Plastic Fermenter

One of the most important aspects of making your own wine is keeping things sanitary. It's important because wine is a like a living thing.

It needs to be protected from wild molds, bacteria, etc. Without proper care your wine can become overtaken by these foreign organisms and eventually spoiled.

Yet, sanitizing is overlooked or treated lightly by many home wine makers and understandably so. It takes time and effort to be sanitary. Simply put, it's work!

Who wants to spend their time sanitizing...

Hi:

Today is day 8 and I just transferred my wine from the plastic fermenter to a glass carboy like the homemade wine instructions say to do. I do not see the wine brewing at all. Shouldn't the wine still be fermenting? Do I have a problem?

Please help!
Robert
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Hello Robert.

I am going to assume that you are making your wine from a wine ingredient kit such as our European Select or KenRidge Classic since you mentioned "day 8" much like their directions would.

How fast your fermentation goes can...

Hello

Are there electric heater covers available for carboys or plastic fermenters to keep the working wine at a constant temperature?  I have no ideal place in my location where a constant temp is available.
 
Thank You
Carl M.
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Hello Carl,

The difficult part about keeping a fermentation artificially warm is that you need a very mild heat source. It is easy to over-heat a fermentation and ruining the wine must with too much heat.

An example of this would be an electric blanket....

Hello:

I'm getting ready to bottle my wine and noticed that it has a bubbly taste. Like champagne. Is this because I need to degas it? Or is there something else going on?

Ken
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Hello Ken,

It is very possible that you are correct in your assumption. The wine may simply need to be degassed. But you should also verify with a gravity hydrometer that the wine has actually completed its fermentation. It is possible that the bubbles you are experiencing are from a slight, but still...

Hi.

Can you give me any information on how barometric pressure would affect the fluid level in an air lock. Some days they show negative pressure and a day or two later they are making bubbles again. I can't tell if fermentation is done or not.

Thank you
Jerry
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Hello Jerry,

An air-lock is what seals the outside world from your wine during and after fermentation. It is a barrier that allows gases from the fermentation to escape while keeping little bugs and other intruders out.

You attach...

Hello EC Kraus:

We have 17 gal of 2009 Syrah, it tastes a little bitter to us. Should we add conditioner before bottling?

Thank you
Bobbi
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Hello Bobbi,

Wine Conditioner is not designed to cover up bitterness. It is a wine sweetener for people that do not like their wines dry. A better avenue would be to try to figure out why the wine is bitter. Then see if it can be remedied, not masked.

There are two primary faults that can cause bitterness in a wine: 

1. Excessive Tannin
   Tannin is a bitter...

Hi Kraus People -

How is the best way to tell when your wine is ready to bottle?

Thank You,
Rick
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Hello Rick,

Great question, and an important one too. The last thing anyone wants to do is bottle their wine too soon. This is especially important if you plan on handing any of it out as wine making gifts. A significant amount of sediment could eventually form in the wine bottle, or corks could possibly push out causing a mess.

Fortunately for us winemakers, it's very easy to determine if...

Dear EC Kraus:

I just started my first batch of wine using the "California Connoisseur Necessities Box" (Chianti option).  In 6 days, I will be racking the wine.

When racking into glass jugs, I understand that I need to leave behind the sediment created during the primary fermentation.  However, the plastic fermenter is NOT transparent and it will be difficult to see when I will start encountering the sediment as I drain the wine in to my glass wine carboy.  Naturally, I would like to get as much...

This has been quite a year. Some fantastic, new items have been added to our catalog: plastic fermenters, Huron Bay Premium and Ultra Premium wine kits, Stainless-Steel Racking Tubes, and many others.

We've also had a lot of wonderful conversations with a lot of great customers. It's amazing to see so many enjoyable people making wine. Wine making seems to transcend across many different walks of life. 

This is the last blog entry before Christmas rolls around our way. With that in mind we would...

Good Morning,

I recently made some apple wine. It is now in secondary fermentation, and still looks very “milky”. There seems to be a lot of tiny fruit particulate in suspension. Very little seems to be settling out. I will need to rack this wine next weekend, what should I do to clarify the wine?

Ken H.

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Hello Ken,

The reason your wine is still milky or cloudy is because it is still fermenting. You will not see any signs of clearing until the fermentation has completed, or its activity...

Hello,

I bought two wine making kits from you that makes 6 gallons (30 bottles). Last night we bottled the the first wine and got 25 bottles. Is this about right considering you do lose some during racking? Approximately how much waste do you normally have due to sediments in the bottom?

Mary M.
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Dear Mary,

While there will be some waste, there should be nothing close to the five bottles you lost on your first batch. You should be losing no more than one bottle when making wine from...

Greetings:

I saw on your website that you you sell grape presses...  thought maybe you could help me. I have a grape press that is fairly old and would like to press some apple cider. I cannot find mesh bags that will fit inside the basket. Do you have any?

Thank You.
Lance S.
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Hello Lance,

Unfortunately, we do not carry any type of mesh bag to fit inside our grape presses' baskets. Short of sewing one up from scratch, finding one to fit your older model may be difficult. There are...

Hello:

I am getting ready to start my first batch of wine from concentrate. I am a little confused about the sanitizing process for large pieces of equipment. The directions say to dissolve so much sanitizing stuff to one gallon of water. Does this mean a gallon will do the job? With a 6 gallon tuft tank or a 6 gallon glass carboy, for example, do you pour the gallon in the container and slosh it around? If so for how long? Directions say to soak corks from 5 to 10 minutes. Small items such as...

Hello:

I recently read an article on your website that said not to use distilled water, but bottled water labeled spring water. Should I treat the water with sodium metabisulfite before beginning the primary fermentation in my plastic fermenter or is the bottled spring water okay to use straight from the bottle?

-Shawn S.

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Dear Shawn,

Deciding if you should add Sodium Metabisulfite before the fermentation or not isn't determined by the type of water you use. Regardless if it is bottled...