I have made and corked fruit wines for several years now, but haven't paid much attention to corks. I have never had a "corked" wine, right up until a few weeks ago when a coworker shared a bottle that was obviously ruined with TCA. What a nightmare.

My first real grape wine was pressed last year, and I bottled it up about a month ago. Out of curiosity, I decided to open one, then two, then three this week, and every time the corks had a similar but very faint musty smell. Needless to say, I am not feeling great about this​.

Is this just how very young corks can smell? Or is this a terrible omen for my cellar?

Edit/follow up: The smell really is super faint, it takes a couple smells to really get and it has not affected the taste of the wine yet. Would it be worth seeing whether it will progress, or should it be quickly dumped and recovered as brandy?

[Obligatory writing this on mobile so apologies for the formatting or spelling errors.] I posted this to the Homebrew Daily Q&A, but thought I could do with more eyes on the question.

Posting this question here, mostly looking for peace of mind. I made a plum wine using fruit from my backyard, but I did not sterilize pasteurize or boil the must. I did inoculate the batch with 1118 yeast, and added some sugar as well, but apparently neglected to take a starting gravity reading. It brewed for a little over a month, and when I went to put it in the fridge to cold crash I noticed that it had little beige dots along the top.

After a couple of weeks cold crashing in the fridge, I pulled it out and noticed that those little beige dots had kind of grouped together in little islands and some had disbursed throughout the column, but they had not formed mat like I would expect from kahm yeast or pellicle... BUT they also didn't look fuzzy and white or dark or green like molds would.

I did end up racking it again, and I tried back sweetening it with prune juice (this was a mistake) and at this point I'm a little hesitant to drink it. Aside from the fact that it doesn't taste so great sure to the added juice, I'm also hesitant because I'm kind of squicked out by the potential infection.

Basically, what's the worst that could happen? Should I bottle the batch risking it for some mediocre (at best) brew, or should I just play it safe and let it go down the drain?

Decided i want to try making some wine from some grapes growing in my parents backyard. Picked a bunch, crushed it with my feet very well(yes,yes, i washed my feet), grape skins and some stems were left behind (i didn't put anything through strainer/filter or anyhing like that). Heated all of that to ~ 65 C / 150 F and left it to cool to about to 25c / 77F, poured into vessel then pitched yeast(according to instructions) and some "yeast food". Starting gravity was 1.080, I'am aiming for 10%-13% abv wine. I'm planning to keep it in ~20c / 68F room, covered from direct sun light, stirring in the morning and the evening.

My main question is: how do i go about second fermentation? Do i keep fermenting for ~2 weeks, strain skins/seeds and so on away, then keep all that fluid in a vesse until its done fermenting completly(hydrometer shows ~0?)? Do I need to add something ? Any comment is appreciated.

ps not looking for the 10/10 wine, just something that wont make me sick after drinking it 😄

I like making wine and mead from things I grow, forage or pick. Late in the summer I noticed the wild black cherries that grow all over the place and thought, "let me wine that." Pasteutizing and bottling with a friend today! Tastes pretty good as a semisweet red. Heavy body.

My wife and I just bought a new piece of property in Wisconsin. It has a small vineyard on it but we know absolutely nothing about wine making. The previous owners made wine but we have no idea what to do. Does anyone have any ideas where to start? Book recommendations, web page recommendations? We don’t even know what kind of grapes we are growing. 🤣

I ended up with about 3 5 gallon buckets of backyard grapes from family this year and am giving winemaking a shot. Just wanted some thoughts on if this is an acceptable level for bulk aging after racking off the lees?

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This was made with a wine kit. Which include the juice extract, carbon, yeast, and a sweetener. I haven’t used the sweetener yet.

I've never done wine before, first time trying out of curiosity. I harvested back in July around 10-15 lbs. of (what I was told) Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. I froze them in bags, and barely today I took them out to thaw. I removed them while still half-way frozen. I washed them, and placed on the stainless steel pot and squeezed by hand. I did throw in the the deep blue along with some half green ones because they tasted sweet. . Now, is this brownish, murky-looking color right? I thought it might be reddish. I already crushed the campden tablet and threw it in there. If this is spoiled already, I'd love to know so I don't move forward with the process.

Thanks in advance.

Hello, i recently found a recipe from my grandmother on how to make some wine and i thought it would be fun to try. Unfortunately I am a poor college student and my setup feels a bit barbaric. I just wanted to ask if I was doing things okay. I used a 5L jug, and i added around 5 cups of sugar, maybe a bit more. I used a 7g packet of dry yeast i found from the cooking aisle at my grocery store. I'm not sure if there's a specific kind of yeast you're supposed to use. Then I shook it all up and put a balloon on top for "gassing." Will this work well enough? Or will I be better off throwing the whole thing out? Also, the recipe said to wait 5 weeks, but im not sure what to do after that. Is it ready to drink right away?

Thanks for any advice, it is all appreciated.

I am a beginner looking for recommendations on red wine kits, or modifications you made after starting with a particular kit that produced outstanding results. I imagine with skins and maybe seeds . . . Something with character and complexity. I like good Argentine Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignin, Pinot Noir to give am idea of preference. I don't mind spending money on high end kits. Thank you in advance.

Our apple wine was made 9 days as a project for our science subject at school, I've strained on day 5 but there are still some particles Floating around. The ingredients used for the wine are apples, sugar, water, and yeast

I knew it was a little full, but... At least I was smart enough to put it in a container. I think it was because I added tea and a new kind of yeast nutrient. Was kind of pretty in a way. Haha

Hey everyone! I’m interested in starting a vineyard and wine business, and I’d love to hear your ideas.
What are some crazy but practical ideas that could make a vineyard successful? I’m interested in the full business process, from growing grapes and making wine to branding, marketing, selling, and making a profit.
If you were starting from zero, what would you do differently? How would you make the business stand out from other vineyards?
Please share your ideas and explain why you think they would work. I’d love to hear real experiences, creative ideas, and lessons from people in the wine business.
Thanks!

Bottle this wine from a kit a while ago. Had issues from the start, fermentation stalled and couldn't get it going again so it's super sweet. Bottled it anyways and found these particles floating. Pretty sure it was pretty clear when it was bottled. Thoughts? Thinks it's safe?

Hello! First time attempt at wine for myself, I have roughly 11 gallons of Sangiovese juice, no skins pulp etc. I had good activity happening when I purchased it and within 3-4 days of getting home it has been pretty dormant looking. My temperature via a meat thermometer lol is 65-66 degrees Fahrenheit. It doesn’t look discolored, no film on top, no funky smell things look good from the naked eye. My question is what temperature should this be sitting at and have I goofed early on?

TIA!

Hey guys! I got 20 cuttings from my local vineyard which I had planted a couple of months ago at the end of Winter. I never cultivated the soil but the area they are planted in are very well drained. Have I made a big mistake and should just restart next year? Is it a good idea to dig them out the ground and cultivate the soil? They have recently started to grow little buds and leaves so surely they are ok!