E.C. Kraus Home Wine and Beer Making Supplies

1. Are the mushroom caps easy to install, or do you need special equipment. Do they seal as well as regular corks, (over time). 2. Wine bottles that have a screw top, can you reuse them with a cork.Name: Tom H.State: Davison, Mi Hello Tom, The Mushroom corks are very easy to install. This is the biggest advantage to using them over traditional wine bottle corks. You do not need a wine bottle...

Hi: I made my first wine and it came out great. I made a Cabernet Sauvignon from one of your homemade wine kits. I started it in January and aged it with oak chips for 6 month. Then bottled. It still tastes a little young. Something I do not understand is that it taste better after I let it sit out for a few hours. Why does it improve when left out? Jason ----- Hello Jason,Thanks for the...

We've just added a new corker to our website, and it's one that we are very excited about. It's called the Winery-Grade Floor-Corker. Not only is it a quality corker, it's a corker that we're able to offer at a deceptively-low price of $69.95! It's a floor-model style corker that stands 30 inches tall. What this means is that you are able to stand over it to gain greater leverage. Because it is so...

Hello Winemakers:I am getting ready to start my first batch of wine from concentrate. I am a little confused about the sanitizing process for large pieces of equipment. The directions say to dissolve so much sanitizing stuff to one gallon of water. Does this mean a gallon will do the job? With a 6 gallon tuft tank or a 6 gallon glass carboy, for example, do you pour the gallon in the container and...

This is part 2 of a 4 part series. In the previous post (part 1), we went over how the cork supply and demand became out of balance over the previous decades. In this post we cover how this lack of balance spawned the emergence of synthetic corks. As natural cork became shorter and shorter in supply, and the prices began to rise to unprecedented levels, the situation the wineries found themselves...

More and more often, when you go to decant a bottle of commercially made wine, it's going to be a synthetic cork that pops out. The numbers are hard to pin down, but best estimates guess that roughly 9% of all commercially corked bottles of wine in the world today are corked with synthetic corks, and these numbers appear to be on the rise.Global wine sales have been on the rise as well....

Dear Mr. Kraus, I am a winemaker and I use used wine bottles.  Used cork type wine bottles are becoming harder to find.  I was told by a winery around here that it is ok to use corks in screw type wine bottles as they both have the same inside neck diameter.  I tried corking one filled water and it seemed to work fine. I would like to get your thoughts on this. Thanks William  P.---------- Hello...

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...

Customer Service:   I have made a lot of wine over the years with nearly every fruit imaginable.   It seems, however, I have never understood the correct corking process and rarely got a cork stopper "home" without it wanting to push back out. I use a plunger type corker.I have inserted nylon fishing line between cork and bottle neck and withdrew afterward, with no success and also a long, small...

Here is a very real fact. If you want to put a full-size wine bottle cork into a wine bottle, you need to become a real corker...  What I mean to say is, you need to use a real corker. When you decant a bottle of wine, the cork stopper that you pull out is only a fraction of its original size. This is because the cork was compressed before it was plunged into the wine bottle. Wine corks are...

Hello Kraus, I just started to look into making wine. I read some articles on your website and others. One thing confusing me is it seems like air in the wine is good when it is being made but bad after it is made. How can it be both? Thanking you in advance, Greg ---------- Hello Greg, Oxygen plays a role in wine making in two different ways at two different stages. Early on it's what allows the...

  Hello Can I bottle my wine in beer bottles and use bottle caps or do I have to use cork bottle stoppers because it is wine? I have the stuff to bottle beer but I do not have wine making materials for bottling. If I have to buy corks for beer bottles what ones should i get?  I am planning to make mostly fruit wines. Right now I have a blackberry wine working that I made from frozen blackberries....

If you didn't already know what this blog was about, the term bottle shock might conger up some interesting visions. I personally think of someone getting hit over the head by a bottle while in some bar fight or even hitting yourself in the head like our friend here on the right, but, I digress...What Is Bottle Shock?Bottle shock is a term used to refer to a wine that is suffering from the...

One of the long, ongoing discussions in the world of home wine making is, "should I age my wine in bulk or in bottles?"What Exactly Is Bulk Aging?Bulk aging refers to storing the wine in something similar to a glass water bottle. Home wine makers refer to them as carboys or demijohns. It's important to have a container with a neck of some sort so that the head-space, or air gap, can be mitigated...

Almost everyone understands that wines need to age, but very few people realize just how important aging actually is to a wine. Aging is a process that is most often either underestimated or completely ignored by the home winemaker. In reality, I would venture to say that aging a wine is just as important as the quality of the grapes used to produce the wine. If you're missing either one, the wine...

Many beginning winemakers will be happy to know that you do not have to buy a corker to bottle your wine. We have solutions for sealing wine bottles that can be done without a corker as well as with a corker. When you go to buy corks for your wine bottles you will find that most wine cork stoppers require a corker to press the cork into the wine bottle. This is because a new cork starts out much...

Hello E.C. My question is in regards to Splenda as a sweetener.  I belong to two wine making groups from Yahoo Groups and on occasion Splenda comes up as the subject.  There are both pros and cons regarding Splenda as a sweetener.  Would very much appreciate hearing your opinion on using Splenda as a sweetener.  Thank you. Melinda __________ Dear Melinda,This is definitely an area of home...

Hello:I am getting ready to start my first batch of wine from concentrate. I am a little confused about the sanitizing process for large pieces of equipment. The directions say to dissolve so much sanitizing stuff to one gallon of water. Does this mean a gallon will do the job? With a 6 gallon tuft tank or a 6 gallon glass carboy, for example, do you pour the gallon in the container and slosh it...

Hello, I made elderberry wine with elderberries I put in the freezer last year. I made juice out of them by cooking them in my steam juicer and followed your wine recipe on the website. I want to bottle the wine but do not have a corker. Do you have suggestions on how to stopper a wine bottle with out a corker? Thank you for your help. Becky ---------- Dear Becky, You are correct in assuming that...

Good Morning, Thank you for the info in the newsletters they have been helpful.  I need to know how much air should be above the wine in the bottle. Could you let me know about that so I don’t over/under fill. Dr. Thomas ---------- Dear Dr. Thomas, I'm very glad to hear that you find our wine making newsletters informative and helpful. It is are sincerest goal to provide home winemakers with the...