E.C. Kraus Home Wine and Beer Making Supplies

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...

For the first time ever I ordered juice concentrate, your merlot and blackberry, to try making a large batch of my favorite flavors. Well, I followed the directions to the letter and it all fermented nicely in the primary. After 5 days racked it to the secondary, a glass 5 gallon carboy but for the first time left a little head space of a couple inches figuring that it would be ok since it it was...

... I was looking for different ways to sweeten my wine and came across this [corn sugar] in your beer section of your catalog. That is some sweeten there beer with corn sugar instead of cane sugar. The article said it would give the beer a crisper taste. How do you think this would affect the wine? Thanks PatrickName: Patrick DavisState: GA Hello Patrick, It is true that most beermakers...

I am new to making white wine (past 3 seasons). I have made red for about 10 years. I use fresh California grape wine juices in Sept. I have not figured out how to keep my whites from clouding after bottling. I rack several times then cold stabilize and rack several more times and the wine is clear. Any suggestions on where I might be going wrong.Name: JerryState: NY Hello Jerry,There are...

I have really become enamored with the flavor of ground cherries and have made jam and marmalade with them this year, but really want to make some wine with the few quarts left in the freezer from summer, but none of my wine making books mention using them...any ideas? Was planning on mixing white grape concentrate with them, but don't know what amounts to use. Thanks for your help-Name: Debra...

When making white wines it tastes fine right after fermentation, but after a while the wine gets bitter and strong. What do I do to solve this problem?Name: Richard LandryState: Massachusetts Hello Richard, Most likely you are dealing with is what's known as "bottle shock".  This can be noticed as a flabby diminish of the wine's fruitiness and bouquet. The acids can seem out of whack, and in some...

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...

Help! I was wondering if you can straighten me out on something. I have heard that you should add campden tablets before you add the wine yeast. I should also add campden tablets after every time I rack the wine. Then add them before I bottle the wine. That seems like a lot to me. Thanks Gary ----- Hi Gary, Thanks for such an interesting question. You do need to use Campden Tablets or some other...

Hello Kraus Folks: I have been reading your blog for some time. My neighbor makes wine and said I should try it.  I have a question. He uses a wine filter to clear his wine. Is this required to make wine. He says it is not but I don't see how if you don't have something to clear it. Eric ----- Hello Eric, Let me start off by saying that you can make perfectly clear wine without using a wine filter...

This is Part II of a 2 part series on wine oxidation. Part I covers the effects of oxidation. Part II, this part, covers how to avoid it. The first thing I'm going to say about avoiding oxidation might not be what you'd expect, but it's important to know. Make sure the fermentation has plenty of oxygen in the beginning — particularly the first 2 to 3 days of fermentation. This is the time when...

This is the last of a two part series. In Part I we discussed how you can imporve your wines by testing and adjusting its acidity with an Acid Test Kit. Here are 7 quick tips for using your Acid Test Kit. These are tips that will help you get the most accurate readings you can when using your kit: Play Around With The Kit Before Actually Needing ItThe Acid Test Kit will provide you with about 50...

Here are five wine making tips for using a grape press. These are basic bits of information that describes the central role grape presses play when making wine at home.1 . You Can Press More Than Just Grapes With A Wine Press: While grape presses are sold with the intent of being used for making grape wine, they work perfectly fine for pressing other fruits. Everything from tiny elderberries on up...

Hi Kraus I have tried oaking wine to my satisfaction with oak chips. Now I want to make my own oaking strips. I purchased some white oak that I sawed into yard stick width and thickness.  I noticed in the wine supplies different types of flavors for oaking. I was told it was like flavored coffee.  What should I do to the strips so as I can oak wine? Thanks, Marvin F.----- Hello Marvin, First, I...

I started making wine from age 10 years unfortunately faced many problems such as oxidation also in my country they leave the pulp up to 50 days in the containers (cause strengthen taste).... but now because of your valuable information of your website I enhanced the ways.......First I collect ripen fruits of both red and white grapes clean them and destemming the mix the ratio that I want of...

I have 7 riesling vines that are 6 years old and another 32 that are 4 years old. From this I was only able to produce 3 gallons of juice and wine. I have placed 3rd place each of the last 3 years in the Puyallup, WA fair competition in dry whites. I know I am bias, but I do have reasonable taste buds and I know what a good riesling is supposed to taste like. Thus, I think my wine is very good...

Hello  E. C. Kraus: I’ve read a lot of the articles on your site concerning wine making. The one titled “Wine Making With Grapes” mentions that there is a different method of processing red grapes than there is for white grapes, but I’m not sure I completely understand the process for red grapes. What does it mean when it says that they are to be “crushed and fermented with the skin and pulp for...

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...

[This is the conclusion of a two part blog post. See the previous entry for the beginning of this post.]The Alcohol Level Needs To Kept In Balance. In general, the fuller the flavor of a wine, the higher the alcohol level must be to keep it in balance. Wines that do not have enough alcohol as compared to their flavor intensity, will taste harsher. The astringent characters of the wine will...

One subject that gets asked about a lot by beginners is how to make white wines. They usually ask about it in a way that leads me to believe that they think it is a completely different process than making red wines, one that just skirts the fringes of main-steam wine making. The fact of the matter is, there are more similarities than differences between making the two. You use the same wine...

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...