E. C. Kraus

One of the most important aspects of making your own wine is keeping things sanitary. It's important because wine is a like a living thing.

It needs to be protected from wild molds, bacteria, etc. Without proper care your wine can become overtaken by these foreign organisms and eventually spoiled.

Yet, sanitizing is overlooked or treated lightly by many home wine makers and understandably so. It takes time and effort to be sanitary. Simply put, it's work!

Who wants to spend their time sanitizing...

Hello Kraus,

I have a quick question that I can't find the answer to. I'm hoping you can help me out. Which is better, campden tablets, sodium metabisulfite or potassium metabisulfite? I've looked in several places but don't understand why you need all 3 to make wine.

Shaun
-----
Hello Shaun,

Thanks for the great question. This is an issue that perplexes many wine making hobbyist. So I'm glad you brought it up.

The first thing to understand is that all three of these wine making ingredients do the...

Dear Kraus,

I have a batch of peach wine and a batch of pear wine in 5 gallon glass jugs ready to bottle.  Both need to be sweetened at bottling time to bring out more of the fruit flavor.  Please explain to this rookie exactly how you sweeten the wine as you bottle it.  Do you add the sugar/water solutions to each bottle or do you add to the 5 gallon glass jugs, stir, and then bottle??  Same question on how to add the chemicals to prevent re-fermentation and oxidation.  And, is plain sugar OK...

Hi:

Today is day 8 and I just transferred my wine from the plastic fermenter to a glass carboy like the homemade wine instructions say to do. I do not see the wine brewing at all. Shouldn't the wine still be fermenting? Do I have a problem?

Please help!
Robert
-----
Hello Robert.

I am going to assume that you are making your wine from a wine ingredient kit such as our European Select or KenRidge Classic since you mentioned "day 8" much like their directions would.

How fast your fermentation goes can...

Hi E.C.Kraus!

I'm new to home winemaking. I made red and white wines this year and have them resting in 54 L carboys (with air-locks) after the initial fermentation is completed. The storage room does have a pretty high temperature (65degF), but it doesn't fluctuate.

After a month, I decided to start drinking the red one. It tastes great now. So, every weekend I open the carboy and have 1.5 L of wine siphoned into a regular bottle.

I'm wondering if opening the carboy every week (as a result...

Hello Kraus:

Last fall I acquired some good wine grapes.. red and white not enough of either for 5 gals.. thought I could make a blush, so I added them together.. it turned a reddish color but cloudy. So I added your Speedy Bentonite three weeks later i have clear whiskey color,  what happened?

Thanks Art
-----
Hello Art,

It sounds like your homemade wine has oxidized from excessive air exposure. Just like when an apple starts to turn brown after being bitten into, a wine can turn brown when it is...

Hi:

I made 5 gallons of Sauvignon Blanc this past year. I will be ready to bottle in the near future. I read on most commercial wine bottles that they contain sulfites. My understanding this is a stabilizer and to protect the wine yeast from refermentation. I am in the process of sending an order in and would like to know what to use and what amt. per gallon?

Thanks TOM
-----

Hello Tom,

Sulfites are added to a wine just before bottling, primarily to help eliminate spoilage and keep the wine's...

Hello EC Kraus Folks,

Thank you for the speedy delivery of my requested catalog.  I ordered it only a few days ago but now I've read the whole thing and am almost ready to place an order for a wine kit.  However, I have a questions.
 
I would like to buy a kit, but would prefer to make a fruit wine.  So I'm planning on buying the Your Fruit! Wine Making Kit and then buying the County Fair Fruit Base.  I'm confused about the number of cans (46 oz) I need or want... the catalog suggests using...

E.C. Kraus Customer Service --

Thanks again for being there.  You're greatly helping an amateur wine-maker get by the label "amateur".

Three part question, all on potassium sorbate.  This is a question recognizing that potassium sorbate does not stop fermentation, but is used to keep wines from starting to ferment again after the fermentation has been completed.

1).  When should the potassium sorbate be added to the wine -- is it sufficient to add to the wine at day of bottling or should it be...

Dear Kraus:

I am new at this wine making process. I am in the last stages and decided to take a small taste test even though I still have 2 or 3 days left in the last stage. It is terrible! Can the wine get better in that short period of time or is it to far gone and will not come out good?

Please Help, Gwen
-----

Hello Gwen,

It is completely normal for a wine to be harsh at bottling time. Even though the wine is about to go into bottles it does not mean that it is done becoming wine.

The wine...

Hi,

I crushed my grapes in late September & squeezed them. Then racked it 2 times since then. It's been almost 2 months since the last racking and 1 of the 5 gallon wine carboys is starting to bubble again just slightly. What is happening should I do anything. The other 3 carboys are not doing this???
 
Thanks Rick
-----
Hello Rick,

It's hard to know exactly what is going on with your forth carboy, but here are your possibilities:

1) Your wine has started to ferment again: This means that the...

Kraus folks:

Could you tell me what solution should go into the bottle tree rinser -- could I use campden tables?

Rick F.
-----
Hello Rick,

The Bottle Tree Rinser/Sulphatizer is designed to be used with a sulfite solution. What this means is that you can use either Campden Tablets, Sodium Metabisulfite or Potassium Metabisulfite with water to make the sanitizing solution that goes into the bottle rinser's reservoir.

The dosage is pretty straight-forward. You use either 16 Campden Tablets or one...

Dear Kraus,

Has anyone used STEVIA to sweeten the wine before bottling? It might take more than expected but I would like to try it.

I am Diabetic and adding sugar to sweeten the wine just adds problems, so I don’t drink my wine, which my wife is okay with… because she can drink it without problem.  

Could there be problem using this sweetener after fermentation?

Thanks in advance.
Bob W.
-----
Hello Bob,

There is nothing wrong with using stevia to sweeten a wine at bottling time. I have not used it...

Hello,

My friend and I make wine from grapes. A year ago we bought your fruit crusher FP130 and now we are wondering do we instead need the crusher/destemmer? We want to keep grape hulls and juice together for fermentation, does the crusher/destemmer allow the hulls to pass through and not the stems or is it the catch stand that collects everything but the juice?

Thank-you,
Clayton
-----
Hello Clayton,

As you may already know, the grape crusher that you have is only going to crush the grapes. The...