Wine Making Materials

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...

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 fermentation process in a different container less the pulp.
 
My question is:  Will the wine be better...

Hello,

Is there a wine product that you sell that sweetens the wine in the end and also stops the fermentation process.  I thought it was the wine conditioner, but I don't see where it says it stops the fermentation process.

Thanks, Jen
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Hello Jen, 

One of the most difficult things a home winemaker can try to do is stop an active fermentation. It's not practical, nor can it be done with any guaranteed success.

There are several wine making products you can use that may inhibit or...

[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 be highlighted in the wine's final flavor profile.

To help put this into better perspective, lighter white...

1. Pour an inch worth of the...

Hello Kraus,

I would like to know if wine can be made from 100% all natural grape juice in a can that you buy at your local grocery store if you use yeast and go through the process of wine making? Will the grape juice ferment?

Curtis

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Dear Curtis,

As a beginning winemaker, using Welch's grape juice is a great way to learn how to make your own wine. The resulting wine will not necessarily be prize-winning, but it will be well worth the effort.

The really neat part about it is you can...

Hello:

I have almost 4 gallons of Scuppernong grape juice that I've gotten with my steam juicer this year. I would like to know how to make white wine with it. I was needing to know how much water to add to it. I would like to know what other wine making materials/ingredients I will need. I already have equipment. Can you help me with this.

Thanks Fred

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Dear Fred,

With actual wine grapes you would use 100% juice to make the wine. This means if you have 5 gallons of grape juice, you make...

Dear E. C. Kraus

I just cooked down apples for apple wine and they are so sweet.  I  know sugar is needed for fermentation, I don't know what to do can you help me out on this at all.

Thanks,
Midge

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Dear Midge,

The information that you need can be found at the following links to our website:

Apple Wine Recipe: This link has a bunch of wine recipes lists, including one for apple
wine than you are needing. All of the recipes list the ingredients you will need to make the wine as well.

7...

Kraus,

I purchased a California Connoisseur Merlot concentrate kit. Does this concentrate consist of tannins?  If it does, would it hurt to add a little more tannin to help it's staying qualities?

Should I have an acid testing kit?  If so, does the tannin have to be added during/before fermentation or can I put it in at any time?

Are there any other adjustments that need to be made to this concentrate?

Doug B.

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Dear Doug,

Thank you for this great question.

All of the wine making...

Hey eckraus.com -

Although you do a good job of explaining the wine starter kits, I'm still not sure what I need to purchase.  I'd like to start making fruit wines and was looking at the Your Fruit Necessities Box.  I don't have any wine making products at all so I would like to know what I need to buy in addition to this kit.  Let's say I want to start with strawberry wine.  I have the wine starter kit in my shopping cart and now I need to add . . . bottles?  strawberry fruit mix (how...

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 -...

Hello,

I'm really pleased with your service, but need some advice. Last year i produced about 13 gal. of blackberry wine with 13% alcohol with pretty good taste. Problem--not as clear as would like. I've used pectic enzymes, sparkolloid and the diatase enzymes. Would like your reccomendation on further clearing.

Thanks
Patrick J.

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Hello Patrick J.,

Usually when we see a situation like this it is because the fermentation never did complete. In other words, the cloudiness is actually...