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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Kraus
folks:
Could you tell me what solution should go into the bottle tree
rinser -- could I use campden tables?
Rick F.
-----
Hello Rick,
The Bottle Tree Rinser/Sulphatizer is designed to
be used with a sulfite solution. What this means is that you can
use either Campden Tablets, Sodium Metabisulfite or Potassium Metabisulfite with water to make the
sanitizing solution that goes into the bottle rinser's
reservoir.
The dosage is pretty straight-forward. You use either 16 Campden
Tablets or one...
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Hi. My name is Bryan and my 1st vintage was 2005. I have a source
for Zinfandel in the Paso Robles area of the California Central
Coast. I help the vineyard owner hand harvest his 2 acres and he
lets me take a few hundred pounds. My operation is located in my
garage and guest bathroom. I hand crush, with a rubbermade
container and a 2x4. Ferment in a 40 gallon trash container and
press by hand with a fruit bag, a milk crate and a barbell weight.
Age in 5 gallon carboys with oak staves and bottle...
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Dear
Mr. Kraus,
I am a winemaker and I use used wine bottles. Used cork type
wine bottles are becoming harder to find. I was told
by a winery around here that it is ok to use corks in screw
type wine bottles as they both have the same inside neck
diameter. I tried corking one filled water and it seemed to
work fine. I would like to get your thoughts on this.
Thanks
William P.
----------
Hello William,
As you have already discovered, it is very possible to put
cork
stoppers into screw-cap...
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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
----------
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...
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Hi
Kraus People -
How is the best way to tell when your wine is ready to
bottle?
Thank You,
Rick
----------
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...
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Here
is a very real fact. If you want to put a
full-size
wine bottle cork into a
wine
bottle, you need to become a
real corker... What
I mean to say is,
you need to use a real
corker.
When you decant a bottle of wine, the cork stopper that you pull
out is only a fraction of its original size. This is
because the cork was compressed before it was plunged into the wine
bottle. Wine corks are pressed in this way in an
attempt to get the optimum seal for aging the wine.
A standard size wine cork...
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Hello
Kraus,
I just started to look into making wine. I read some
articles on your website and others. One thing confusing me is
it seems like air in the wine is good when it is being made but
bad after it is made. How can it be both?
Thanking you in advance,
Greg
----------
Hello Greg,
Oxygen plays a role in wine making in two different ways at
two different stages. Early on it's what allows the
wine
yeast to grow successfully, insuring a vigorous
fermentation.
Later on, it's what allows the...
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Dear
Winemaster Kraus,
Do I need to sanitize the new out of the box wine bottles? I
got two cases from you folk last week.
Thanks Kevin
----------
Hello Kevin,
The quick and painful answer to your question is,
Yes.
Just like any other homemade wine equipment and supplies, you
need to treat them with a
Sodium Metabisulfite
and water solution before filling them with wine--1 teaspoon
per gallon of water is the dosage.
You can treat the
wine bottles in
one of two ways:
- Pour an inch worth of the...
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Hello
Can I bottle my wine in beer bottles and use bottle caps or do I
have to use cork bottle stoppers because it is wine? I have the
stuff to bottle beer but I do not have wine making materials for
bottling. If I have to buy corks for beer bottles
what ones should i get?
I am planning to make mostly fruit wines. Right now I have a
blackberry wine working that I made from frozen blackberries.
Thanks Manny
__________
Hello Manny,
In theory, there is no reason why you can't use beer bottles...
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If
you didn't already know what this blog was about, the term
bottle shock might conger up some interesting
visions. I personally think of someone getting hit over the head by
a bottle while in some bar fight or even hitting yourself in the
head like our friend here on the right, but, I digress...
What Is Bottle Shock?
Bottle shock is a term
used to refer to a wine that is suffering
from the symptoms of getting too much
air in too little time. These wines tend to be
flat in their overall...
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One
of the long, ongoing discussions in the world of home wine making
is, "
should I age my wine in bulk or in
bottles?"
What Exactly Is Bulk Aging?
Bulk aging refers
to storing the wine in something similar to a glass water bottle.
Home wine makers refer to them as carboys or demijohns. It's
important to have a container with a neck of some sort so that the
head-space, or air gap, can be mitigated as the
bottle becomes full. It is usually sealed airtight with
either a rubber stopper or cork...
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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 will suffer
noticeably.
Within the first 30 days of aging most people experience enough
improvement...
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Many
beginning winemakers will be happy to know that you do not have to
buy a
corker to bottle your wine. We have solutions for sealing
wine bottles that can be done without a corker as
well as with a corker.
When you go to buy corks for your wine bottles you will find that
most
wine cork
stoppers require a corker to press the cork into the wine
bottle. This is because a new cork starts out much fatter than what
you are used to seeing coming out of the wine bottle.
These are the type of wine...
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Christmas
shopping for wine making gifts is not an easy task. You're trying
to find a special gift for the home winemaker in your
life when you barely know a wine press from a wine barrel. What
could be more difficult. Well, we're going to make this
holiday season a little more merry for you and give you a
little help.
We've assisted all kinds of unknowing Christmas shoppers over
the years, and here's what we've found. There is a group
of wine making products that most home winemaker's don't...
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Hello
E.C.
My question is in regards to Splenda as a sweetener. I
belong to two wine making groups from Yahoo Groups and on occasion
Splenda comes up as the subject. There are both pros and cons
regarding Splenda as a sweetener. Would very much
appreciate hearing your opinion on using Splenda as a
sweetener.
Thank you.
Melinda
__________
Dear Melinda,
This is definitely an area of home wine making that has yet to be
covered in any wine making books or other instructionals that
cover how to make...
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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...
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Dear
Friends,
What do I have to do to age my wine longer than the time the
instruction say. For example I drink some at the time it is ready
by instruction and save some for tasting later and see if
is getting any better by aging.
Thank You
Ricardo
----------
Dear Ricardo,
There are two basic things that you will need to do to get
a wine ready for extended aging.
1) Add Sodium Metabisulfite To The Wine: This will
help keep the wine from spoiling and also keep the wine's
color fresh and...
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Good
Morning:
First I would like to thank you for the newsletters.
I have been receiving them now for about 2 years and they have come
in very helpful and I have been making wine for at least that
long.
The question I have is, when bottling I put the amount required for
bottling of campden tablets and sometimes I will still have
bottles that will pop out the corks and I use #9 corks. I was
wondering if I was doing something wrong or is there something else
that I need to do.
Thank You
Nancy
------...
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