3 tons hanging… Napa organic Cabernet Sauvignon. Still have a little Cab Franc and a little Petite Verdot. Brix is about 25. You pick what you want… leave a donation for my ranch manager

u/Embarrassed_Ranger20 — 7 days ago
▲ 8 r/winemaking

A tale of three buckets

So I have three buckets of different grapes for trying to make a red wine. The grapes are from different Vines, but all were ripe and have about 10% abv of potential alcohol. I added about 1 gram of sulfite to every bucket and added some nutrient after crushing. I took my usual red wine yeast and let it sit in sugary water for a day while covered. Then added to all three buckets and put the lid loosely on top.

The first bucket started fermenting nicely after about a day with the peels being pushed up (I push them down every day with a sanitized ladel).

The second bucket didn't start after 72 hours so I added more yeast. Nothing. Then took some Juice from bucket 1 and 2 and mixed and added yeast to that and poured back into 2. It has started now after 5 days after crushing but has a layer of pellicle.

Bucket three has resisted all attempts so far. I tried the same as with number 2 but to no avail. The air of bucket three stings in the nose a bit. The taste is fine if slightly sour (put not much more than the others).

Could there be too much sulfite in the batches still? Bucket 3 was treated with sulfur against mildew about two months ago, could that be the issue? How can I get fermentation started. I can't measure pH but sugar content in 1 and 2 is dropping but 3 is the same .

Also do I need to do anything about the pellicle in 2?

Thanks so much for the help.

u/throwaway1491571 — 6 days ago
▲ 1 r/winemaking

When is must too vinegary to continue?

Hi folks, I've a little experience with Mead making, but on trying my hand with a grape harvest from a friend, the whole bunch tastes rather vinegary 6 days in. I initially kept the must together in a mostly closed (but not airtight) bucket for about 6 days, and was planning to seal it now after removing most of the solids - but it just tastes like vinegar. I'm unsure if this is an issue of allowing it too long before starting proper fermentation, or due to the fact that I didn't sterilise the must beforehand (simply added K1-V1116 yeast thinking they'd outcompete the others). No other signs of spoilage, just quite acidic. Think just more than you'd expect in some white wines.

Would appreciate any tips or tricks, both in terms of how to rectify and when it's too far gone :)

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u/Elacrai — 5 days ago
▲ 1 r/winemaking

Fermentation stops early

Hi y'all,

This is my first time posting, so let me know if you guys need some more clarifications.

I've made wine with our homegrown grapes many times before. Most times it went well and we've kind of got the hang of it. This year the grapes grew really well and had a higher sugar content than normal for us (ssg of 1.080). We chose to use Lalvin ec1118 as our yeast. The first fermentation went well and slowed down after a week, ending at around sg of 1.025. After pressing the wine we put them in a glass carboy and waited. But nothing happened. The fermentation stopped. Today I added a new bunch of yeast to see if it helps, but its still really slow.

I thought adding sugar was not necessary, because the sugarcontent is still that high. Do you guys have any advice as to what to do? I appreciate it!

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u/MisterMemeMan — 6 days ago
▲ 40 r/winemaking+1 crossposts

5 gallons of fine lemon wine

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.

u/Erased_Lines — 9 days ago
▲ 0 r/winemaking

Is it actually illegal to freeze distill fermented juices

Imagine getting fined or going to jail just for freezing grape juice dead yeast sugar and alcohol all things found naturally why is it illegal to freeze distill alcohol?

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u/WorldlyNotice6607 — 14 days ago
▲ 7 r/winemaking

First time Making wine, feeling a bit clueless and would like some advice.

I’m trying to make apple cider wine after getting some from a nearby orchard. It has been a week since I added the yeast and it looks like this (see image attached). I’m thinking it needs to go for longer, but I’m not sure how long, especially since the sediment is still floating and hasn’t sunk. Any tips and advice would be appreciated.

The wine is just apple cider and sugar. With pectic enzyme, acid blend, yeast nutrient, and a campden tablet

u/Equivalent_One_5436 — 14 days ago
▲ 1 r/winemaking

It's my first time making wine and I don't know what the next step is

I am conducting a winemaking/fermentation process for a school activity and my group decided to go with watermelon as a wine. Currently, I am at the 7th day of the fermentation process and the active bubbling as well as the production of co2 is done. What should I do after this state as I am kinda stuck I within the process.

u/Adorable_Corgi_258 — 14 days ago
▲ 1 r/winemaking

Muscadine wine not clearing

Hey all,

I am done with secondary fermentation, and I’ve been spending the last three weeks trying to clear up the wine.

Last year with this same wine, I had no issues clearing it with bentonite. I have no idea what changed this time around, other than I had more pounds of muscadines.

I used bentonite clay (16g) for 3 gallons of wine. Let that sit for 2 weeks. That didn’t do much. So I stirred up the bentonite again and this time cold crashed for another week.

It’s just not clearing up.

I know that it’s okay if it’s a bit cloudy, but I really do prefer to have the look of a mostly clear wine.

What should I try next?

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u/Monstercockerel — 14 days ago