E.C. Kraus Home Wine and Beer Making Supplies

Before hops were a common ingredient, beer was flavored with all kinds of herbs, spices, vegetables, flowers, and roots. One such ingredient was ginger, the intensely flavored root frequently used in cooking Indian food and ginger bread cakes. In one of my favorite new brewing books, Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers, Stephen Buhner notes that ginger was used by the ancients for its medicinal...

I will be bottling my first batch in the next week or so. Planning it out, I would find it much easier to dispense the wine via the spout on the large fermentation container. However the wine is finishing up its process in the 6 gal carboy. The question is, is it safe to move the wine from the carboy to the fermentation container at the moment I am ready to bottle? I would certainly be sure I...

I generally wait until the stuff has settled out of the wine, and then I very slowly siphon my wine. I have set my wine outside when it is below 0 degrees and that clarifies it. I know there is a chemical I can use but I don't like doing that. My biggest problem is the waste that occurs when I siphon. Is there a filtering method to save this wine? Thanks!Name: Roger MentingState: WI Hello...

Home winemaking can be quite an investment in time and money, therefore it’s very important to be meticulous and careful throughout the entire process.  Of course, home winemaking is also quite a joy and is a wonderful hobby, and following a few important wine making tips will lower your chances of disaster in the bottle! Below you’ll find some of the most crucial wine making tips that you should...

I'm in the process of making my first batch of wine. I'm making apple wine. When I started, I took a hydrometer reading and it was in between 1.080-1.100. I let it ferment in the bucket for about a week and a half. When I racked it into the carboy I took another hydrometer reading and it was about the same.(this was on the 7th of January.) I just took another hydrometer reading today( Jan 21) and...

Another year has passed, and the rearview mirror is full! I always use this time as an opportunity to reflect on what's happened. In doing so I have come up with a list of my top 10 favorite wine making posts. These are wine making post that I feel have been helpful, entertaining and interesting. They are listed in no particular order. You might want to give them a once-over and see if there's...

Hi: I made my first wine and it came out great. I made a Cabernet Sauvignon from one of your homemade wine kits. I started it in January and aged it with oak chips for 6 month. Then bottled. It still tastes a little young. Something I do not understand is that it taste better after I let it sit out for a few hours. Why does it improve when left out? Jason ----- Hello Jason,Thanks for the...

Hi... Just wondering if your liqueur flavorings could be added to a fruit wine.. for a little stronger flavor... Our peach, this year, is not real "peachy".... and wondered if this would give it a flavor boost...   Thank you, Sandy M. ----- Hello Sandy, These liqueur flavorings where originally intended to be used for taking an inexpensive spirit such as everyday Vodka and turning it...

Hey Kraus: Question, is it better to make wine with fruit that has been frozen, I was told this breaks down the pulp and gives more juice. Thanks, Gerald ----- Hello Gerald, Thanks for the great question and bringing up a great wine making subject. Freezing your wine making fruit is a great tactic for the home winemaker. It's one of the wine making tips I tell people quite oftenJust like you said,...

This is the last of a two part series. In Part I we discussed how you can imporve your wines by testing and adjusting its acidity with an Acid Test Kit. Here are 7 quick tips for using your Acid Test Kit. These are tips that will help you get the most accurate readings you can when using your kit: Play Around With The Kit Before Actually Needing ItThe Acid Test Kit will provide you with about 50...

Are you a winemaker who loves to make wine with fresh fruits? If you are, here is one of my quick and easy wine making tips for you. The simplest thing you can do to make your wines better is to start using an Acid Test Kit. By taking acid level readings of your wine or wine must with an Acid Test Kit you can get the tartness of your wines perfect instead of just close.This fruit acids along with...

Here are five wine making tips for using a grape press. These are basic bits of information that describes the central role grape presses play when making wine at home.1 . You Can Press More Than Just Grapes With A Wine Press: While grape presses are sold with the intent of being used for making grape wine, they work perfectly fine for pressing other fruits. Everything from tiny elderberries on up...

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 ----- Hello Robert. I am going to assume that you are making your wine from a wine ingredient kit such as our European Select or...

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...

  Good day! May I know what causes a fresh fruit wine to taste so sour? I've tested a homemade fresh fruit wine that is so sour, and what is the remedy to remove the taste? Thanks very much! Shirley S.----- Hello Shirley,       In almost all cases, the reason for a wine tasting too sour is too much acid. All fruits have various acids in them that contribute to a sharp/sour taste. If the fruit is...

Hi, Can I sweeten my wine at the same time of second racking. Thank, Yacoub---------- Hello Yacoub, Before you sweeten the wine, it is important that you wait until the fermentation has completed, and the wine has had plenty of time to clear out all the wine yeast. Quite often, this does not happen by the time you do the second racking.In actuality, the best time to sweeten a wine is right before...

This is the conclusion of a two part blog on how to making your fruit wines fruitier. One of the reasons you dilute fruits and their juice with water and sugar in most fruit wine recipes is because of the fruit's acidity. If you use too much of the fruit you can end up with a wine that tastes too sharp or sour.But wine recipes can only guess as to how much the fruit should be diluted. The fruit's...

Gentlemen: Is there a secret, or product, that will help the sediment settle more before racking?  Is it usual to have a large amount of sediment; it seems such a waste of wine to discard it all.  Thank you very much.  I enjoy your website and the email newsletter and am loving our attempts at winemaking!!!   Thanks again. Sincerely, Jean D.---------- Hello Jean,Glad to hear you are having so much...

Hello E.C. Kraus, I recently purchased your County Fair concord juice. I am planning to use 4 cans to make 5 gallons. I noticed the can shows 5 tsps of acid blend for 4 cans, but your wine recipe page online shows to use 1 tbsp [3 tsps] with 40# of fresh concord grapes and none in 80# version of the recipe.   Why is there a difference? I don’t want the wine to have a “bite” it can have with too...

Hi, When is the best time to filter a wine? I have a wine that is about 4 months old and I'am wondering if it is to early to filter it.   Don ---------- Hello Don, When first learning how to make your own wine it is important that you don't become too impatient, however since the wine has been bulk aging for 4 months, I would say you've been patient enough. It would be fine to filter your wine at...