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 juices, and place that in the jug.
Fill the rest of the jug with water to an inch below the neck of
the...
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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 question on how to add the chemicals to prevent
re-fermentation and oxidation. And, is plain sugar OK...
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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. Just like when an apple starts to turn brown after being
bitten into, a wine can turn brown when it is...
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Hi:
I made 5 gallons of Sauvignon Blanc this past year. I will be ready
to bottle in the near future. I read on most commercial wine
bottles that they contain sulfites. My understanding this is a
stabilizer and to protect the wine yeast from refermentation. I am
in the process of sending an order in and would like to know what
to use and what amt. per gallon?
Thanks TOM
-----
Hello Tom,
Sulfites are added to a wine just before bottling, primarily to
help eliminate spoilage and keep the wine's...
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Hi,
I crushed my grapes in late September & squeezed them. Then
racked it 2 times since then. It's been almost 2 months since the
last racking and 1 of the 5 gallon wine carboys is starting to
bubble again just slightly. What is happening should I do
anything. The other 3 carboys are not doing this???
Thanks Rick
-----
Hello Rick,
It's hard to know exactly what is going on with your forth
carboy, but here are your possibilities:
1) Your wine has started to ferment again: This
means that the...
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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 was plentiful
here, I missed having that glass of homemade with dinner and
friends. Quite often the...
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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
-----
Hello Clayton,
As you may already know, the grape crusher that you have is only
going to crush the grapes. The...
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We fell in love with wine making when we spent time visiting the
vineyards in Napa and Sonoma Valley when we lived in Oregon. This
lead to home wine-making for family and friends for several years.
After we moved to Texas we then decided to grow grapes on a few
acres at our home. After about 5 years of hard work, we are now a
bonded winery about ready to open to the public. We have about 5
acres planted and have built a small tasting room/winery, and will
be open on the weekends!!
Name: Rick &...
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I've been making wine for almost 10 years now, I was taught by my
friends father Chuck who has been making wine forever. Each year we
compare wines and argue which is the best and which year gave us
the best wines and blends, Most years weather permitting I crush
the grapes and do the first fermentation in my garage then its to
the basement for about 12 weeks before bottling. Our claim to fame
is we tell everyone we make wine the same way the Greeks and Romans
did, crush the grapes ferment the...
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We have been making wine in Macedonia, Ohio since 1980. The grapes
come from our yard. We have 21 vines which are over 30 years old,
concord, niagra, and cayuga grapes.
Quality of juice varies from year to year depending on the weather.
Northeast Ohio isn't the best area for producing quality grapes but
we have had some excellent years, late 1990's and 2008 were good
years.
It has been a family project going back 3 generations.
Enjoy your newsletter and the information it provides.
Name: Gordon...
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My process is purely simple and all done by hand, I pick my grapes
from my backyard vines, wash in a colander and de-stem at the same
time then transfer grapes to a stainless steel bowl, mash the
grapes with a potato masher then strain through cheese cloth(which
cause hand cramps from wringing the juice through) from there to
the poly fermenter, then I add the rest of the ingredients to make
a fine wine that has all my friends in awe and in line for the next
6 gallons to be bottled..
Name: Bob...
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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
black grapes(30%)+70% white grapes to reach the desired color... I
can measure by refractometer the brix...
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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 and
my son who is a card carrying wine expert and educator says I am
doing very well and my wine is...
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I began wine making at the age of 16. A quart of grape juice in the
fridge was found to have started fermenting, and I became quite
obsessed with the process. My grandfather subsequently got me
hooked when he shared an age old elderblossom recipe and older lady
he knew shared with him. We would gather blossoms and make the wine
together. Another favorite was mulberry, which we gathered in
Newark, OH, in the alley behind his home. I have records of my
winemaking back to 1978, including receipts...
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Enjoy making seasonal fruit wines, along with many of the foreign
red concentrates. I focus on the availability of friends'
home-grown freebies, namely pears, apples, plums, and grapes.
Specialize in various combinations of blendings of these fruits, as
well as wines from the individual fruits. Have experimented with
onion, potato, carrots, corn, coffee, and chocolate raspberry.
Surprisingly, with pleasant results.
Name: Louis Savka
State: Indiana
My father started making wine back in the 1960’s. He had a very
basic set up - I remember a dozen or more gallon jugs each with
it’s own air lock - a Styrofoam cup taped to the side of each jug
with a tube coming out the top of each jug. Some of his wines
weren’t so great but some were very good. I helped him from time to
time but mostly it was just him, however I always helped drink the
wines!
He passed away in 1979 and his equipment and wines were passed on
to me. For a number of years all I...
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Well, We have 5 Vines, 2 Muscadine and 3 Scuppernong, 5 Pear Trees.
This was my first year of wine making. Check out my page on
Facebook ... It keeps Family and Friends up to date on my wine
making... its new.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Raleigh-Vineyards/296244417079615
What makes you/your setup unique?
When my Son Joined the USMC, I turned his Bedroom into the Wine
making room. When he comes home, he wants to sleep in there so he
can smell the wine... I make him sleep in the guest room.
We...
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I started 16 years ago with 1 fermenter in a bathtub, making a
couple batches of beer a year. In 2009, our family went to Austria,
to meet my cousins for the first time, who own a commercial winery
there. Once meeting them, they convinced me to carry on the family
business here in the states, so I got serious about my habit, and
it became more of an obsession. I have since turned my closet into
a temperature-controlled fermenting space, and have maxed out my
fermenting capacity & always have...
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Our family has been making home wine in one way or another for 50
years. Since retiring in 2000, we've had the pleasure of growing
grapes and making wine on our 10 acre spread here in the Finger
Lakes, including a few medals along the way. I was disabled from a
stroke on Fathers Day in June of 2000, working in the gardens and
making wine has kept me active. I was a web development engineer
for Kodak before the stroke. I registered a domain & put up a
site, just in case our son ever wanted to...
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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 sure is on
the minds of many individuals who use these
homemade
wine kits, so I'll cut right to the...
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