Grape Juice for Wine Making

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
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Hello Clayton,

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

Hello Kraus,

I have been making wine from top end ($200+) wine kits and really getting into it.

I was wondering if I should continue with wine kits or jump into creating wine from fresh grapes. I guess my questions is: What will produce a better red wine, a high end wine kit or quality fresh grapes?

Best Regards,
Dominick S.
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Hello Dominick,

This is really a great question, and one that I'm sure is on the minds of many individuals who use these homemade wine kits, so I'll cut right to the...

Hi,

I have started with 32 lbs. of concord grapes, sorted and crushed.  The recipe (doubled) on page 19 of your book named "Winemaker's Recipe Handbook", recipe #54, the Concord "Fresh -Dessert" one does not call for any water, where the other Concord choices of wine recipes do call for water. 

As I have never made wine before that did not call for some water, what can I expect this wine to be like, dryish, or not, I am at a loss as to what to expect. Should I add some water?

Thanks
Kelly
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Any of the wine making books you read, will tell you that grapes need to be crushed and pressed. The same holds true for the directions that typically come with wine making recipes. But what does crushing and pressing actually mean?

Many beginning wine makers think they both to mean the same thing, that the terms are interchangeable, when in fact both mean something very different. To understand just how different you must first know a little bit about the wine making process.

When making wine...

Hello-
 
I've never made wine; but, I'm slowly acquiring the wine making materials. I would like to make fruit wines mostly plum and perhaps strawberry and peach.
 
From what I've been reading it seems that either one starts with juice and does the whole fermentation process that way or that one ferments the chopped up raw fruit contained in a bag for a week or so and then continues the fermentation process in a different container less the pulp.
 
My question is:  Will the wine be better...

Hello E.C. Kraus,

I recently purchased your County Fair concord juice. I am planning to use 4 cans to make 5 gallons. I noticed the can shows 5 tsps of acid blend for 4 cans, but your wine recipe page online shows to use 1 tbsp [3 tsps] with 40# of fresh concord grapes and none in 80# version of the recipe.
 
Why is there a difference? I don’t want the wine to have a “bite” it can have with too much acid.  What do you suggest?

Thanks Kelly
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Dear Kelly,
 
I can certainly understand your...

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
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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...

The Wine Institute, a California based organization representing over 1,000 wineries throughout the state of California, stated in it's recent report that the U.S. has now surpassed France in the amount of wine it consumes. In 2010, we Americans consumed some 330 million cases of wine, topping France's 320 million cases for the same year. This makes the U.S. the largest consumer of wine in the world.

While France is still the biggest consumer of wine on a per capita bases, this report still...