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...

Home winemaking is an enjoyable hobby that can bring you great joy, but if you’re not prepared, it can be frustrating and near impossible.  It’s important to understand the first steps in winemaking; to get a solid grasp of the basics, as well as an understanding of why it is you are doing what you are doing at any step of the way. One of the first steps in winemaking that you should do is to get...

I am making a Cab Sauvignon from the California Connoisseur wine kit. I also plan on making a Merlot next and would like to blend some of the two wines before bottling. I would like to save half of the Cab in a 3 gal carboy and bottle the other half. However, at what step in the process is it best to store the bulk Cab while I am making the Merlot? After Stabilization and...

There are many more pieces of homemade wine equipment than can be described in one short post.  It is very important to understand the different types of homemade wine equipment, how they function, and whether or not a particular piece of winemaking equipment is needed in your home.  Therefore it’s important to introduce to you as many pieces of equipment as possible in as many posts as it takes!...

Another year has passed, and the rearview mirror is full! I always use this time as an opportunity to reflect on what's happened. In doing so I have come up with a list of my top 10 favorite wine making posts. These are wine making post that I feel have been helpful, entertaining and interesting. They are listed in no particular order. You might want to give them a once-over and see if there's...

There’s a lot of variation in how to make your own wine, however, the same basic steps apply regardless of what type of wine you make. Must preparation: For this step of how to make your own wine, the fruit or wine grapes are made into a mushy substance, known as the “must”.  During this stage, sugar and acid levels must balance so that when following the wine recipe it leads to a well-balanced...

Sorry to give this post such a grim title, but oxidation is really not a very happy subject for me. I'd rather be writing about something more positive, but that wouldn't be doing you any favors. Every home winemaker needs to learn about the harsh realities of wine oxidation. If not for any other reason, so that they can learn how to avoid it. Louis Pasteur, the father of modern microbiology, once...

A friend had given me a wine-making recipe that I have used for several years. It doesn't call for special yeast's, but one regular pack of bread yeast. One quart of Cranberry Juice; two cans of Concentrated Grape Juice; One pound of white cane sugar. Plus one gallon glass jug, rubber cork & economy-lock.I dissolved the yeast first, place in the jug first. Then I semi-dissolve the sugar in 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...

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....

I grew up in a small steel town northwest of Pittsburgh. Most of the Italian families I knew made homemade wine and mine was no different. My Grandfather even grew his own grapes. No matter what the occasion was or which family's house we were in, there was always wine on the table.My own making wine story began about 15 years ago. Having moved across the country to California, and although wine...

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. ----- Hello Dominick, This is really a great question, and one that I'm...

Oh OH, Mr.” wineproblemsolver”,I have a stuck ferment in my wild grape wine at 1.012. I tried adding a fresh yeast culture and yeast nutrient and it has not responded. My guess is I had the sugar to high. I was reading about 1.090 at the start but realized there was undissolved sugar in the bottom of the fermenter. I am not sure how much. The fermentation went well to SG 1.015 and then stalled....

Hello Kraus: Is there a wine making kit for dummies that is both easy and cheaper than buying at the store (dry wine)? Thanks ---------- Hello Anthony,   Yes, we have just that! Our SunCal Wine Making Kit is a beginner wine making kit that was designed to allow you to make wine less expensively than what you can buy it at the store. It includes all the wine making materials and ingredients you...

  Hi After I bottle my wines, I'm getting a small amount of sediment in the wine bottles after about a month. Talking to several people about this, they say I'll probably always have this unless I start filtering my wine. I don't make a lot of wine so it is hard to justify buying a pressure wine filtering system.My question is how do coffee filters compare with the wine filters you sell with your...

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...

Quick question, If you have frozen fruit (like I do) for months do you need to use Sodium Metabisulfite when you start the wine brewing process or does the freezing kill all the bad stuff. Thanks, Steven ---------- Hello Steven,Unfortunately, freezing does not destroy mold, bacteria or other "bad stuff". It simply puts its growth into suspension, or hibernation if you like. Freezing will damage...

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...

Hi EC, How long can finished wine be stored in gallon glass jugs? Gabe ----------- Dear Gabe, There is nothing unique to homemade grape wine that makes it spoil any faster or keep any better than commercially made wines. As long as the homemade grape wine is treated properly, it will keep just as long and as good as wines stored in glass jugs that you purchase at the store. What does treated...

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....