E.C. Kraus Home Wine and Beer Making Supplies

I just started my first batch of Mead. I followed your recipe to the tee. Now after 4 days my SG is 1.062, when will it drop to 1.030-1.040.?Name: Tony A.State: So.Dakota Hello Tony, What you are experiencing is not all that uncommon when fermenting honey, so don't feel like you've done anything wrong or that the Mead is doomed to failure. This is a simple issue with a simple fix. There is an...

Before hops were a common ingredient, beer was flavored with all kinds of herbs, spices, vegetables, flowers, and roots. One such ingredient was ginger, the intensely flavored root frequently used in cooking Indian food and ginger bread cakes. In one of my favorite new brewing books, Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, Stephen Buhner notes that ginger was used by the ancients for its medicinal...

I purchased three cans of Alexander's Pinot Noir concentrate and the recipe on the label calls for 4 tsp. Bentonite and the other ingredients to be put in the fermenter before the wine yeast. The people at our local brewing store said to use Super Kleer instead and that it was better than Bentonite. I understood that both Bentonite and Super Kleer to be for clarifying befoEditre you bottle and not...

Last week we talked about beer yeast -- what it is and why it’s an important part of homebrewing. Today, we’ll go over a simple technique to improve the effectiveness of fermentation in the home brewery. This technique is known as the yeast starter. What is a yeast starter? A yeast starter is a volume of yeast that’s pitched into wort, usually prepared a day or more in advance of brew...

Hi, I was told by a local winemaker, that if you add vanilla bean to a racking of chardonnay, it gives it a subtle nice flavor. Well, we put just half a vanilla bean in and racked it for a month. We just racked again and took the vanilla bean out. The wine has a weird plastic-like taste and smell to it that is rather unpleasant. We are so disappointed because we were so looking forward to...

If you’re a homebrewer, you may have heard about extract efficiency in the brewhouse. But what is efficiency and why does it matter? Extract efficiency is a measurement of the percent of available sugars obtained through the mashing process. Brewing malt contains a certain amount of complex sugars, and the percentage which are extracted in a mash give us the extract efficiency. By...

I've started my first batch of wine using the toasted oak chips, added after the primary fermentation. I am wondering if during the racking process about to be done after the secondary fermentation, do I transfer the oak chips too?Name: Debra M.State: Tennessee Hello Debra, Using oak directly to the wine has long been one of the tricks up the home winemaker's sleeve. It allows you to enjoy all the...

When asked why they do it, many homebrewers will mention that it’s a great way to save money. This may be true, but very few will say it’s the real reason they homebrew. Besides, homebrewers often make a sizable investment in new equipment and enjoy expanding their home brewery arsenal with new gadgets and gizmos. So why do homebrewers do it? Why go through several hours in the kitchen or garage...

There appears to be plenty of information on equipment and supplies, cleaning/sanitation/sterilization, yet I"m having a difficult time of locating a protocol specifically related to maintaining a production area for a home winemaker (counters, floor, fixtures, sinks, drains, walls, etc.). I currently clean up splashes as they occur and monthly I do a fairly thorough wipe down of all surfaces with...

The Belgian saison is a beer for warmer weather. Traditionally, brewers in southern Belgium would brew saisons in the spring for consumption throughout the summer. Want to brew your own saison for this summer? Read on! Saisons, as with many Belgian beers, are difficult to place into strict guidelines. They’re farmhouse ales, often made with adjunct grains, such as spelt, oats, and wheat, and a mix...

We bottled Lambrusco wine in January. We tasted 2 months later and decided it was just not going to be sweet enough. Is it ok to remove the corks-put back into clean container and sweeten more with the wine conditioner and then re-bottle?Name: BarbaraState: Kentucky Hello Barbara, Unfortunately, we get asked this question quite often. I'll start off by giving you the short answer, "yes". What you...

Yeast is the single-celled micro-organism responsible for turning sugar into alcohol. Without yeast, there would be no beer! Even though yeast’s role in fermentation wasn’t discovered until the 1800s, brewers have been using it to make beer for thousands of years. Yeast can be found almost anywhere, in the air, hanging out on fruit, even in this guy’s beard. Regardless of where it comes from,...

When you’re relatively new to home winemaking, following each and every step of a wine recipe is critical,  but where do you even begin finding good wine recipes?  There are a lot of resources out there, and hopefully this post will shed some light on where to find them. Wine Making Books There are a large number of wine making books out there that are full of wine recipes.  It is important to...

For some styles of beer, such as the Bavarian hefeweizen and the Belgian witbier, cloudiness is to be expected. The average consumer, however, has come to expect beer to be crystal clear -- or “bright” as it’s known among beer geeks and professional brewers. Clarity has more influence on aesthetics than flavor, but since the appearance of a beer is the drinker’s first impression, it's an important...

I bottled some blackberry 5/2012. When I opened a bottle this morning it fizzed over and kept bubbling for a while. What did I do wrong, I followed a recipe?Name: Ed W.State: FL Hello Ed, Sorry to hear that your wine has gotten a little out of control. Let's see if we can figure out what's going on. There are basically two ways a wine can end up with gas in it. I'll go over them...

If you are an extract or partial mash homebrewer trying to get started with all-grain brewing, the "Brew in a Bag" (BIAB) method is a great way to make the switch. It’s a little easier than the standard infusion mash, but the big advantage is that you eliminate the need for a separate mash tun (tun is just brew-talk for kettle). Instead of mashing the grains in a mash tun, recirculating your wort,...

My Cabernet Franc and Carmenere, made from juice, both need to have their acid levels increased. Both went through malolactic fermentation. What type of acid is best to use? I have acid blend but it contains malic acid. Would using malic acid defeat the purpose of malolactic fermentation?Name: Dennis D.State: Ohio Hello Dennis, There are three main reasons for wanting a malolactic fermentation...

Many craft beer aficionados have heard the story about where the name “India Pale Ale” comes from. In short, to supply the colony in India, British breweries made ales with increased amounts of hops, taking advantage of the plant’s antimicrobial properties to ensure that the beer would survive the long trip. The American version of the IPA is more robust than the English version and also...

I make wine at home, I do want the wine with more alcohol. But I don't know how to get this done.Name: Ketherina D.State: NY When it comes to controlling the alcohol level of your wines — regardless of how high or how low — it's all about the sugar. Alcohol is made when wine yeast ferments the sugars that are in the wine must. The sugars are converted into both alcohol and carbon dioxide or...

You’ve been waiting patiently while your homebrew ferments away in the closet and you can’t wait to try the beer you’ve worked so hard to create. But how do you know when it’s ready to bottle? First of all, let’s talk about why it’s important to bottle at the right time. The main concern is that if you bottle before the beer has completely fermented, you run the risk of having excessive...