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...
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...
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...
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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...
Read More » »He passed away in 1979 and his equipment and wines were passed on to me. For a number of years all I...Read More » »
Name: Art Willman
Sta... Read More » »
Customer
Service:One of my wine making kits seem to be slow in starting & after a few days, we added another yeast pkg. to the wine......which finally begin activity. With 2 wine yeast pkg. in the wine, will it effect the taste or final product. Is there anything else we should add in this case to get the wine brewing?
Thank you
Chris D.
-----
Hello Chris,
Whether you use one, two or even three packets of wine yeast, it will not have a direct impact on the flavor of the wine. When a single...Read More » »
Hello
Are there electric heater covers available for carboys or plastic
fermenters to keep the working wine at a constant
temperature? I have no ideal place in my location where a
constant temp is available.
Thank You
Carl M.
----------
Hello Carl,
The difficult part about keeping a fermentation artificially
warm is that you need a very mild heat source. It is easy to
over-heat a fermentation and ruining the wine must with too
much heat.
An example of this would be an electric blanket....
Hello Kraus,I'm hoping you can help me. Do you know where I can get a stone crock? I just broke the one I was going to use. We have a lot of elderberries this year and I don't want to see them go to waste. I need to get my wine brewing.
Thank You Very Much
Tim B.
----------
Hello Tim,
I'm very sorry, but we do not have a source for stone crocks.
I would like to point out that a stone crock is not necessary for making wine. In fact, stone crocks are rarely used these days for making wine. Today,...Read More » »
Hello:
I have been having problems with residue in my bottles of rhubarb,
choke cherry, pear and plum wine but have never had a problem with
my wild grape, plum or even choke cherry before.
Bottled three weeks ago and the only one with no residue is my wild
grape. Will unbottle and redo if you think it's warranted.
Thank you in Advance
Mike
----------
Hello Mike,
It sounds like there is one of two things you could do to eliminate the residue problem from occurring in the future. First, you could...
Read More » »
Hello:
I'm getting ready to bottle my wine and noticed that it has a
bubbly taste. Like champagne. Is this because I need to degas it?
Or is there something else going on?
Ken
----------
Hello Ken,
It is very possible that you are correct in your assumption.
The wine may simply need to be degassed. But you should also
verify with a gravity
hydrometer that the wine has actually completed its
fermentation. It is possible that the bubbles you are
experiencing are from a slight, but still...
Hello
Kraus,
I made 5 gallons of grape juice by using a steam
juicer. In this process the stems were still attached to the
grapes. Do I need to do anything special from the normal wine
making process? I was told the stems contain pectin and may require
additives.
Thank you,
Henry
----------
Hello Henry,
I believe what your friend was referring to is the tannin that
is in the stems of the grapes. Tannin is also found in
the seeds and skins.
Some tannin in wine is a good thing. It helps the wine...
Hi.
Can you give me any information on how barometric pressure would
affect the fluid level in an air lock. Some days they show
negative pressure and a day or two later they are making bubbles
again. I can't tell if fermentation is done or not.
Thank you
Jerry
----------
Hello Jerry,
An air-lock is what
seals the outside world from your wine during and
after fermentation. It is a barrier that allows
gases from the fermentation to escape while
keeping little bugs and other intruders out.
You attach...
Hello
EC Kraus:
We have 17 gal of 2009 Syrah, it tastes a little bitter to us.
Should we add conditioner before bottling?
Thank you
Bobbi
----------
Hello Bobbi,
Wine
Conditioner is not designed to cover up bitterness. It is a
wine sweetener for people that do not like their wines dry. A
better avenue would be to try to figure out why the wine
is bitter. Then see if it can be remedied, not masked.
There are two primary faults that can cause bitterness in a
wine:
-
Excessive Tannin
Tannin is a bitter...
Hi
Kraus People -
How is the best way to tell when your wine is ready to
bottle?
Thank You,
Rick
----------
Hello Rick,
Great question, and an important one too. The last thing anyone
wants to do is bottle their wine too soon. This is especially
important if you plan on handing any of it out as
wine making gifts. A significant amount of sediment could
eventually form in the wine bottle, or corks
could possibly push out causing a mess.
Fortunately for us winemakers, it's very easy to determine if...
Dear
Sir;
I have a question concerning adding the wine conditioner
(sweetener) to a batch of Zinfandel wine I just
made.
If the wine has a rather harsh taste at this point (before aging) won't that affect the determination of how much sweetener that needs to be added before bottling? In other words will the harsh taste mask or interfere with the sweetness taste adjustment?
Jay
----------
Hello Jay,
Yes, you are correct. You have to be careful with how much of
a sweetener, such as Wine
Conditioner,...
Of
all the pieces of homemade wine equipment in which
you can invest, the gravity
hydrometer ranks as one of the highest as being money
well spent. Not only can the hydrometer tell you how much
alcohol your wine is going to have, it can tell you how
far along your fermentation has progressed and even
whether or not the fermentation has completed.Yet, many beginning winemakers do not use a hydrometer. I can see their eyes glaze over as I begin to explain to them how the hydrometer works and its...Read More » »