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The plastic yellow cap on juice bag tends to be extremely hard to open, of cause - for safety during transport.

U can buy a small tool from wine stores, $2/$3, or just use the beer bottle opener.  It works like a charm.

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Please, PLEASE, do not kiss your syphon tube: ( 麻烦 不要请其他人 吃你的唾液)
- Fill the tube+hose with water, close the clamp,
- put tube inside your bucket/carboy, put a glass at the other end of hose,
- open the clamp, let water run into glass, close the clamp, dump the water
proceed normal.

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There are recipes on web on home made Sake.  Not popular, but u can also find kit(s).

Japanese Sake is made from rice, the clarifying agent for Sake is about 30 characters long   but it is in human saliva.  Some people don't want to pay the $7 or $10 'clarifying agent(chemical?)' and just spit their own saliva into Sake.   It does work, so . . . . . .      

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Follow instructions again, TO THE LETTER.

The proper wordings for degassing are 'degas till your arm drops' (when u don't think your arm belongs to u   )

There are gadgets that they sell at wine store, we buy electric drill, vacuum pump, etc.  Many crazy things that we do to degas, can be quit obsessive      Many video on U-tube web site. Search and watch videoS on DEGAS.

Wine made from frozen juice doesn't have this gas problem.

Way to check/test gas:
- look for those small bubbles on side of glass, or
- pour little wine out of bottle.  Put your thumb over opening, shake bottle.  Put your ear to the opening before releasing your thumb, listen to that h-i-s or p-o-p sound.   

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Most instructions tell u to bottle on Day 28 or 30.  For those of u who don't filter, I suggest u to:
- syphon your wine once more,
- add 1/4 tsp. of metabisuphite (anti-oxidation) (dissolve in little water),
- let wine rest in carboy for 3-8 extra weeks.

99% sure u will find an extra layer of settlement in your carboy.  So your choice.

Above extra step will be OK for your guarantee.

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The only change u can do to kits without voiding your guarantee are:
- change oak (type), (not 100% sure of this, please double check with your manufacturer)
- change quantity of oak, (I double mine sometimes)
- add oak after wine stabilized (on day 30) instead of day 1.

Oak added on day 1 during primary are more mellow.  Oak added to wine when finished remain hash for longer time before it'll mellow out.  Some expensive kits used 2 stage oaking, using different types of oak at different stages.

For those of u who want to try out few bottles of sparkling wine, SKIP OAK ON DAY 1.  U can always add it back when wine is done, just need few extra months of aging for oak to mellow.  Steal wine on day 21 BEFORE u add suphite+sorbat+clarifying agents for your experiment.  Oak NEVER goes well in sparkling wine.

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Per instructions, after u syphon, u throw out the junk at bottom of containers.  

Instead, pour junk into a wine bottle with airlock, or soft drink bottle with loose cap(to allow gas to come out).  Let it sit for few days, if bottle is almost full, u can let it sit for few weeks.  The longer it sits, the more wine u will get (as the junk compact itself).  Use that for cooking or if u dare, drink it. :p

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"Extra Time" I used is also called BULK AGE (=Long Term Aging=6 months or more).  Corrections in red below:

Most instructions tell u to bottle on Day 28 or 30. For those of u who don't filter, I suggest u to:
- siphon your wine once more,
- add 1/4 tsp. of metabisulphite (anti-oxidation) (dissolve in ~50ml water/wine),
- let wine rest in carboy for 3-8 extra weeks.
- top up with wine or water, till ~2-3" air space below bung + airlock. (to prevent oxidation)

99% sure u will find an extra layer of settlement in your carboy. So your choice.

Above extra step will be OK for your guarantee.

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The biggest enemy of wine is oxygen.  If u bulk age, make sure your carboy is "completely filled up", leaving ~2-3" air space below rubber bung + airlock, for possible expansion(wine) due to temperature change.

Day 7 - top up with water per manufacturers' instruction, if any.

Day 21 (and or Day 30 if u were to bulk age your wine) - Believe the recommendation from manufacturers are mixed, some suggest water, some suggest wine.  Amongst older wine makers, we all agreed to top up with wine only.  Most people claim that they can taste the last water addition.  

For top up, best to use same style wine.  Most of us just top up with whatever wine we have on hand, too expensive to top up with commercial wine.  The little addition of different wine won't affect the taste much.  One of my friends religiously makes a batch of Chateauneuf de Pape for top up. The wine style is supposed to be a blend of ~13 different grapes, theoretically should blend well with most wines.

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Stuck fermentation = fermentation stop halfway.

I've never seen this happen to regular wine kit, except Port/Sherry which are at higher alcohol level:

- buy a pack of EC-1118, (~$1, we call it all-purpose-yeast or the-killer-yeast  :p )
- rehydrate yeast per instructions on back of yeast package,
- add 1-2 cups of your 'fermenting' grape juice, wait 0.5-2 hours and see it ferment
(only 1 type of yeast can survive, let them kill each other; let's pray that EC-1118 will kill the unknown one)
- add few more cups of your juice, wait few hours till ferment, then pour the whole thing into your big batch.
(This is to get a bigger population of EC-1118 to work in your big batch)

Yeast companies: http://www.lallemandwine.us/products/yeast_strains.php

(For juice/kit that doesn't start after ~10 days, we normally throw in 2nd dose of same yeast.)
(For juice/kit, check with your manufacturer before doing anything.  Products are guaranteed, follow manufacturer's advice.)