Homemade Wine Equipment

One of the most commonly used ingredients in home wine making are Campden Tablets. You will find them in almost any of the wine making recipes you will use; talked about in almost any of the wine making books you will read; and called into action by just about any of the homemade wine instructions you will follow.

What Do Campden Tablets Do?
The original reason these tablets were used in wine making was to keep the wine from spoiling after it had been bottled. By adding these tablets at bottling...

Hi Kraus,

What kind of alcohol tester other the vinometer can I buy to measure the alcohol of my finished homemade wine?

Thanks Joshua
----------
Dear Joshua,

Of all the wine making products that exist, the vinometer is the only one that home winemakers can practically use to test the final alcohol level of a finished wine. It is somewhat accurate when testing a dry wine, but if your wine has any residual sugars, the reading will be thrown way off.

Most wineries rely on a refractometer and/or a gr...

1. Pour an inch worth of the...

Hello,

I'm curious as to when the threat of wine turning to vinegar is over, if ever, and what causes it. Is there an in depth explanation anywhere I can get the science of this?

Thanks Jane

----------

Dear Jane,

Acetic acid is what makes vinegar taste like vinegar. If you had acetic acid in a jar and poured some of it into a fruit drink, it would immediately start to take on the characteristics of vinegar.

Acetic acid is made by a bacteria known as acetobacter. This bacteria is everywhere: in the...

Hello:

I have almost 4 gallons of Scuppernong grape juice that I've gotten with my steam juicer this year. I would like to know how to make white wine with it. I was needing to know how much water to add to it. I would like to know what other wine making materials/ingredients I will need. I already have equipment. Can you help me with this.

Thanks Fred

----------

Dear Fred,

With actual wine grapes you would use 100% juice to make the wine. This means if you have 5 gallons of grape juice, you make...

Hello,

I am making the Strawberry Zinfandel Niagara Mist, for the first time. I have it in secondary fermentation now. It has 4 more days [before bottling] according to the directions. My question is, how do you know if it's done? I'm using the glass S shape airlock, but very rarely have seen any bubbles since early the first day. Please help.

Thank you.

Jane

----------

Dear Jane,

It is important to realize that typically 80% of the fermentation activity will be over around the 3rd or 4th day...

This time of the year we receive a lot of various questions about making wine from the different fruits that are coming into season. One particular question we get quite often has to do with making homemade grape wine:

What type of homemade wine equipment will I need for making wine from grapes?

Well... it depends. I know what your thinking, why can't this guy give us a straight answer? I want to, but that would not do you or the question any justice.

The answer depends on the amount of grapes you...

Hey eckraus.com -

Although you do a good job of explaining the wine starter kits, I'm still not sure what I need to purchase.  I'd like to start making fruit wines and was looking at the Your Fruit Necessities Box.  I don't have any wine making products at all so I would like to know what I need to buy in addition to this kit.  Let's say I want to start with strawberry wine.  I have the wine starter kit in my shopping cart and now I need to add . . . bottles?  strawberry fruit mix (how...

Help,

I'm getting together some homemade wine equipment. Question: does the secondary fermenter have to be (6) gal. for making (5)gal.of wine??? 

Thanks 
James T.

---------- 

Hello James T.,

The primary fermenter needs to be about 6 gallons for 5 gallons batch of wine. This is to allow room for the foaming, otherwise you have a potential for foam to come through the rubber stopper, out the air-lock and on to your floor.

But when it comes to the secondary fermenter, you would like it's size to...

Hi,
I ordered a starter kit and some other cool stuff from you, and will be ready to bottle my first batch of wine soon. I would rather use regular corks instead of the plastic top corks in the kit. I have a hodge podge of scavenged wine bottles to use in the 750ml range (or what ever the regular wine bottle is). What size corks would you recommend for this? I didn't know there were so many different sizes to choose from, and what are the different lengths for?

Thanks,
Paul K.

----------

Dear...

Hello Kraus People:

My husband is interested in making wine. We have vines and vines of grapes every year that either go for making jelly or the birds. We have tried all around us in Live Oak, Florida to find kits and my niece in California found you. We would need a starter kit with directions. Plenty of directions. If you could tell us what we need to order we will be glad to do so.

Thank you very much, Sarah E.
------

Dear Sarah,

We have three different homemade wine kits. Two of them are...

When you're making wine from grapes one of the major tasks at hand is getting all those grapes crushed up. You can do it all by hand, or you can do it the easy way and get a grape crusher.

A good grape crusher will only burst the grapes and not mangle or shred the skins. Grape skins that are over processed will release excessive, bitter tannins (tannic acid) into the wine during primary fermentation and pressing. And, that's a bad thing.

It's important that the grapes be crushed correctly. You...