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Forgive me, I've been racking my wine today so have a good buzz going. Well today was a busy day. I've always used distilled water in my airlocks. Used everclear in my apple cider airlocks on a friend's suggestion because fruit flys were bad this year. It evaporates faster than water so air got into my cider. Needless to say, I'm kinda bummed. I made vinegar for the first time. I was making the cider for Thanksgiving. On the plus side though, I now have a couple gallons of flavorful vinegar. I'm kinda glad I ran out of 5 gallon carboys. I had to put it into 5 1 gallon carboys. I at least have some because 3 of them were fine. I'm going to turn 2 of them into brandy. Leaving me a mere gallon to bottle. I'm cold crashing a dandelion mead and a watermelon I made in the spring. Both taste phenomenal. Tomorrow will be bottling day. I'll take some pics and post.

Forgive me, I've been racking my wine today so have a good buzz going. Well today was a busy day. I've always used distilled water in my airlocks. Used everclear in my apple cider airlocks on a friend's suggestion because fruit flys were bad this year. It evaporates faster than water so air got into my cider. Needless to say, I'm kinda bummed. I made vinegar for the first time. I was making the cider for Thanksgiving. On the plus side though, I now have a couple gallons of flavorful vinegar. I'm kinda glad I ran out of 5 gallon carboys. I had to put it into 5 1 gallon carboys. I at least have some because 3 of them were fine. I'm going to turn 2 of them into brandy. Leaving me a mere gallon to bottle. I'm cold crashing a dandelion mead and a watermelon I made in the spring. Both taste phenomenal. Tomorrow will be bottling day. I'll take some pics and post.

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[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

Thanks for the tip. Even with the rare negative pressure it wouldn't even be the full airlock, just a few drops at best. This info will help. I'm fairly new. Only started at the beginning of last spring. Enjoyed the first couple gallons I made and went mildly overboard when I picked up someone's wine supplies from an estate sale. One of the only problems I have now is not having enough carboys to keep going. lol

[–] • 0 pt

Estate sales are awesome. Everyone and their brother has some 5 gallon glass carboy that they're happy to be rid of for unde $20... But you go try and buy a new one and they're expensive, plus ups will destroy them. Ive made wine and beer before. Made okay wine, but some really kick ass beer.

Buddied up to a local distiller and got to play around with a professional legal rig, and that is probably my strong suit. Plus for the prepping side of things, a few jars of whisky carry a lot more weight than a jar of beer or wine.

Very fun hobby tho

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt

Yeah, picked up 30 1 gallon carboys, 4 5 gallon carboys, 2 6.5 gallon carboys, a stainless steel racking cane, a floor corker, an auto syphon, a stainless steel degassing wand, and some books for $100. Had too much fun with it that I invested a bit more to set up a corner on my basement for full time brewing. I'd like to learn to brew beer, specifically dark lagers (my faves). That'll need to wait until I've learned to use this 5 gallon still my girl got me for our anniversary. I won't have time for that until after the holidays. Granted I am making some apple Brandy(apple Jack) now, but I'm using freezer distillation instead of the still. I know the final product won't be as smooth, but what would one expect from a novice.

[–] • 0 pt

Freezer jack is great stuff, killer hangover, but really tasty