Rubber Stopper

Hello:

I have been having problems with residue in my bottles of rhubarb, choke cherry, pear and plum wine but have never had a problem with my wild grape, plum or even choke cherry before.

Bottled three weeks ago and the only one with no residue is my wild grape. Will unbottle and redo if you think it's warranted.

Thank you in Advance
Mike
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Hello Mike,

It sounds like there is one of two things you could do to eliminate the residue problem from occurring in the future. First, you could...

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...

As 2010 draws to a close, and a new year comes into view, I thought it would be nice to take another look at the blog entries that have proved to be most helpful to home winemakers this years.

These are the blog entries that everyone here has gotten the most response from, or has been able to utilize the most when helping a customer.

As I result here is the list of the top 10 most helpful posts of 2010:
 

1. Can I Make Wine As Good As The Pros? 
    
2. Avoid The Potholes Of Home Wine Making
    
3. Can I Use...

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...

Dear EC Kraus,

I hope you can help me out. I am having a problem with my 5 gallon glass carboy fermenter. I started a wine from raspberries a few days ago in my bucket fermenter. Now its time to put the wine in the carboy but the rubber stopper will not stay in the opening. It keeps coming out/coming loose. I ordered the size your company suggest. Any ideas?

Seth A.

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Dear Seth,

This issue can arise if there is moisture on either the stopper or your 5 gallon glass carboy. Both the side...

Please help:

I recently noticed that a partially full carboy of apple cider wine had developed mother of vinegar proteins.  What is the likelihood that I will be able to use that carboy again for wine making?  I am currently using a sodium metabisulfite solution in an attempt to sanitize it.  Will this be sufficient?

Thank you.

Robin M.

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Hello Robin M.

Sorry to hear about your apple cider going rogue vinegar on you.

The good news is that acetobacter - the bacteria the produces vinegar -...

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.

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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...

Dear Sirs:

I just read a portion of your monthly newsletter on wine making and found out that I may have done something wrong. I have been putting the air lock on immediately after adding the yeast-I see now that I should have covered my wine brewings with a cloth after adding the yeast. What can I do if I need to start over. It seems to be fermenting but very slowly. Can I add yeast nutrient or what if anything or just wait and see or get me another batch of fruit and start all over?

I have not...

Hello Customer Service,

If I wanted to use a five gallon crock to make a fermentation happen is that going to be a problem? I do not want to use a plastic fermenter. I am afraid of using any plastics fearing the chemicals used to make the containers will leach into the finished food or wine? What do you think about that?

Thanks Mary
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Dear Mary,

It's okay to use a stone crock for the first few days of the wine brewing, but after the fermentation activity starts to slow down, around the fifth...

Here's a email I received from Linda in California this morning. She wants to know what she can use to ferment her plums.

Dear Folks:

Hopefully I won't sound like an idiot, but what do people make their homemade wine in exactly. I've heard it can be done in a trash can. What material is preferable and what alternatives are there? I want to make plum wine, as my two trees here in California have produced a bumper crop. It must be obvious by now, I have no clue.  Help?

Thank you--Linda G.


Dear...

Please remember when you are ordering our gallon glass jugs, that you will need to order closures such as any screw caps or rubber stoppers that may be needed separately. These items are not included with these gallon jugs simply because we do not know what you intend to do with the jugs. Whether your bottling, fermenting or storing wine with them will determine what else you will need.

For Bottling:
Bottling your wine in gallon glass carboys is a great idea so long as you can consume a gallon of...

We are often asked why we don't sell a rubber stopper along together with our air locks, bundled together so to speak. I mean what good is an air lock without the rubber stopper to fit it to something? Well, the answer is really pretty simple.

Rubber stoppers come in all different diameters--from the size of a dime on up to the size of a orange. The size of rubber stopper you need depends on the what you are trying to attach the air-lock to. For this reason alone we will never be able to sell a...

There are 750 mls of wine in a standard wine bottle. That's 25.36 ounces. Which comes out to over 6 - four ounce glasses of wine. Sometimes, drinking a whole bottle of wine is just not do-able.

So, what do you do with the remaining wine? You certainly don't want to pour it down the drain. That would be waste. But leaving it in the bottle and sealing it back up with the wine bottle cork isn't all that good either.

Unlike the time before you pulled the cork out, the bottle is now filled with mostly...