Hello
EC Kraus,
We purchased a refrigerator to store our wine in, but the temp. is
47 degrees. We cannot get the refrigerator to go any
higher.............Is that too cold to store wine?
Darlene
----------
Hello Darlene,
Thank you for this great question.
You are correct in assuming that temperature does make a
difference when storing wine. But having said this, most
home winemakers store their wine at room temperature or basement
temperature and do perfectly fine.
Simply stated, temperature...
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Hi:
Thank you for your newsletter each month. It is very
informative and helpful to me in my winemaking.
I have a question, "How do I keep the fruit flavor in my
wine? I end up with about 13 percent alcohol content but
am losing the fruit flavor. Could you help?
Thanks
Ed H.
-----
Hello Ed,
Thank you for all the kind words. We try very hard to bring
useful, relevant information to the home winemaker.
What your question really involves is the basic balance of the
wine. There are three primary...
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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 too
acidic, or too much fruit is used in the wine recipes, you can end
up with a wine like you are...
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Hi:
When looking at your chart for wine recipes, when you say it makes
five gallons, is that five gallons of water plus the fruit and
sugar or is it five gallons total with the water, fruit, sugar, etc
included? I'm asking this because I want to know if I go over the
five gallons, do I need to add more ingredients (yeast nutrient,
etc.) according to how much I went over the five gallons?
Bernie C.
-----
Hello Bernie,
Thanks for the great question and for giving us a chance to clear
some of the...
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Hi:
I bottled my wine for the first time this year - i bottled 45
- i have went thru several bottles and given a few away. But
recently the last couple of bottles that i have opened have tasted
fine - but i notice that the wine glass will have bubbles clinging
to the side of the glass after sitting for a while. Do you know why
this is?
Thanks,
Jon
----------
Hello Jon,
What I'm understanding is that the first few bottles of this wine
were perfectly fine. Then as time went on you began to...
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Hi,
I am a newbie to wine making. I believe the primary
fermentation temp should be 65-75? How about the secondary
fermentation and subsequent processes? I am wanting to make my wine
in my basement but it might be too cool.
Thanks.
Todd
----------
Good Afternoon Todd,
This is a great question. The answer to it is quite often what
trips up many beginning home winemakers.
The effect that temperature has on a fermentation is enormous and
greatly underestimated by many. This is
particularly true for...
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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
bottling. This gives plenty of time for everything to settle
out. There is no upside to sweetening...
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Hi,
I have started with 32 lbs. of concord grapes, sorted and
crushed. The recipe (doubled) on page 19 of your book named
"Winemaker's
Recipe Handbook", recipe #54, the Concord "Fresh -Dessert" one
does not call for any water, where the other Concord choices of
wine recipes do call for water.
As I have never made wine before that did not call for some water,
what can I expect this wine to be like, dryish, or not, I am at a
loss as to what to expect. Should I add some water?
Thanks
Kelly
--------...
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One
of the most commonly used ingredients in home wine
making are Campden
Tablets. You will find them in almost any of the wine
making recipes you will use; talked about in almost
any of the wine making books you will read; and called into
action by just about any of the homemade wine instructions you will
follow.
What Do Campden Tablets Do?
The
original reason these tablets were used in wine
making was to keep the wine from spoiling after it
had been bottled. By adding these tablets at bottling...
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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.
----------
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....
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Good
Morning:
Most of my "fresh fruit" wines are dry. I was talking with a
gentleman who also makes his own wines. He told me to double up on
the sugar to sweeten my batches. Right now I have a batch of grape
wine (brewing since mid-August). It needs to be racked again. If I
add sugar to this batch now, will it start fermentation all
over?
Thanks,
Marlene
----------
Hello Marlene,
The short answer to your question is, "yes." Continuing to add more
sugar to your wine must while it is still...
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Any
of the wine making
books you read, will tell you that grapes need to be crushed
and pressed. The same holds true for the directions that typically
come with wine making recipes. But
what does crushing and pressing actually mean?
Many beginning wine makers think they both to mean the same
thing, that the terms are interchangeable, when in fact both mean
something very different. To understand just how different you must
first know a little bit about the wine making process.
When making wine...
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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 acidity can vary from year-to-year
and from one variety to the next. This can make for a...
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Hello,
I have made some peach wine and apricot wine from my orchard.
I would like for them to taste a little more like peach or
apricot. Suggestions?
Thanks
Darlene
-----
Good Morning Darlene,
Since these wines have already been made we have to look at things
we can do to them irrespective of the wine recipes used
to make them. This pretty much narrows the options down to direct
flavoring adjustments or flavoring enhancment.
One of the wine making products we have that can be used to
enhance a...
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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 fun learning how to make your
own wine. We try to help people out as much as we can with info...
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Hi
Hello
E. C. Kraus:
Hello
Kraus Folks:
Hi,
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