Tuscany is a region located just northwest of Rome. Its rolling hills and majestic olive groves offer as a dramatic back-setting for wine-rich towns such as Florence and Siena.

If you have never had a Super Tuscan wine then you are definitely missing out on a wonderful experience. Even

One of the great things about making your own wine is that you get to make it the way you want it. John sent us an email because he didn't like how dry his wine was turning out.

Dear E. C. Kraus,

I have a mustang grape wine that has been aging in a carboy, and last night I tried and it has a hydrometer reading of .900, just under 1. When I tasted it it was a little on the dry side for me. How can I sweeten up this wine to a semi sweet?

John
_____

Dear John,

It is important to understand that you do not want to adjust the sweetness of a wine until it has completely cleared up and is ready to bottle, so make sure the wine is ready to be bottled first.

At bottling time you can sweeten the wine to taste. You can use Wine Conditioner which is a sweetener and stabilizer combined. The stabilizer makes sure that your wine does not start to ferment the new sugars while in the bottle.

You can use your own sugar, honey, etc. to sweeten your wine, but you will also need to add a Wine Stabilizer separately to eliminate any chance of refermentation.

When sweetening a wine it is best to take a measured sample of the wine, one gallon for example, and add measured amounts of sweetener to it to establish a dosage to your liking. Once the dosage is determined you can then do the same thing to the rest of the batch. This insures that you do not get the entire batch too sweet. If the sample gets too sweet, just blend it back into the rest of the batch and start all over.

We also have an article on our website, "Making Sweet Wines", that will have more information on this subject. You may want to take a look at it as well.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus

If you are not sure whether you want to make wine from can concentrate or fresh fruit, you can do both by making a few additions to our SunCal Necessities Box. This email is showing Ron in Ohio just what needs to be added.

Hello

I am considering purchasing the SunCal wine making kit. Can I use this kit to make

wine from home grown fruits, or do I have to stick with SunCal products? I am excited about starting my own home wine production, but I don't want to buy a starter kit that would limit my options.

Regards
Ron in Ohio
_____

Dear Ron,

You can use the SunCal kit for your own fruit. You will need to purchase some additional items, but not much.

A couple of ingredients that are not in the SunCal kit but are called for in a lot of fruit wine recipes are Pectic Enzyme and Yeast Energizer so you will need to get these two items. Pectic Enzyme helps to break down the fiber of the fruit so that more flavor with extract from it during the primary fermentation. Yeast Energizer is sometimes call for when making wines that are lacking in nutrients naturally.

We would also recommend getting a Fermentation Bag to help you manage the pulp that comes along with dealing with fresh fruit. It is a large nylon mesh that has a drawstring. You just keep the pulp in the bag during the primary fermentation. This comes in real handy when it comes time to remove the pulp.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus

Hello Kraus,

Is there any device you sell to measure the alcohol content in my wine?

James
_____

Dear James,

Measuring the alcohol content of a finished wine is not simple task to accomplish. A winery does so by determining the boiling point of the finished wine, something that requires elaborate laboratory equipment to accomplish accurately. Home winemakers can use what is called a vinometer such as

There is a great spread of prices between our different brands of wine making juices. Some are in the $30 range while some are over $200. Many of our customers simply wonder why.

There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. Level Of Concentration:
The first reason has to do with the level of concentration that is applied to the wine juice. At one end of the spectrum is our SunCal brand juice that comes in a 46

ounce can (about 1-1/2 quarts) for producing 5 gallons of wine. On the other end of the spectrum is our Vinterra juice that is not concentrated at all and producing 6 gallons. Both represent around the same amount of grapes. One is just more concentrated than the other.

Higher levels of concentration tend to take out some of the finer subtleties of a wine, making the wine more one dimensional. Wine making juices that have been concentrated less or not at all will have flavors that are more complex or layered.

2. The Selection Of Grape
As you go up in price, you are going up in grape selection as well. This is no different than wines you buy commercially at the store. The better the selection of grape the higher the price.

Having Said All This. . .
How much money you'll want to put into the quality of the wine may be different than the next winemaker. This has to do with how well you are able to discern the difference between various levels of quality. It makes no sense for you to buy a level of quality you are unable to taste.

Some of our customers are completely happy making wine from nothing but our SunCal selection, and would not be able to notice any appreciative increase in quality by spending more money for other brands.

Other winemakers consider SunCal an everyday, common wine and would not want to spend their efforts on making such a wine. These winemakers would prefer to spend their time making higher quality wines.

The Bottom Line...
Figure out what level of quality suites your level of wine appreciation. Start out with maybe our California Connoisseur or European Select and then maybe next time try a KenRidge Classic or Showcase and see if you think the extra quality is worth it for you, personally.

Vicki likes using Niagara Mist, one of the brands of concentrated ingredient kits we carry, but would like to increase the alcohol level of the final product. Don't take the answer to this question lightly. Raising the alcohol of a wine ingredient kit has it's pro's and con's.

Dear E. C. Kraus,

Hi, Just a question about the Niagara Mist fruit beverages. We really like the fruity flavor and was wondering if you can make them with a higher alcohol content.???

Vicki
_____

Dear Vicki,

Although we recommend following the directions that come with the Niagara Mist Kits, you can alter the alcohol content by adding sugar before fermentation.

You need to use your hydrometer. 1.2 pounds of sugar will increase the potential alcohol percent by about 1 percent in six gallons. Do not try to start the fermentation with a potential alcohol above 13%. This could result in a stuck fermentation.

Also it is very important to keep in mind that the higher alcohol can make any wine taste watered down. This is because flavor and alcohol has been thrown out of balance. The higher alcohol numbs the tongue giving the sense of less flavor

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus

Using Campden Tablets or an equivalent at bottling time is important for keeping a wine fresh while in the bottle. The idea is to keep the sulfites from the Campden trapped in the bottle. Here is an email question about this.

Dear E. C. Kraus,

I am reading through your website to learn home wine making and plan to purchase the fruit starter kit. I was reading that campden tablets should be added just before

bottling. Does this mean that you add campden tablets to the must before bottling and then immediately bottle, or do you have to wait for the sulfur gas to escape before bottling?

Thanks!
Brand new to wine making,
Justin
_____

Dear Justin,

The idea is to keep the sulfur gas trapped in the bottles so that the wine's flavor and color will be preserved. What this means for you is that once the Campden Tablets are dissolved and completely mixed into the wine you will want to bottle right away.

Treating your wine in this way will help to keep it fresh tasting for years to come. This process is no different than what a winery would routinely implement on their wine and results in about 55 part-per-million of sulfur dioxide.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

The following email asks a question we get all the time by first-time winemakers.

Dear E. C. Kraus,

I have a real dumb question here but then I don't know. After attaching the Air Lock and filling half way with water does the cap for the air lock stay on or does it remain off. Is the cap to keep it free of dirt or is that just when the Air Lock is being stored away.

So sorry to be a pain.

Thanks,
Craig
_____

Dear Craig,

First of all, this is not a dumb question. We get asked this a lot, so I'm glad you brought it up. Now I can share the answer with others, here on the blog, as well as with you.

A short answer to your question is, "you need to keep the cap on."

Many people don't realize that even with the cap on, the gases can still escape. If you have the Senior Air-Lock the lid has tiny pin-holes in it for this purpose. If you have the S-Shaped Air-Lock the cap has ridges on its inner side that allows the gasses to work its way out. You discover the same scenario regardless of what type of air lock you have.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Here is an email we received that is questioning, why, when you add more fruit to a wine making recipe you need less sugar. The example he uses is the two concord wine recipes listed on the recipe page of our web site.

Dear E. C. Kraus,

I have a question about your wine recipe chart.

Concord 40 lbs shows 6 1/2 lbs of sugar
Concord 80 lbs shows 2 lbs of sugar

Is this a typo?

Tom H
_____

Dear Tom,

This is not a typo. The whole idea here is to have the amount of sugars available to the yeast be the same in both wine making recipes. In each recipe some of the sugar is coming from the grapes and some of the sugar is added by you.

In both wine making recipes we are assuming that 40 pounds of concord grapes will contain about 4-1/2 lbs. of sugar. This is only an estimate but a fairly good one. If you follow through with this estimate, you will see that the total sugars available in the 40 lb. recipe is 11 lbs. (4.5 lbs. plus 6.5 lbs.) This is enough sugar for the yeast to produce about 11 percent alcohol. In the 80 lb. recipe you will notice, again, that the total estimated sugars is 11 lbs. as well. (4.5 lbs. plus 4.5 lbs. plus 2 lbs.)

I hope this helps you out.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus

Dear E. C. Kraus,

If I order your Vinterra, how is this kept from fermenting during shipment. I have had three other "buckets" (not your products) and they fermented before I got them home - air lock was not included. All three had to be destroyed after bottling!!

Thanks, Ralph
_____

Dear Ralph,

Sorry to hear about the problems you had with the other brands that you purchased.

The Vinterra juices we offer are sterile packed juices. What this means is that there is absolutely no way that they will ferment while in shipping or storage.

The Vinterra juices are in a vacuumed-sealed, mylar bag and pasteurized. They also come with the other ingredients you will need such as yeast and clarifiers.

The same answer also holds true for all the other concentrated winemaking juices we offer. They are all sterile and will remain stable until the yeast is added.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus

Wine does not take nearly as long to make as most people originally suspect. In fact, it is very possible to have a wine bottled within a month from the time you begin the process. This is something that astounds many beginners.

Once the wine has been bottled there are some benefits to aging, but a remarkable amount of the improvement can be obtained within the first 30 to 60 days of bottle aging, so it is possible for you to have a very delectable wine within 2 to 3 months from the time you start the process.

How much time it will actually take depends on what you are using to make the wine. Packaged

juices tend to make wines faster than fresh fruits. This is primarily because there is no pulp involved in the former. The clear, concentrated juices clear up much faster, allowing them to be bottled much sooner.

Here is an overview of what to expect based on what is being used to make the wine:

Winemaking Ingredient Kits:
If you are making a wine from one of our winemaking ingredient kits you will be bottling your wine in about 4 to 6 weeks, depending on which kit you are using.

Winemaking Concentrates:
When making wine using either our SunCal, Alexander or Country Fair concentrated juicies you will be bottling your wine in 6 to 10 weeks.

Fresh Fruits:
Because of the pulp involved, it takes longer to make wine using fresh fruits than it does using packaged juices. Aging can take a little more time as well. You can expect to be bottling your wine in about 8 to 12 weeks from the time you started the batch, and also anticipate needing to bottle age the wine at least 3 to 4 months.

Whether it be good times or bad, anytime you can get something for free, it's a good thing, and a free book is no exception.

The University of California in Davis, referred to as UC Davis, has been the home for vineyard and winemaking (viticulture & enology) studies in the United States since the 1800's. They have been the source of many advancements in the production of wine and work closely with the commercial winemaking industry.

Their book, "Making Table Wine At Home", while no longer in print, is available for download on their website for free. It is a very good beginner's book for anyone

wanting to learn how to make wine from their own grapes.

All you need is Adobe Acrobat Reader and the book is yours. Most computer already have this software. If your's doesn't just go to Adobe's website to download and install the latest version.

No, the Cork Retriever is not a new breed of hunting dog, but it can be just as nice to have around.

Anyone whose tried to fetch a cork from inside a wine bottle knows what I'm talking about. You try your darndest to uncork the bottle, but neither the corkscrew nor the cork feel obliged to cooperate. Instead of the cork coming out, it ends up going in the bottle.

Not only do you end up with the aggravation of drinking a bottle of wine with a cork floating in it, now you have to figure out how to get the cork out or end up throwing away a perfectly good, reusable, wine bottle.

Whoever said that, "necessity is the mother of invention" was a genius, and the Cork Retriever is just one more piece of evidence supporting their wisdom.

Add Heat-Shrink Capsules to your next order and give your bottles of wine the professional edge they deserve. Heat-Shrinks are available in 9 different colors plus clear. Just choose the one that fits the look that's right for you.

They're very easy to use. Just put them over the neck of the bottle and then dip them in hot water for a few seconds. They magically shrink securely to the shape of the bottle. Directions are included. Within minutes you can have the entire batch of wine bottles lookin' like they came straight from the winery.

Heat-Shrink Capsules not only look sharp but they add an additional seal to the bottles as well, and you don't have to worry about corks popping back out while in storage. The Heat-Shrink Capsule keeps the corks in place. It's a great deal all the way around.

Each color comes in a box of 50. That's enough of 10 gallons of wine, or you can purchase our Sampler Pack if you're not sure which color you like best.

Hello Wine People,

I am interested in making Merlot wine.

I have found all your kits for this, but don't quite understand how it is used.

Can you turn any fruit juice into a merlot with these kits?

Do you mix the contents of the kit with the particular type of merlot you wish to make, like blackberry juice - for Blackberry merlot or even cherry juice for cherry merlot.

Thank you for any information you can provide.

Thank you,
Nancy
_____

Dear Nancy,

Merlot wine is made from Merlot grapes. The same holds true for many other wines you may see on the store shelf: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Zinfandel. These wines are made primarily from the grape after which they are named. These wines are known as "varietals".

Lower priced concentrates might only specify which continent the grapes came from. These concentrates would be appropriate for making everyday drinking wines. Higher priced concentrates can be as specific as the particular growing region within a country. These concentrates make fabulous wines with characters representative of that region. This is known as a wine's "terroir".

I hope this helps you out.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello Wine Folks,

Without going into great detail I do not use sulfites in my wines. I heard once that if you lower the temperature of the wine after it is done fermenting that the lower temp will kill any remaining yeast. Is this so and if so what is the temperature?

Thanks for a great web site.

Darrell
_____

Dear Darrell,

Whether or not sulfites should be used when making wine is a whole 'nother subject in of itself [see "Can I Make Sulfite-

Free Wine?" March 20, 2008 of this blog], but to answer your question...

Getting the yeast to die is not the biggest problem when making wines without sulfites. It's keeping the wine from spoiling!

Once the yeast run out of sugars they will go dormant and fall out of the wine regardless of the temperature. If you want to add sugar back at bottling time for sweetening you will need to add Potassium Sorbate to keep the wine from fermenting again, but this would be the case whether you used sulfites or not.

The only thing chilling can do is speed up the dropping out of yeast cells. It will not help you to produce a stable wine when not using sulfites.

The Real Issue Is. . .
when you omit sulfites you are allowing your wine to turn into a playground for unwanted mold and bacteria. Regardless of how clean or careful you are these cells are everywhere. That's just the way Mother Nature has dealt the cards.

And, that's okay given the small numbers we normally encounter, as long as we use sulfites, but when these nasty cells are given an opportunity to grow their colonies, then a wine that was once delectable will eventually become a spoiled mess.

Just like yeast, the bacteria and mold will go dormant when the wine is chilled down, but once the wine is brought back up to storage temperatures they will once again become active.

The only way chilling can help you make a sulfite-free wine is by keeping the wine chilled from the time the fermentation has completed, up until the wine is consumed. The colder the better, but you want to be at least down to 45 F. Just don't go below freezing.

This is a bold task for any home winemaker, but doing so will keep all these pesky critters in a state of dormancy instead of growing throughout the wine's entire life.

I hope this helps you out.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Have you ever wondered why your wine has that odd odor? Are you curious about what is causing that strange taste in your wine? Have you ever had particles develop in a previously clear wine? You’re not alone. We get numerous questions about peculiar odors, flavors, and sediments or growths in a wine. We have put together a list of the most common wine flaws and their causes. When available, we have included the possible resolutions for them.

Dear E. C. Kraus,

I have an issue with your description of Potassium Sorbate that uses the word "inhibit". I have looked this word up in the Merrian-Webster dictionary. The first listing says that 'inhibit' means to stop. The second says that 'inhibit' means to hold in check.

When I drive freeways I frequently use the cruise control. Although this will hold the speed in check, I would never believe

that it will work every time. Holding in check in my mind is not a guarantee of much.

Does anyone really know the story?

Tom
_____

Dear Tom,

Potassium Sorbate is not used to "stop" a fermentation. The second definition of inhibit is the most accurate, "to hold in check", but let's forget about the definitions for now and let me try to explain what Potassium Sorbate is actually doing.

When it comes time to bottle your wine, no matter how may times the wine has been racked or how crystal clear the wine may be, there are still some yeast cells in the wine. Even if you filter your wine with a pressurized filter of sorts there are still some residual yeast cells that remain. It may be just a few and not the billions and billions of cells that are associated with a full-fledged fermentation, but there are enough to cause a potential problem if the environmental conditions of the wine are right.

Usually these cells have gone dormant. As time goes on a portion of the cells will begin to reproduce themselves through a process of "budding". But other than that the yeast just lay there quietly perpetuating themselves through natural reproduction. Some of the cells will eventually get too old and die a natural death, but by then it's usually to late. The yeast have already produced new generations of themselves. This regenerating process can go on for months.

This perpetuation through reproduction is not a problem in of itself. It doesn't effect the wine in any significant way like a fermentation does and usually the numbers are so small as to never be detected.

It's only when the environment of the wine changes in a way that allows the yeast to ferment that there becomes a problem. Exposure to new oxygen during bottling would be an example of this, or bringing a bottle of wine out of cool storage to warmer room temperatures would be another. When such things happen there is always a chance for a renewed fermentation.

Potassium Sorbate stops the yeast from reproducing itself so that it can not perpetuate itself indefinitely on into the future. It does not kill the yeast, but rather Potassium Sorbate puts a coating on each yeast cell so reproduction can not occur.

The only problem is that the yeast that are currently living in your wine will continue to do so until they decide to die of natural causes--old age. The colony will slowly die. How long it takes for the entire colony is dependent on how large the colony is. In most cases it takes days, but it can take weeks. It is not until the current generation dies that the chance of re-fermentation can be completely eliminated.

So when we say "inhibits" what we are really saying is that the yeast will not be able to re-grow its colony back into larger numbers like it normally would if Potassium Sorbate was not present. But having said this, it is important to understand that the cells that are there in small numbers can certainly nibble away at enough of the sugars before they die to cause a problem if the conditions are right.

I hope this helps you out.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear Kraus,

During the primary fermentation, all directions always say to just cover the fermenter with cloth, towel, etc. to allow the must to breathe. The directions on the Sun Cal Concentrate say to cover the fermenter with a plastic sheet, tie it down, and allow to ferment for 5 days.

My question is: By covering the fermenter with plastic and securing it, this would seal the fermenter, and prevent the must from breathing! Isn't this in direct contradiction with all of the other instructions? And, more importantly, will the must be able to complete its primary fermentation while it is sealed for 5 days?

Paul
_____

Dear Paul,

Yes, you are correct. The directions are conflicting.

The fact of the matter is the must will usually ferment sufficiently whether it is open to air or not. It will have a much easier time if exposed to air, but it is not usually a make-or-break situation.

The company that produces SunCal Concentrates is concerned with sanitation. When they write the directions they assume that it is a first-time winemaker reading them, so they are overly cautious.

If the fermentation did not start in a timely fashion, for whatever reason, it could possibly be taken over by a mold or bacteria instead of the yeast, but being tied up under plastic helps to reduce this risk.

It is perfectly fine to leave the must completely open to the air during the first few days of fermentation. The only caveat would be if the fermentation did not show any signs of fermentation within 24 hours, then you would want to get it under air-lock until the problem is rectified.

It is important to note here that an open primary fermentation is standard among commercial wineries. They understand that as long as the fermentation takes off successfully there are absolutely no risks with exposure to air, just benefits.

Thanks for the great question,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear Kraus Folks,

As a diabetic I am able (and encouraged) to drink the "dry" red wines and have no problem with the selection of varietals that I'd like to try in your kits. What varieties of the whites (without additional sweetening) are available? I noticed that some of the wines contain additional sweetening packets but as I am restricted from using such - what might I enjoy or which contain additional sweetening so that I may avoid them?

Thanks,
CJ
____

Dear CJ,

How about we just go ahead and give you the complete run-down of both red and white wines?

Currently the kits that come with sweetening packs are:

All of the Niagara Mist kits
KenRidge Classic IceVine White
KenRidge Class IceVine Red
KenRidge Classic Port
KenRidge Classic Sherry
KenRidge Classic White Zinfandel
Legacy White Zinfandel
Legacy Riesling
Legacy Piesporter
Legacy Liebfraumilch
Legacy Gewurztraminer
KenRidge Showcase German Gewurztraminer
KenRidge Founders German Riesling

All of the other kits do not come with sweetening packs and will end up fairly dry when following the directions.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus

We are taking a very special measure to make sure that the only people receiving our Winemaking Newsletter are the people that want to receive it.

We feel it is important that we do our part to help reduce the number of needless emails that are cluttering everybody's inboxes these days. In order to do this we need your assistance.

If you are receiving our newsletter and want to continue doing so, great! Just go to our website and fill out the sign-up form. The only info we need is your name and email address. Shouldn't even take 30 seconds to do.

If you are receiving our newsletter and do not want to continue, well that's too bad. We're sorry to see you go, but we understand. To stop your free subscription all you need to do is nothing. It will automatically stop.

If you don't know what we're talking about, well then, you're missing out! The E. C. Kraus Winemaking Newsletter is on its 85th issue. Each newsletter if filled with information you can't find anywhere else: winemaking tips, recipes, and articles covering the basics and nuances of making wine at home, and the best part is it's absolutely free.

To start receiving your newsletter, just simply go to our website and fill out the sign-up form. All we need is your name and email address and you'll be all set.

Thanks from everyone at
E. C. Kraus

Hello,

I just got some cabernet sauvignon concentrate locally from a friend, and he is telling me that I should not add acid while fermenting, and that it should be added after because it can affect the fermentation. This seems to be counter to what I have read so I am a little confused.

Thanks,
Tom
_____

Dear Tom,

Almost all the concentrates I have seen already have the acid level adjusted, or they tell you specifically how much Acid Blend to add for proper acid adjustment. If your concentrate came with directions, then I would follow them and not your friend's advice.

If you have no directions to follow and the concentrate has not had the acid level adjusted, then you will need to test it with an Acid Testing

Kit to make sure that it is in a decent range and not completely out of whack. Between .55% and .90% tartaric is fine for fermentation.

Once the fermentation has completed and the wine is ready to be either bulk aged or bottled, you will want to test the acid level again for a final tweaking. Depending on the style of wine it is, you will want the final reading to be somewhere between .60% and .70% tartaric.

For more information on this subject you may want to take a look at the article, "Getting A Handle On Wine Acidity" that is listed on our website.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Friends:

We look forward to and enjoy your email newsletter and have learned a lot from your subscribers’ questions. Now one of our own.

On a stop on a recent Missouri winery tour was an area for cold aging, where wine coming off secondary fermentation

was chilled in the fermenter to around 28 degrees to help dissolved chemicals and remaining suspended yeast cells to fall out of solution before the wine was siphoned off into oak barrels.

We don’t see this step in home wine recipes. Is cold aging beneficial to small-batch wines? If so, should it be done in the secondary fermenter after yeast action has stopped, or can it be done after bottling?

Thanks as always.
Ed
_____

Dear Ed

What you are referring to is something called "cold stabilization". The wine is chilled down to speed up the falling out of yeast and other suspended proteins. But more importantly, this chilling process causes excess acids to form into crystals and fall out.

The process is done only after the fermentation has completed and the wine has been given a few days for the heavier particles to fall out on their own.

If this process were skipped acid crystals could start to precipitate out later on while in the bottle, even while sitting in someone's wine rack. This would be a disaster for a winery, but not so much for the home winemaker.

This process is only beneficial if you are making wine from fresh fruits, and most beneficial when making wine from fresh grapes. If you make wine from wine concentrates then this step is pointless since the acids have already been adjusted to make sure acid precipitation does not occur.

If you would like to learn more about how to treat your homemade wines with cold stabilization, you might want to take a look at the article, "Maintaining Temperature Stability In Your Wines" that is listed on our website.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

We would like to stop and take time to wish you the very best this holiday season. We sincerely hope that your Christmas holiday is full of joy and excitement, and that the New Year brings you the brightest of days and provides you with all for which you strive.

In keeping with the holiday spirit I have listed below an eggnog recipe that I have used for many years. I'd like to share it with you in hopes that it might bring a little warmth to your holiday season.

HOLIDAY BREAKFAST EGGNOG
10 ounces of Apricot Brandy
3 ounces of Triple Sec
1 Quart of Eggnog
Mix together and sprinkle with Nutmeg

*MERRY CHRISTMAS!*
From Everyone At E. C. Kraus

Orders placed by Thursday, December 18th, will have plenty of time to arrive before Christmas with regular ground shipping.

We can also assist you with expedited shipping as Christmas draws nearer. We offer Next Day and Second Day air.

Just call us for an expedited

shipping quote during business hours:

Monday - Friday 8:00am - 5:30pm CST
Saturdays 9:00am - 1:00pm CST

And remember, we have FREE SHIPPING on orders over $25.00, so we will only charge you the difference in the cost between expedited air charges and the regular ground service we would normally pay.

Happy Holidays From
E. C. Kraus

Dear Mr. Kraus,

I made a 5 gal. batch of wine. During the second racking I noticed that the wine had a metallic odor so I tasted it and it tasted metallic. Other than the metallic condition the wine seemed to be okay.

Is my wine going bad? Is there something that I can do to counteract this condition? I have been making wine for about 2-1/2 years from kits and from scratch and this is the first time that I have encountered this condition. Any assistance that you can render would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.
Joe
_____

Dear Joe,

The metallic character you are experiencing in your wine is symptomatic of a process called autolysis.

Autolysis is something that can best be described as the yeast cannibalizing upon itself. As gruesome as this may sound it is the reality of what most likely is happening.

When the active yeast cells run out of sugar they will begin to consume the dead yeast cells that lay on the bottom of the fermenter.

This is one of the reasons that rackings should occur in a timely manner, so that when the yeast does run out of sugar they will have no dead cells available to consume.

The metallic flavor comes from certain enzymes being released by the yeast in an attempt to break down the dead cells for easier consumption.

In other words, the dead yeast cells are triggering the production of these unwanted, metallic-tasting enzymes from the active yeast.

If you are not already doing so, you should be racking the wine after 5 to 7 days of fermentation and then every 4 to 6 weeks while the wine is clearing up. These are minimum guidelines. Additional rackings may be necessary if sediment starts to build up more often.

As for what you can do with this wine, the prognosis is not too good. Time will reduce the intensity of the metallic flavor, however there is no way to eliminate it completely.

If the wine has already completed its fermentation, I would suggest treating the wine with bentonite. This will speed up the dropping out of yeast so you can get it out of the wine in a timely fashion. Doing so will stop the situation from getting any worse.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Sir,

I have read your article on finings [clarifiers] and have the following question.

I've made a batch of Papaya wine but after using Bentonite and filtering, the wine still has a milky color. Any suggestions?

Greetings,
Dennis

_____

Dear Dennis,

What you are most likely experiencing is a pectin haze. This type of appearance is not caused by suspended particle but by an alteration within the chemical makeup of the wine. Filtering and fining will have no effect on such situations simply because there are no particles involved to take out.

Pectin is in all fruits. It is the gel that holds the fruit's fiber together. During a fermentation the pectin is broken down by enzymes that the yeast produce along with Pectic Enzyme that your recipe should have recommended.

On rare occasions there can be more pectin in the must than the yeast and Pectic Enzymes can handle. Such can be the case with your papaya as well as: peaches, strawberries and plums which are all high in pectin.

A simple test to determine if pectin is the issue is to take 1 pint of the wine and add to it 1 teaspoon of Pectic Enzyme. Let the wine sit over night. If the clarity of the wine has improved, then this is confirmation that pectin is indeed the issue.

In such a case treat the batch of wine with 1/4 teaspoon of Pectic Enzyme per gallon. Let the wine bulk age until the wine has cleared. The amount of time needed can vary, but expect it to take weeks if not months.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Good Morning,

I have a question, I have 15 gals. of Sangiovese wine in carboys aging. They have been there for three years now and I would like to sweeten them up a little. Can I still do this?

Thank You
Mike
_____

Dear Mike,

Yes, you can sweeten them up, but it is important that you also add Potassium Sorbate at the same time, otherwise the wine will very likely start to show signs of fermentation even though it's been three years since its last activity.

I would also recommend that you experiment with a

gallon or two of the Sangiovese first to establish a sugar dosage. That way if you accidentally get the wine too sweet you can put the sample back in the batch and start all over.

It is best to dissolve the sugar prior to adding it to the wine. Just take a mixture of half water/half sugar and heat it in a sauce pan until it becomes clear. Allow it time to cool and it's ready.

You can also use our Wine Conditioner. It is inverted fructose and glucose sugars that have had the Potassium Sorbate already incorporated in it. Very convenient.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear Sirs:

I am new at wine making and I have a question that I haven't been able to find an answer to in any of your magazines, emails, or recipes. I would like to know if I am to add one campden tablet per gallon every time I rack wine?

Most recipes call for the campden tablets when you remove the wine from the fermentation pail to a carboy with an airlock but it does not tell me to add them again when I rack the wine to another carboy with airlock. Please advise.

Thank you,
Pete
_____

Dear Pete,

Adding a full dose of Campden Tablets at every racking is not recommended. Doing so can cause too much SO2 to build up in the wine. The result is a wine with a sulphur odor that is reminiscent of a freshly struck match.

It is also important to understand that Campden Tablets should never be added to a must while it is fermenting. The SO2 from the tablets can interfere with the yeasts' ability to ferment.

But having said this, having the proper amount of SO2 in the wine after the fermentation is beneficial, particularly if you plan to bulk age the wine. The SO2 helps to protect the wine from spoilage as well as maintain its color.

The problem is knowing when you have the right amount of SO2. One Campden Tablet per gallon at every racking is too much, and guessing at lesser amounts is just that--a guess.

The only sure way to keep the optimum amount of SO2 in a wine is to take SO2 readings at every racking. Then make any additions of Campden Tablets as needed. Readings can be taken with a SO2 titrator.

A good range to shoot for is between 45 and 65 ppm (parts-per-million). One Campden Tablet per gallon will increase the SO2 level by about 55 ppm, so you will need to do some math to come up with the right number of Campden Tablets to add to the entire batch.

The only other point to make here is that if you make wine using our box ingredient kits, all this information is not of much value to you. This is because the amount of time between fermentation and bottling is so short with these kits that even if the wine had no SO2 at all it would make no difference.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Just a quick question:

I read that adding oak chips adds body etc. to wine. When in the [winemaking] process should these be added? How much per gallon? What type of wines would this be

recommended? Any fruit wines other than grape?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Clark
_____

Dear Clark,

Many of the box ingredient kits we offer include either oak chips or oak powder. In these situations you should follow the directions that came with the kit. If the kit came with oak, add it; if the kit did not come with oak, don't add it.

These kits have already been bench-tested many times by the producer. By following the resulting directions you will end up with a wine that has optimal balance.

If you are not using a box ingredient kit then you have some latitude available to you. You may decide that oaking is necessary to get the desired effect you are looking for in a wine, but first you must understand what oaking does.

First and foremost oaking will affect the wine's flavor. It will smooth the rough edges by adding a subtle coconut to vanilla note. It will also add a slight woody-ness to the wine.

The second way oaking affects a wine is by contributing to its clarity and color stability. This is mostly due to the saturation of tannins into the wine from the wood.

As for which wines are candidates for oaking, any red grape wine can potentially benefit. As a very general rule, the more body the red grape wine has, the more likely it will benefit from oaking.

When it comes to white grape wines, you should only consider oaking the heaviest whites such as Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, however realize as you gain more experience that these rule can easily be broken with great success.

Unless you are using a box ingredient kit, the best time to add oak is after the wine has cleared. Simply pitch in some oak chips and allow the wine to bulk age until satisfactory infusion is achieved.

As a safe starting point, use 2 ounces for every 5 or 6 gallons of red wine. With whites use 1 ounce. Just follow the directions on the package for preparing the chips before adding.

You will need to sample the wine every so often to monitor the intensity of the oak in the wine. Every 2 to 4 weeks is reasonable. One of the biggest risk with oaking is getting the wine too woody, so this is what you will be watching closely.

Once the wine has achieved the desired effect, then you will need to rack the wine off the chips and bottle.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

In the last blog entry (see October 29th) we went over the generalities of fortified wines. In this entry we dig a little further and take you through the basic logic of how the home winemaker can make their own fortified wines.

The first thing the home winemaker needs to understand is that making a fortified wine can be somewhat costly. For a five gallon batch of wine it takes five fifths (750ml) of brandy to raise the batch by 6-2/3 percent alcohol. With a typical fortified wine being about 20% alcohol and the cheapest bottle of Brandy being about $10 to $13 a bottle, making fortified wines can be somewhat cost prohibitive.

With this in mind, the best strategy for the home winemaker is to get as much alcohol as you can from the fermentation itself. Then use less Brandy as needed to fortify your wine.

To learn how to get the most alcohol out of a fermentation to go over the article, "Making High Alcohol Wines" listed on our website.

The following is a listing showing how much the alcohol is raised in a 5 gallon batch with each additional fifth (750ml) bottle of Brandy, assuming the Brandy is 40% alcohol by volume.

1 Bottle adds 1.5%
2 Bottles add 3.0%
3 Bottles add 4.3%
4 Bottles add 5.5%
5 Bottles add 6.7%
6 Bottles add 7.7%
7 Bottles add 8.8%

You will want to shoot for a total alcohol level of 17 to 22 percent. So if you have a batch of wine that has fermented to 14 percent alcohol, you might add 4 bottles to raise the total alcohol level to 19.5% (14.0 + 5.5).

You can use a regular Brandy made from grape wine such as E&J and add it to a red wine you have made. This would be the most common avenue. But there are also some other things you can do.

You could take a Blackberry Brandy and add it to a blackberry wine, or a Peach Brandy to a peach wine. You could also take a Merlot wine and add to it a Raspberry Brandy. With all the different types of Brandys that are available, you are only limited by your imagination.

Be sure to add the Brandy after the fermentation has completed then continue on as you would with any other wine. If you are using a wine kit continue following the directions. If you are making wine from fresh fruit, give the wine plenty of time to clear and bottle as you normally would.

A fortified wine is a wine to which brandy has been added. Brandy, being a distilled product with an alcohol level around 40 percent, will raise the finished alcohol level of the wine.

From a traditional standpoint, fortification was done to make the wine more stable during long trips by ship or by cart. The wine's alcohol level was raised to around 17 to 22 percent with the addition of Brandy. Un-fortified wines are normally only about 10 to 13 percent alcohol. The higher alcohol level acted as a preservative, diminishing the chance of spoilage during the long journey.

The big three fortified wines that most people have heard of are: Sherry, Madeira and Port. All three are Old World wines: Sherry originating from Spain, Madeira and Port from Portugal.

Since the advent of sanitizing products and the development of various other preservation techniques, higher alcohol levels have not been needed to keep a wine stable for well over a century. However, these wine styles have still lived on.

The next blog entry will be on how the home winemaker can fortify their own wines.

E. C. Kraus

-- thanks for your assistance --

Your article on fining agents was superb. It informed as to what other benefits (other than clarity in a wine) that fining agents can produce. My question regards the connection (or benefits) of fining agents and filtering.

1. If you filter, should you also use a fining agent ??

2. Conversely, if you use a fining agent, is filtering no longer suggested ??

3. Do you recommend using both a fining agent and filtering ?? What would be the benefits of using both ??

Thank you
Steve
_____

Dear Steve,

How you handle a wine in these matters is partially an art. I say this because there are really no hard-fast rules to be followed.

The only recommendation we do make is to always treat the wine with bentonite if you do decide to filter. This will help to drop out any excess proteins in the wine, including the yeast, which will allow your filter pads to last longer. But beyond this, whether you decide to filter, or not, or what type of fining agents you decide to use, if any, is completely up to you.

It is also important for you to know that just like some fining agents, filtration can effect a wine's body and color as well as its clarity. Depending on the fineness of the filter pad you choose, some body and color can be taken out of the wine.

For the heaviest of wines this is usually an improvement in the sense that reduction in color will rarely be noticeable, and the amount of aging (maturation) needed will be brought down to a more reasonable time-frame by removing excessive body elements. For example, two years instead of five.

For lighter white wines, a fine filter pad may be selected to reduce color and body as much as possible, making the wine look a faint-yellow instead of a straw colored and adding to the wine's light, crisp character.

There is also the issue of the wine's stability. Both fining and filtration will help to make the wine more stable. By reducing the amount of tannins and other proteins there is less chance of the wine forming deposits within the wine bottle.

As a novice winemaker I would suggest that you take a middle-of-the-road approach for now. Treat the wine with bentonite a few days after the fermentation has completed and then filter the wine right before bottling with a "Medium" or "Polish" filter pad.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

One of the essential ingredients to successful home winemaking is knowledge. Information in the form of recipes, the experiences of others and their ideas on winemaking can all play a significant role in your ability to develop into an accomplished winemaker.

One great site where you can gain some of these insights is

winemakingtalk.com. Very simply, it is a message forum for winemakers. It's a place where you can: ask questions, get your questions answered, or just read through the various threads of conversation they've accumulated over the last couple of years.

The site is growing at a very fast pace. At last check it had over 1,700 contributors with over 4,000 posts.

If you want to ask a question or maybe you happen to know the answer to someone else's question, you can sign-up as a member and start participating. It's very simple to do, and even though we have no affiliation with this site, we highly recommend participating. Even if you don't want to sign-up right now, you can still visit and read through the conversations, a valuable experience in itself.

Hello Kraus folks,

I have about 100 pounds of concord grapes and would like to make a merlot wine. Do you have a recipe?

Thanks Boyd
_____

Dear Boyd,

Making Merlot wine from Concord grapes is an impossibility. Merlot is a

type of grape just like the Concords you have. A Merlot wine is made from Merlot grapes. The character of the wine comes from the flavor of the Merlot grape.

This is also true in many other cases. Cabernet Sauvignon is made from the Cabernet Sauvignon grape; Chardonnay from the Chardonnay grape; Zinfandel from the Zinfandel grape, and so on.

In all the above cases the wines are considered to be "varietals". They are wines that are made up mostly from the grape after which they are named.

In the United States law even requires that a Merlot wine be made up of at least 75% Merlot grape. Anything less would typically be labeled as a Bordeaux, the region in France where the grape was developed.

On the Wine Making Recipes page that is on our website, we have a recipe for making 5 gallons of wine using 80 pounds of Concord grapes. This is the wine recipe I suggest you use. It will give you a wine that is dry and full, like a Merlot wine, with about the same level of alcohol, but it will still taste like Concord grapes not Merlot.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello EC Kraus;

I have had very good luck with wines of blackberrys and of concentrates and am working on batch 14 and 15,blackberry. Number 14 was racked on june 22. 2nd rack @sg .030. What puzzles me is the up and down sg readings I get since then.

7/5 sg .040
7/30 sg .020
8/3 sg .032
9/5 sg 020
9/18 sg .010
9/24 sg .018

The average temp has been kept at about 70 degrees. I know this is slightly lower than optimum and I expect longer fermentation but can't explain the inconsistent readings. Batch number 15 is acting the same way.

Any help?
Thanks, BOB

_____

Dear Bob,

I certainly can understand why you are befuddled. I will tell you that temperature can not send the hydrometer readings in the wrong direction, at least not to the degree you have indicated. For every 10F you go down in temperature, you will raise the S.G. by about .0015, or 1-1/2 gravity points. So, we can rule out temperature fluctuations as being the Gremlin to your problem.

We have had this scenario come up a handful of times over the years, and each time that it was fully investigated, the reason for the bizarre readings was because of one of three things:

1. Sugar was added by the winemaker during the fermentation without them realizing this would effect the hydrometer readings in such a way. If you add sugar to the must it will increase the Specific Gravity reading.

2. The original sugar that was added did not get dissolved completely and is just kind of hanging towards the bottom of the batch. This means you will get different readings from the same batch depending on where the sample was taken from, or how recently the batch was stirred. I would rack the wine off any sediment at this point and stir it again thoroughly to rule out this possibility.

3. The paper scale inside the hydrometer has been lodged loose and is moving around within the hydrometer. This is the least likely reason for getting strange readings on the hydrometer, but it has happened. The scale inside any hydrometer is tacked into place with a spot of wax on the inside. Sometimes the scale will break away from the wax allowing it to move around within the hydrometer.

A simple test can determine if this is the reason for your puzzling readings. Float the hydrometer in water. You should get a Specific Gravity reading of 1.000. If you do not then the mystery has been solved.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello E. C. Kraus,

Does your company have a wine tester that tests the content of alcohol after the wine is made? That you

can test like in the glass you are drinking?

Please let me know if you do?

Thanks Julie
_____

Dear Julie,

We do carry one item that can do what you are asking. It is called a Vinometer. It's designed to tell you what the alcohol level of a wine is with only a small sample.

It is reasonably accurate with dryer wines, but only marginally accurate with wines that have residual sugars in them. The more sugars there are in a wine, the more it will shift the reading downwards. So if you like to drink sweet wines, it will be of little value to you.

Using the Vinometer is very simple and very quick. All you do is put some of the wine into the cup of the Vinometer. We're talking maybe one or two thimble's worth of wine. The wine will slowly make its way through a small channel, called a capillary, to the other end of the Vinometer.

Once 3 or 4 drops come out the other end, turn the Vinometer completely upside-down. Wine will fall out of the cup and some of the wine in the capillary will fall out as well, but some of the wine will stay in the capillary due to the surface tension of the liquid. How much depends on the alcohol level of the wine.

Once you have dumped the wine read the scale on the side of the Vinometer against the wine that is still remaining in the capillary. The reading is how much alcohol is in the wine.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

This is a question we get quite often from beginning winemakers:

"How many pounds of grapes do I need to make 5 gallons of wine?"

The answer depends on what kind of grapes we are talking about...

Many novice winemakers are surprised to learn that when making wine from viniferous grapes such as Cabernet, Zinfandel or Chardonnay--true wine grapes--that 70 to 80 pounds are required to end up with 5 gallons.

When making wine from these types of grape no water is added. Only 100 percent juice is used. The batch will start out around 8 to 9 gallons, but once the pomace (the spent pulp) has been removed you will end up with about 5 gallons.

Making wine from non-viniferous grapes is a little different story. If they are wild grapes such as fox or mustang, you should only need about 20 to 25 pounds. If they are domesticated, non-viniferous grapes such as Muscadine or Scuppernong, you will probably need about 30 to 35 pounds. In either case the difference in volume is made up with sugar and water.

The reason for the dilution of these grapes is two-fold. First and foremost, non-viniferous grapes are usually too acidic to make wine from their straight juice. This is particularly true in the case of wild grapes. The second reason for dilution is because the flavor of these grapes are usually too astringent or harsh for drinking. The wine would simply be overwhelming.

For more information you may want to take a look at the article, "Winemaking With Grapes". This is a beginners overview to making wine from grapes.

Hello E. C. Kraus

I have heard of people who will make wine from the pressings of an existing batch. I am sure they will need to add sugar and other nutrients to do this but I was wondering if anyone has heard of this, has a recipe, knows if it is possible or if it is any good?

Thank You,
Bob
_____

Dear Bob,

What you are referring to is something called "Second-Run Wine". Some people may also refer to it as a "False Wine" or a "Second Wine".

The reason for doing a Second Wine is to get as much wine as possible out of every pound of grape. Once the grapes have been pressed for the initial batch, water and other ingredients are then added to the spent pulp to start another wine.

This is not normally done with white wines, only reds. What this means is that the pulp will have already gone through several days of fermentation. Most if not all of the sugars will be gone from the pulp and a fair portion of the body and color will have been extracted as well.

Because of this, Second Wines tend to be lighter in color and with very little body. This gives the wine a cleaner, crisper overall character than the first-run wine. Second Wines also tend to mature quicker than their elder counterpart.

There are a couple of ways you can approach making a Second Wine. Some winemakers will lightly press their first run so as to leave a bit more color and body for the Second Run. In essence they are sacrificing some of the first for the second. Then there's the school of thought that the first-run wine should be made to it's normal level of par excellence. Press the pulp as hard as you normally would. Get all you can. Whatever body and color may be left can go towards the second wine. If the Second Wine turns out good, so be it. If it doesn't turn out so good, no real loss. How you approach it is up to you.

To make a Second Wine, add one gallon of water to the pulp for every gallon of wine that was removed for the first batch. Then, for every gallon of water you add to the pulp, also add the following:

2 lbs. of Sugar
2 Teaspoons of Acid Blend
1 Teaspoon of Yeast Energizer
1/4 Teaspoon Wine Tannin

Yeast does not need to be added when making a Second Wine. There is still plenty of yeast remaining with the pulp from the first run. The amount of sugar and Acid Blend listed above are only good approximations. The actual amount needed can vary some depending on how hard you press. For this reason you may want to add sugar based on hydrometer readings, and add Acid Blend based on an Acid Test Kit reading.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service At E. C. Kraus

Dear Sirs,

I have a couple of questions about the clarifier bentonite. I currently use the clarifier with the brand name sparkolloid, supposedly this product works because the sparkolloid has a positive static charge and attaches to free floating particles and sinks them to the bottom.

I have heard that bentonite works on the same principle only instead of a positive static charge it has a negative charge and when used in conjunction with the sparkolloid has a increased effect.

Is this true? If so, should one product be used first? Which one? What sort of time line should I use for adding the products?

Thank You,
David
_____

Dear David,

What you state is correct. Bentonite has a negative charge and Sparkolloid has a positive charge. Each can be used to complement the other when it comes to the business of attracting and dropping out particles.

It is not uncommon for a commercial winery to use bentonite on a wine shortly after it has finished fermenting and then follow it up later with a Sparkolloid treatment. This one-two approach to clarification has proven to be a very productive way to bring a high polish to a wine's appearance.

It's important to remember however, that most suspended particle you typically find in a wine will have a positive charge. Yeast, tannin and other proteins all have a positive charge. This makes bentonite the most effective fining agent to use in the majority of situations.

Most home winemakers are perfectly content to use the bentonite by itself. It does a fantastic job of dropping out the yeast cells and other remnant particles left over from the fermentation.

Sparkolloid can be used instead of bentonite on a wine that has already mostly cleared on its own. The Sparkolloid will add a luster to the wine's appearance. This makes it a prime candidate to be used on its own with white or blush wines.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

The Wine Lover's Page has always been our favorite website for keeping up with the wine trends of the day. Their finger always seems to be on the pulse of what's really going on in the wine community. One of their site's strengths is it's no-nonsense approach to keeping up with and explaining the relevant. You won't find any fluffy articles that talk down to the reader. Big words are

not used as "braggary" but only when necessary, and their tone is down-to-earth. As they like to put it, their web site is in the "no-snob zone".

One of the features on the site is their "Online Wine Tasting Course" where you can "Learn To Taste Like An Expert". I mention this because I found the course to be perfect as an introduction to wine appreciation and wine tasting. It will take the intimidation right out of you.

It's basically a series of 13 short chapters that walks you through the fundamentals of tasting, as well as give you a brief overview of the various different styles of wine. And here's the best part, it's free! You don't even need to sign-up. Just go to their web site and go through it at your own leisure.

Through the course of our daily lives, while we bake a pie, while we make ourselves a mixed drink, or even while we're mixing up a batch lemon-Aid for the kids, we think of sour as being the opposite of sweet. If something's not being sour, then it's being sweet; either the lemon-aid is too sweet, or the lemon-aid is too sour. "Oh my, the Whiskey Sour you made me is too sour. Add a little more sugar to make it sweeter, please".

Sometimes we use the word "tart" in the place of "sour", but it's really the same thing. "This lemon pie is too tart. We should have used more sugar". And there's other words like sharp, acidic, vinegary that we all take to mean basically the same thing.

So we've got all these words, the too: sour, tart, sharp, whatever, that represent to us the

opposite of sweet, and whenever something taste like one of these words we've been taught to add sugar to it. It's been put in all of our heads that way. It's the way we've been taught to think about sweet and sour all of our lives, all the way back to when we were sitting in our high-chair spitting up applesauce.

Now flash-forward a few decades. You've made a batch of cherry wine. It's a beautiful ruby-red color. It looks incredible. You decide to take a sip to see how it tastes only to discover that your creation is too "tart". So what should you do? Why not add more sugar? It's the opposite of "tart". That should fix it, right?.... Wrong!

It's easy to understand how someone could get the idea to add sugar in this situation, but it's not the correct thing to do. And, here's the real shocker, sour, tart, sharp, acidic, vinegary, and any other puckering adjective you can think of is "not" the opposite of sweet. Sweet has no opposite flavor, no more so than the color "red" has an opposite color. It's just a flavor just like red is a color.

If you keep adding sugar to something that's sour, all you will end up with is something that tastes both sweet and sour. Sweet does not take away sour. Sweet does not diminish sour's capacity to be sour in any way. Chinese restaurants have taken this knowledge to develop something called sweet & sour sauce. Need I say more?

So back to the cherry wine. It's too tart, what should you do? If you add sugar to it, it will develop a sweetness, but it will also still be just as tart as before. The only solution is to reduce the amount of acid in the wine. After all, that's what's making it tart.

As a home winemaker you have at your disposal an easy way to remove excess acid from a wine. The acid can be neutralized and settled out, much like what we do to ourselves when we take antacids, except with wine we use something called Potassium Bicarbonate not Tums or Rolaids. We offer it on our website as Acid Reducing Crystals. By adding these crystals to your wine you can lower it's tartness to any level you desire.

The Acid Reducing Crystals work hand-in-hand with our Acid Testing Kit. The Acid Testing Kit measures the level of acidity in your wine. It also comes with directions that tell you what level your wine should be to taste right. The Acid Reducing Crystals come with directions as well that tell you how much to add to the wine to get from one acidity level to another. So between both items you can control the tartness of the wine perfectly.

To sum up, don't think of "sweet" as being the savior of "sour". Think of sweet on its own merits. For a wine to taste its best to you it may need to be sweetened, but don't automatically add sugar to a wine because it's too tart. If the wine is too tart, think in terms of acid reduction as a solution.

For years we have been trying to find a fruit crusher that would really fit the needs of the the home winemaker: one that was not over-sized, one that did not require a lot of clean up, and one that would be able to handle the variety of fruits that the typical home winemaker runs across.

Our search for the most part was nothing but one big disappointment after another. The biggest problem was that nobody made a fruit crusher

that was small enough. They were all way too big for the individual winemaker.

But all that changed when we found this little gem. It's perfect for the country winemaker who wants to make 5, 10, say maybe 30 gallons of wine at a time. It can crush 80 to 100 pounds of fruit per hour with just moderate, manual hand-cranking.

Doesn't matter if it's blackberries or apples. The Wooden Fruit Crusher will burst, bust, meal... whatever it takes to get the fruit past the pulverizing rollers and ready for pressing.

If you think I sound excited, you're right! I'm excited because I know that this is the crusher that will make a lot of home winemakers very happy. No more crushing by-hand, using potato mashers or whatever other time-consuming method are going on.

Our website provides many winemaking recipes for a number of various fruits. Jack Keller's website is also another great resource for winemaking recipes. In fact, you can find a winemaking recipe for just about any type of fruit imaginable somewhere on the internet.

Most of what I have seen are decent recipes. They'll say how much fruit and sugar to use: pectic enzyme, acid blend, nutrients, tannin and such. Follow the recipe and you'll turn out a pretty good wine, but there is a way to improve on any wine recipe. A way to tweak it, so to speak.

A wine recipe can only get you so close. This is for the simple fact that any particular fruit that is being called for in a recipe will always vary in sweetness and in acidity. The recipe can only guess as to what these variables might be for the fruit have on hand

Because of these variables, the amount sugar and Acid Blend called for by the wine recipe can only be a very good guess.

But you can take the "guess" out of the recipe. By taking just a couple of actions on your part you can put in the correct amount of sugar and Acid Blend in the mix and make a perfectly balanced wine.

For example, let's say that you have a 5 gallon wine recipe that calls for 10 pounds of sugar. Go ahead and put in most of the sugar, say 8 pounds. Then use the "Potential Alcohol" scale found on most hydrometers to put in the correct amount of remaining sugar.

As you dissolve more sugar in the juice, the reading on the hydrometer will go up. Shoot for somewhere between 10 to 13 percent alcohol on the scale. Shooting for more than this may bring you trouble by way of a stuck fermentation; shooting for less than this will make a wine that's easy to spoil.

The same technique can be used for tweaking the Acid Blend. Put in most of the Acid Blend called for, then use an Acid Testing Kit to help you put in the correct amount needed. Shoot for a reading between .55% and .70% TA. The directions that come with the Acid Testing Kit will tell you how much Acid Blend to add to get from point A to point B.

Dear Kraus,

I have some wine from your wine concentrate that is starting to ferment in one of your 9 gal. Tuff Tanks. Your directions say to ferment for 7 days then transfer it to a secondary ferment tank with airlock. Since the 9 gallon Tuff Tank acts as both a primary and secondary fermenter do I still need to move the wine to another container?

Thanks Albert

_____

Dear Albert,

The answer is, yes, you still need to move the must to another secondary fermenter. Just sealing up the current fermenter and putting an air-lock on it is not enough. The must needs to be moved off the sediment to another fermenter as well.

A majority of the sediment--dead yeast cells--are produced during the first few days of fermentation. Leaving an abundance of them in contact with the must for extended periods of time will eventually allow off-flavors to develop in the wine. By transferring (racking) the must off the sediment you are promoting a cleaner tasting wine.

You should also be racking your wine again, sometime shortly after the fermentation ends. This is to get rid of the new sediment that will be occurring with each passing day. Refer to the directions provided with your kit for further details.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello Kraus Folks,

I am interested in making non alcohol wine. Do you have information that can tell me how to do this?

Thank You!
Lloyd

_____

Dear Lloyd,

Unfortunately, making non-alcohol wine is something that requires special equipment and know-how to do.

You could mix up some Welch's grape concentrate and call that non-alcohol wine, but the non-alcoholic wines you buy at the store are different. The main difference being they are not syrupy sweet. The sugars have been removed allowing the body and tannins to come forth and be the core of the juices character, just like with an alcoholic wine.

The only way to remove the sugars from the juice is to have a fermentation that will turn them into alcohol. This is what the commercial producers of non-alcoholic wines do, they ferment the juice and start out with a regular wine, then the alcohol is removed.

Now the alcohol has to be removed. There are a couple of ways doing this, neither of them are practical for the home winemaker.

The first way is to distill the alcohol off the wine. Steam it away. This works okay except that heating up the wine causes it to oxidize and turn brown very quickly. The wine becomes caramelized to an extent.

Commercial producers have learned how to get around this by putting the wine in a very strong vacuum first. By doing so they can cause the wine to boil at temperatures as low as 78F. In effect, they can distill the alcohol off the wine without ever heating it up.

The second way commercial producers remove the alcohol is by filtration. The wine is forced under high pressure against a membrane that is so fine that only the water and alcohol can seep through it. The wine is ran past the membrane over and over again until it becomes a concentrate. Water is then added back to bring the wine to its original balance.

So as you can see, there is no easy way for the home winemaker to make their own non-alcoholic wine. It requires both extensive apparatus and inside knowledge. It is technology that is way beyond the realm of what you or I could do at home.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear Kraus,

I am a satisfied customer of yours and have planted a small vineyard and expect some good harvests from it. I have been looking at the crusher/stemmer and the fruit presses. My question is, will the crusher/stemmer also give me the juices or is a press also needed to get the juices. Or can I use just the press to extract the juice with the stems on the fruit.

There doesn't seem to be any information with the products about that and to have to buy them both is very expensive and out of my budget.

Please help with some suggestions. I can probably purchase one or the other of the two, but not both of them.

Thank you.
Barry

_____

Dear Barry,

I understand your confusion. Every year we get questions just like yours, and it's understandable with the lack of information available in this area of winemaking.

Your grapes will need to be crushed first. You can not send whole grapes straight to the press. Whether you decide to use a crusher, crusher/destemmer or just do it all by hand is up to you. You will also need to take the grapes off the stems. Some stems are okay, but the majority of the stems should be eliminated. Too many stems can add an unwanted bitterness to the wine.

Hello,

I have numerous Elderberry bushes/trees on my ranch. I have made Elderberry jelly many times and found that I have to use quite a bit more sugar than most other fruits/berries I have used.

This year I want to try to make Elderberry wine for the first time. Do I need to use more sugar than for

other fruits used for making wine? The recipe on your website doesn't indicate this but my Elderberries are the "wild" variety and are VERY tart.

Thank you!

Regards,
Andie
_____

Dear Andie,

Elderberries and other tarter fruits do not require more sugar. The sugar that is added to the mix at the beginning of the process will not contribute to the sweetness of the wine in any way. This sugar will all be turned into alcohol by the yeast during the fermentation.

The tartness of the wine is controlled by how much fruit and Acid Blend is called for by the recipe to be mixed with water to total 5 gallons. These two elements combine to make up the total acidity of the wine. Having too much total acidity is what makes a wine too tart.

This recipe assumes that the Elderberries are wild. If you follow the amounts listed below you will be fine. The 15 pounds of Elderberries combined with 5 teaspoons of Acid Blend will get you to the right tartness for 5 gallons.


Elderberry Wine
(Makes 5 Gallons)

15 Pounds Elderberries
10 Pounds Sugar
Water To Total 5 Gallons
2 Tablespoons Yeast Nutrient
5 Teaspoons Acid Blend
5 Campden Tablets (Added 24 hours before yeast)
1 Packet Wine Yeast (Lalvin RC 212 recommended)
5 Campden Tablets (Added At Bottling Time)


For directions on what to do, follow "The 7 Easy Steps To Making Wine" that is listed on our website.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Many of the items we offer have quantity discounts available for them. This means the more you order the less you pay.

Click on price to view any available discounts.

To find out if any quantity price-breaks are available for a particular item, just click on the individual price being displayed with your mouse. This will take you to a page that lists any price-breaks for that product.

A great example of this is our Lalvin Wine Yeast which has quantity price-breaks when you order more than 5 and again when you order more than 10. Once you click on the individual price of $1.15, like that shown above, you are then taken to page like the one displayed below.

Discounts are automatically applied when the item is placed in your shopping cart.

If you have already been ordering from us, rest assured that you have been receiving every price-break available to you. All quantity pricing is automatically applied once the item is placed in your shopping cart. You don't have to do a thing but place the order.

Dear Kraus,

First of all, thanks for your very informative website. I have only read some of the great information but have learned a lot already.

I am a novice wine maker at this point. I have about 18 gallons of plum wine fermenting that is now 2 weeks old. The problem with it is it seems too tart. I ordered some acid test strips from you and tested it. It came

out quite high. What can I do at this point to bring down that acid (tart) taste? I have added a little sugar and that only works temporarily to cut the acid taste. Any advice will be totally appreciated.

Thank you for your great service.

Lyle
_____

Dear Lyle,

First of all I would like to point out that you do not want to do anything to correct high acidity during the fermentation. Having this problem will only benefit the fermentation and secondly the acidity level can actually change throughout its coarse. So you may not need to do anything once the fermentation has completed.

If your acid is still too high there are a couple of things you can do. You can add Acid Reducing Crystals to the wine. This will cause the excess acid to drop out in the form of crystals. It comes with directions and is fairly straight-forward to use. Your second option is to dilute the wine with a mixture of water and vodka. Use 4 ounces for every quart of water. This will allow you to drop the acidity concentration without lowering your alcohol level.

I would also suggest getting an Acid Testing Kit. This is a more accurate way of measuring the acidity level and will allow you to make more accurate adjustments to the wine. It measures the acidity in terms of an actual percentage. A typical reading might be .65%. This means your wine is .65% acid by weight. An acceptable range would be .55% to .70%.

For every teaspoon of Acid Reducing Crystals you add to a gallon of wine you will reduce the acidity by .18%. Armed with this information you should be able to safely get your acidity under control.

You may also want to take a look a the article, "Getting A Handle On Wine Acidity", that is listed on our website. It goes into a little more detail on handling this type of situation.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello Kraus People,

All of the wine recipes I see call for water to be added, why do you have to add water? What happens if you use just the juice?

Thanks,
AL
_____

Dear Al,

You are correct. Most all fruit wine recipes require water. There are some exceptions. Straight apple juice can be used to make a very good wine. No water needed. If you are using actual winemaking grapes you do not need water. But when it comes to wines made from fruits such as blackberries, plums or even muscadine grapes, they always call for water.

The first possible reason water needs to be added is because the fruit is too acidic. If you take straight blackberry juice and just drink it you will find that it burns from it's acidic concentration. It's not the same as eating the blackberries. Dilution is required to lower the acidity level.

A second possible reason for adding water is because the flavor of the fruit is too astringent. Elderberries would be an extreme example of this. The flavor elements are just too strong to be pleasant in a glass. Dilution is required to make the fruit's flavor more palatable.

With most fruit wine recipes water needs to be added for both acidity and palatability. In some cases, a fruit's flavor may require so much dilution that acid needs to be added back for proper balance.

Whether you use a wine recipe on our website or somewhere else the story is the same. These recipes are developed through experience. There is some wiggle-room for varying the amount of fruit called for, but in most all cases the range of fruit you can use does not equal 100 percent juice.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello,

I have been told that a refractometer works real nice to check the alcohol content in the must and also at the end is this true?

Gary
_____

Dear Gary,

A refractometer will not test the alcohol level. It will only test the sugar level of the must or wine at any given time. This is no different than what a hydrometer can do.

By comparing two sugar level readings, one taken before fermentation and the other after, you can determine how much alcohol was made by the yeast. Yeast consume sugar and turn it into CO2 gas and alcohol. If you know how much sugar was consumed by the yeast, then you can determine how much alcohol the yeast made.

What makes the refractometer extremely useful is that you can take accurate sugar readings with very small samples, just a couple of drops. This makes it ideal for checking the ripeness of the grapes while out in the vineyard. It also is handy when you need to take a quick reading during pressings or before and after fermentation.

On the other hand the hydrometer needs enough sample for it to float. This could take as much as 4 or 5 ounces of wine or must. A hydrometer jar is also needed to hold the sample. So as you can see more time and effort is involved to take a reading with a hydrometer.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello Wine People,

I would like to know what to do about the following situation: I like to make wine and I make Muscadine and when it is finished the wine has a bitter taste. Can you tell me what I am doing wrong and if there is something I can do to smooth it out.

Thanks
Lena
_____

Dear Lena,

The first thing that needs to be realized is that Muscadine grapes are not necessarily ideal for making wine. Each berry has a huge amount of skin and pulp which can contribute to making the wine harsh. Some consideration needs to be given to this fact.

But beyond this bitterness can be caused in any wine by the following:

1. Leaving the pulp in the fermentation too long. You may want to consider leaving the pulp in the fermentation for maybe one or two days, instead of 5 to 7 days like many recipes will instruct you to do. When the pulp is left in the must too long excessive amounts of bitter tannins can be leached into the must.

2. Crushing-up the pulp too much. Over processing the pulp will also allow too much bitterness to be released from the skins. Using things like blenders and food processors is a no-no. You only want to burst the skins so that the yeast can get to the inner part of the fruit during the fermentation. Doing anything more than this is not necessary and harmful to the wine's flavor.

3. Using too much fruit. Unlike making wine from actual wine grapes where all the liquid comes from the grapes, Muscadines need to be cut with water because of its high level of acidity. A muscadine wine recipe will typically call for only 20 to 30 pounds of grapes to make five gallons of wine. This represents around 25% of the finished product's total liquid. If you are using more than 30 pounds than that may be what is causing this issue. Try cutting back to using only 20 pounds of Muscadines.

Also, realize that all wines are bitter to some degree when they are first done fermenting, and this is probably what you are tasting. A significant amount of this bitterness will age out of a wine when given enough time. You may also want to consider using a fining agent such as our Speedy Bentonite. This will help to remove the bitterness from the wine more quickly.

Hope this helps you out.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

E. C. Kraus has put together three different winemaking articles to help out the absolute beginner. If this sounds like you, you may want to take a look. Each article gives a different slant on how to get started based on whatever you have in mind, whether it be making wine from your own garden fruits, fresh grapes or from packaged grape juices.

"Making Wine With Fruits"

"Making Wine With Grapes"

"Making Wine With Concentrates"

Each article also has links built-in to direct you to more detailed information on specific subjects that might be of further to interest you. Also realize that we have an expansive listing of winemaking articles you can sift through at your own leisure.

It looks like this is going a to be a good year for peaches. A refreshing bit of news considering how Mother Nature squashed last year's crop in many parts of the U.S.

Last year's bitter, late freezes destroyed peach buds dead in their tracks leaving many home winemakers to scurry for what they could find. This year appears to be the opposite. With the peach trees getting a rest last year combined with the more moderate temperatures we've been having this year, a bumper crop seems to be on the horizon.

With that being said, I'd thought it would be nice to post a peach wine recipe on the blog. This recipe is simple enough that even a first-time winemaker can make it. The recipe is for making 5 gallons. To get started prepare the peaches by peeling them; then remove the pits; and then coarsely chopping them up.

PEACH WINE
13 lbs. Fresh Peaches
10 lbs. Cane Sugar
Water as need to make 5 gallons
1 Tablespoons Yeast Energizer
1 Teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
2-1/2 Tablespoons Acid Blend
1 Teaspoon Wine Tannin
5 Campden Tablets (Add 24 hours before the yeast)
1 Packet Wine Yeast (Lalvin EC-1118 recommended)
5 Campden Tablets (Add right before bottling)

If you've never made wine before . . .
You can find specific procedures for making wine on our website. Take a look at the article, "7 Easy Steps To Making Wine". It explains all the steps you need to make the wine--from beginning to end.

If you do not have any equipment or ingredients of any kind, then a simple solution would be to get our starter kit for making wine from fresh fruits. We call it the "Your Fruit" Necessities Box. Just as the name implies, it has all the necessities for making wine with "your fruit", including each of the ingredients listed in the peach wine recipe above.

The amount of yeast you use when making a batch of wine has no baring on the amount of alcohol you will end up with. Whether you add one, two, or even three packs of yeast, you still end up with the same amount of alcohol.

You do need to have a sufficient amount of yeast to get the job done, but this can be accomplish by adding a single packet.

The amount of alcohol you end up with is

controlled by the amount of sugars that are available to the yeast, not by the yeast itself. The sugars are consumed by the yeast, and as a result, the yeast excrete alcohol as a byproduct. The more sugars the yeast consume the more alcohol they will make.

There are limits as to how much sugar the yeast can handle before the alcohol starts to paralyze their activity. If you add too much sugar you can easily end up with a disgustingly sweet wine. For this reason never plan on making more than 13 percent by volume. This is the upper limits of what wine yeast can consistently produce. The article, "Making High Alcohol Wine", goes into more detail on this subject. If you are interested in making higher alcohol wines this would be the place to start.

Dear Mr. Kraus,

We bottled 120 gal of wine and now how do we care for the barrels until the fall? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thank you.
Glen
_____

Dear Glen,

Once a wine barrel has been used it should always be kept full of liquid, whether it be with wine or water. Allowing the barrel to remain empty while not in use will cause the wood to dry out and shrink.

When wine is put back in the barrel it will swell up again, but this cycle of shrinking and expanding can potentially cause permanent leaks in the barrel. Putting the wood through these continuous changes will also accelerate its deterioration.

When you are between batches of wine just fill the barrel completely with water. You must also put in the water a mixture of Citric Acid and Sodium Bisulfite to eliminate the potential growth of contaminants in the barrel. For a 50 gallon barrel you would use 1/2 pound of Citric Acid and 1 pound of Sodium Bisulfite. For smaller barrels you would adjust the dosage accordingly.

It is important to keep the water topped-up. Every month or two the bung should be removed and and water added to replace any that has been lost through evaporation. We also recommend replenishing the Sodium Bisulfite every six months by adding half the original dosage. You do not need to add more citric acid.

You may also want to look over our "Barrel Sterilizing Kit Directions" on our website. It goes into a little more detail about caring for a barrel in general.

Hope this helps you out.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hi,

What is the procedure for getting as much of the fruit's flavor as possible in my wine. I'm wanting to try your recent strawberry recipe but would like a strong strawberry flavor.

Thanks!
Steven
_____

Dear Steven,

Getting all the flavor you can from the strawberries, or for that matter, any fruit, is really not the goal. You should be

concerning yourself with getting the right amount of flavor from the fruit. If you do not get enough flavor extraction, the wine will be light and "zestless". This matches up with your worries. But, if you get too much flavor extraction from the fruit then the resulting wine will be too bitter or harsh. There is a balance to be had here.

Most all country fruit wine recipes call for Pectic Enzymes, including the recipe you are referring to on this blog. [see April 28, 2008 entry] These enzymes help to break down the fiber of the fruit for proper flavor extraction. Various enzymes are also produced by the yeast during the fermentation that will help the extraction process even further.

With that being said, if you follow the recipe's directions you will have the optimum amount of flavor extraction with the right balance of flavors coming from the fruit, but if you start deviating from the directions and start doing things like: over-processing the fruit in a blender; or leaving the fruit in the fermentation longer than recommended, you will risk ending up with a bitter failure.

The safest way to get more fruit flavor in a wine is to use more fruit, however there is more to it than just throwing additional fruit into the recipe. Adjustments need to be made to other ingredients in the recipe as a way of compensating for the extra fruit, other wise the wine won't taste right.

More specifically, when you add more fruit not only are you adding more fruit flavor to the wine. You are also adding more sugar and more acid. Because of this you will need to add less sugar and less acid (Acid Blend) than what is called for by the recipe. "How much less?", is the big question.

In the case of the sugar, you would want to rely on hydrometer readings to tell you how much sugar to add to get the alcohol level you want. To know how much Acid Blend to add you will need to use an Acid Test Kit to get it to a proper tasting range.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear Kraus,

My husband asked me to write you and ask about which kit he should get to make wine with. He does not really know the difference between them and would like you to advise on how to get started.

Thanking you in advance
Brenda
_____

Dear Brenda,

We offer 3 different starter kits for making wine. We refer to them as Necessity Boxes because that's what they really are: a collection of the necessities you will need to start making wine. The equipment in these kits are the same quality items we would sell to you individually anyway, only this way they are packaged together at a reduced price.

"Your Fruit"
Necessities Box

SunCal
Necessities Box

Each of these three kits are designed with simplicity in mind. They give you exactly what you need to get the task at hand done whether it be making wine from fresh fruits or from concentrated juices.

You can find more information about these three starter kits on our website.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Niagara Mist already has a sensational selection of winemaking concentrates for the home winemaker. Now they've added two new great flavors: BluePom White Merlot and Sangria Zinfandel Blush.

BLUEPOM WHITE MERLOT
This hot, exotic new blush wine combines the rich aromas and berry flavors of the Merlot grape with the tangy Blueberry and tart Pomegranate. The resulting wine is an eruption of sweet and juicy flavors that leaves you wanting more.

SANGRIA ZINFANDEL BLUSH
This sweet and easy drinking summertime wine is a medley of fruits blended with the jammy flavors of the Zinfandel grape. Your nose will be enlightened by scents of orange, lemon and lime that marries with the flavors of berries and cherries on the tongue. A sensational sipper with well balanced sweet, fruity flavors! A great brunch beverage!

Niagara Mist wine kits make uniquely refreshing wine beverages with a bold splash of fruit. Niagara Mist combines famous wine varietals with sassy fruit flavors. Delightfully light and refreshing combinations that are perfect for any occasion. Ready in as little as 28 days.

Getting wine bottles ready to use is a task that can make some beginning winemakers nervous. "Am I preparing my bottles correctly?", they might think to themselves, "And, if I'm not, what is it going to do to my wine?". These are legitimate concerns, but they are also concerns that can be laid to rest fairly easily.

There are two overlying rules that must be appreciated when preparing wine bottles for their task: bottles must be clean; and bottles

must be sanitized. Follow both rules and you will have no problems; ignore them and you'll be rolling the dice with the potential spoilage of your wine.

THE BOTTLES MUST BE CLEAN
What this means is the bottles must be made clear of any visually detected dirt, grime, etc. In the case of new wine bottles this is taken care of for you. Except for a little dust that may have collected on the outside of the bottles, they are clean and ready to go.

If you are reusing wine bottles, then they must be cleaned with dish soap. To use an example, you want to clean them in the traditional way you would think of cleaning your dishes. Use a bottle brush to get inside the bottle and scrub in the bottom corners of the bottle with soapy water. Use a wash rag on the outside of each bottle.

BOTTLES MUST BE SANITIZED
When you sanitize a bottle what you are doing is eliminating almost all of the germs that are on and in the bottle.

If the bottles have been previously used, we recommend using a strong cleaner such as CleanPro SDH to sanitize the bottles. CleanPro SDH is a bleach that rinses away very easily with cold water. Just soak the bottles for 20 minutes in a solution of water and CleanPro SDH as directed on the label and then rinse.

If the bottles are new then using CleanPro SDH is not necessary. In this situation you will want to use Sodium Bisulfite. Just mix up a solution with water as directed on the label and then pour one or two inches worth into each bottle and let sit for 20 minutes. The gas from the solution will do the sterilizing. After 20 minutes just drain the bottle--no need to rinse--and it is ready for the wine.

USEFUL ITEMS
A couple of items we offer that helps make sanitizing your wine bottles easier is our Bottle Sulphatizer and Bottle Tree. The Bottle Sulphatizer is used to spray Sodium Bisulfite solution into each bottle and the Bottle Tree is used to easily drain the bottles.

Strawberries make an absolutely wonderful wine. The aroma is pleasant and distinct; the flavor is very fruity and elegant, and unlike some fruit wines, it tastes delicious sweet or dry.

Here's a wine recipe that is simple enough that even a first-time winemaker can make it. The recipe is for making 5 gallons of strawberry wine. To

get started prepare the strawberries by cutting off the stems and any bad spots and then coarsely chop them up into quarters.

STRAWBERRY WINE
18 lbs. Fresh Strawberries
10 lbs. Cane Sugar
Water as need to make 5 gallons
2 Tablespoons Yeast Nutrient
1 Teaspoon Pectic Enzyme
5 Teaspoons Acid Blend
1 Teaspoon Wine Tannin
5 Campden Tablets (Add 24 hours before the yeast)
1 Packet Wine Yeast (Lalvin ICV-D47 recommended)
5 Campden Tablets (Add right before bottling)

If you've never made wine before . . .
You can find specific procedures for making wine on our website. Take a look at the article, "7 Easy Steps To Making Wine". It explains all the steps you need to make the wine--from beginning to end.

If you do not have any equipment or ingredients of any kind, then a simple solution would be to get our starter kit for making wine from fresh fruits. We call it the "Your Fruit" Necessities Box. Just as the name implies, it has all the necessities for making wine with "your fruit", including each of the ingredients listed in the strawberry wine recipe above.

This is an area where some home winemakers can get into trouble. The winemaker assumes that their wine is done fermenting just by looking at the liquid. Then they go on to bottle their wine only to have it ferment in the bottles some time later on. Not good.

When there are no visible signs of fermentation activity you need to be careful about jumping to the conclusion that your wine has completed its fermentation. If you can not see any signs of life in your fermenter, all you

When it comes to grapes and their various wine styles there are all kinds of funny words, with awkward spellings, originating from languages other than just plain English. I'll be the first to tell you that I--still to this day--can not remember how to say many of them.

Talking with a wine-snob is where these words can get very frightful. A wine-snob can throw these words at you like flying daggers. They enjoy watching you squirm as you are huddled into submission, not by their knowledge of wine necessarily, but by their ability to say words. The intimidation factor can become quite intense.

Well, now you can "sound like" you know what you're talking about too. Below is a list of the more common wines you will run across along with their proper pronunciations. Learn how to say these words and not only will you be the impressive winemaker in the family, but you'll be the wine expert too.

Fruit season is quickly coming upon us. You may want to consider stocking up on some basic winemaking ingredients. By having just 7 essential ingredients on hand you will be prepared to make any of the wines that are listed on our wine recipe page. Everything from raspberry to rhubarb. So stock up now and be ready for when a fruit windfall comes your way.

Dear Mr. Kraus,

Did not receive any instructions with Bottle Sealing Wax . What is the best method to melt the wax granules. Have never used wax before. Do you sell some type of melter. If you would please let me know how to use.

Thanks,
Sammy L.
_____

Dear Sammy,

We recommend melting the wax in a soup can or something similar. Sit the can in a pan of water to make sort of a double boiler on the stove. Once the wax is melted it will be in that container permanently, so don't actually put the wax in any good pots or pans themselves.

Many people are under the impression that homemade wines do not keep as long as commercially made wines. This is simply not true.

There is no difference between how long your homemade wine will last and how long a winery's wine will last. The process the home winemaker goes through is virtually the same as a winery's, just on a smaller scale.

The important thing to understand is that sanitation must be given its due respect. Not only do you need to clean the fermenting vessels and other winemaking equipment with dish soap, they need to be sanitized as well. For this purpose we recommend using CleanPro SDH.

Wine bottles should be sanitized with a sodium bisulfite. Used wine bottles are only recommended if they have been scrubbed both inside and out and then sanitized.

Campden tablets or potassium bisulfite should be added to the wine right before bottling to keep any missed microbes from spoiling the wine while in the bottle.

If you make a concerted effort to follow these simple and basic sanitation procedures your wine will keep for years.

Hello:

Maybe you can answer a question that I have. When using yeast, do you need to place it in hot water as the directions say on the package, or can you just sprinkle it on the must?

I noticed that some recipes call for it to be placed in hot water first, and other recipes call for the yeast to be sprinkled on the top of the must. What is the best thing to do?

Thank you for your time,
Leonard
_____

Dear Leonard,

You are correct. Most all ingredient kit directions and wine recipes will say to sprinkle the dried yeast directly on top of the must, but if you look at the packet of dried yeast itself, it will have directions saying to put the yeast in warm water first. This is a process called rehydration. What rehydration does is bring the dried yeast back to an active state before it is put into the must.

If you pitch the dried yeast directly into the must it will rehydrate and eventually start fermenting anyway. So why do the yeast producers recommend this extra step before pitching?

When a yeast cell rehydrates, its cell wall is swelling and gaining back the elasticity, its ability to flex. This is a process that is prone to leaving a few cells damaged. A percentage of them don't make it. By using plain water at an optimal temperature you are reducing the number of cells that are being damaged.

The reason ingredient kit producers, wine recipes, and even the directions on our website do not mention rehydrating before pitching is that many home winemakers, particularly beginners, do not perform the rehydration correctly. This can cause more problems than if they had just pitched the dried yeast directly into the must.

The typical directions on a packet of dried yeast goes something like this:

"Dissolve the dried yeast in 2 ozs. of warm water (100 - 105 F). Let stand for 15 min. without stirring. After 15 min. stir and add to must."

This is perfectly fine as long as you follow the directions.

It is important to note here that at 100 - 105 F a small portion of the yeast are dying every minute, and as the temperature goes up an even larger number begin to die. What this means is if a thermometer is not used to make sure that the water stays below 105 F, or the yeast cells are allowed to stay in the water for longer than 15 minutes, most or all of the yeast can potentially be killed.

Regardless of what you do, sprinkle on the must or rehydrate, some of the yeast cells will die before going into action. That's just the way it is, but that's okay. The number of yeast cells that are provided in each packet allow for this attrition. Just remember that if you do decide to rehydrate your yeast first, please be sure to follow the directions closely with regards to temperature and time. Otherwise, just sprinkle the yeast on the must.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

This is a question we get at least once a week. People are desperately seeking out how to make their own wines without sulfites. Usually it is because they are suffering from headaches that they are attributing to sulfite allergies.

The major foil to making wines with no sulfites is that sulfites are a natural byproduct of fermentation. In winemaking we talk about sulfites in terms of ppm (parts per million). Fermentations will naturally produce sulfites somewhere on the order of 10 to 30 ppm.

This amount may seem small, but compare it against the fact that the average bottle of wine on the market only contains about 65 ppm or the fact that any wine in the U.S. that has more than 10 ppm must have on its label, "Contains Sulfites." Then it starts to become clear that the amount of sulfites made by a fermentation is, in fact, significant to the wine's total content.

So the answer is, "no." You can not make sulfite-free wine. Now lets move on to the next logical question...


Can I make wines without adding sulfites?

The answer is, "Certainly you can, but do you really want too?" Sulfites are added to a wine for a reason, to keep it from spoiling. If the level of sulfites are too low, then it is susceptible to being overcome with bacteria, mold and other detrimental spoilers.

Because wine has alcohol, the amount of sulfites needed to keep it from spoiling is very small as compared to amounts we find in the foods we eat everyday. Fruit juices, for example, can have on the order of 200 to 300 ppm; dehydrated fruits, conservatively around 1,000 ppm; and salsa around 1,000 to 2,000 ppm. These are much higher amounts than the 45 to 85 ppm you will typically find in wine.

So it doesn't make sense to short your wine the miniscule amount of sulfites it needs to help guarantee its safety from spoilage, and it doesn't make sense to blame such small amounts of sulfites on headaches when so much of it is in the foods we consume everyday. That brings us to the next logical question...


So Why Do Some Get Headaches From Wine?

There are a certain number of people who do get headaches from drinking wine, but as explained above, blaming this on sulfites just doesn't add up.

There are a couple of other reasons why this doesn't add up too. One is sulfite allergies are much more rare than there are people having headaches from wine. According to the medical industry, there is somewhere between 500 thousand to 1 million sulfite allergy sufferers in the U.S. This equals only about 1 in 300 to 600 people.

Secondly, a headache is not the primary symptom of a sulfite allergy. Asthma or having trouble breathing is the very first problem to show up.

A great article on this subject is titled, "Red Wine Headaches." It covers in fair detail the real possible reasons why someone might get a headache from drinking wine.


What Can I do?

If you are still not convinced that sulfites are completely innocent of all charges, then you might want to consider taking a sulfite level reading at bottling time and add potassium bisulfite accordingly. Shoot for a total level of 55 ppm for reds and 70 ppm for whites just before bottling.

You can take readings with a Titrettor Hand Tool and Titret Test Vials. By taking control of your sulfite levels in this way, you can be certain that no more sulfites are in the wine than absolutely necessary to keep it fresh.

Hello Kraus,

I was looking at the County Fair Fruit Bases, and am confused at how many cans it takes to make a batch. It says it takes one to four cans. How do I know how many cans I need to make a good batch?

Thanks Wendy
_____

Dear Wendy,

The first thing I would like to point out is that the number of cans you use to make a 5 gallon batch is not a question of quality, or good or bad. It's a question of style. A real question to ask yourself here is, "what style do you like"?

As you increase the number of cans in a batch what you are really doing is increasing the body and intensity of the resulting wine. Body is the thickness or the mouth-feel of the wine. To put an analogy to it, it's the difference between skim milk and whole milk.

If you use just one can of County Fair to a 5 gallon batch, you will be making a light-bodied wine. It will have a crisp, refreshing character, a nice quenching wine to drink during the warm summer months. At the other end of the scale is the four can batch. This wine will be very full and aggressive. A rich, hardy wine with lingering flavors that will be able to stand up to any meal.

There are a couple of other issues that should be noted here as well:

-- Four cans will not make a wine that is twice as strong as two cans. Because of the way us humans perceive things, there is a factor of diminishing returns. As you go up in the number of cans you are only marginally increasing the fullness of the wine, so it would be incorrect to expect that a wine made with four cans would be four times as strong as a wine made with one can.

-- The more cans you use, the more aging the wine will require. Typically, a one can wine will completely age out in 3 to 6 months. A four can wine may take up to 2 years to reach its best. That is not to say that it won't be enjoyable before this time, that's just how long it may take before it stops mellowing.

Best Wishes
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello!

Does filtering wines Help remove that harsh taste I keep getting with my strawberry wine. I have never had a filterer and was thinking of getting one. Now I only do less then 500 bottles of wine a year. for gifts and for family. I soon will think bigger. a filter will speed things up for bottling and what will negs of filtering be.

Richard
_____

Dear Richard,

We usually suggest letting the wine age to reduce any harshness. With strawberry wine, 6 to 9 months is usually optimal, but most of the improvement should be realized within the first couple of months.

If your wine is harsh even after 9 months, then it may be that you are processing the strawberries too finely or you are leaving the strawberries in the must too long. Doing either of these things will allow too much tannin or "zest" from the fruit to get into the wine. It is this zest that is causing the harsh flavor you are experiencing.

Just coarsely chop up strawberries into quarters. Thin slices is over-kill and using a food processor of any kind is way, way too much processing.

The amount of time you leave the strawberry pulp in the wine can vary some. We recommend leaving the pulp in for the first 4 to 6 days. Anything longer than this can cause a harsh flavor in the wine.

Filtration does reduce harshness to some degree, but before you do that, you might want to try treating the wine with bentonite. This product will reduce harshness as well. It does so by collecting the excessive tannins in the wine and dragging them to the bottom of the fermenter.

If you want to reduce the harshness as much possible, then you would treat the wine with bentonite and then filter the wine a week or so later. For this purpose we would recommend using the MiniJet Wine Filter.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear EC Kraus,

Is it ok to make wine from grapes you get at the store? We are not able to find any other kind around here.

Thanks
Marco
_____

Dear Marco,

The grapes you'll find at your local grocer will make wine even though they were not cultivated for that purpose, however there are some things you should know...

Grapes produced for eating such as Thompson, Ruby, and others are typically harvested at a lower sugar concentration than wine grapes, so some sugar will need to be added to the must before fermenting, otherwise your ending alcohol level will be too low. This is unlike making wine from wine grapes where all the sugars needed come from the grapes themselves.

Table grapes will ferment just fine; the wine will clear up beautifully just as any wine. The only real question is flavor. Once the sugars are fermented away, what resulting flavors are left exposed in the wine?

Most eating grapes are not grown because of their flavor. They are grown because of the tons-per-acre their vines produce and their ability to stay fresh while in transit across the country to local markets. Flavor is last on the list of importance.

The other issue is price. I'm sure it varies in different parts of the country, but around here table grapes run about a $1.50 per pound. Not a bargain when considering their quality and the fact that you need about 80 pounds to make 5 gallons. If you would like to see a Thompson seedless wine recipe, we do have one on our website.

If you are unable to find actual wine grapes in your area your best option is to use concentrated grape juices, ones that have been prepared specifically for the purpose of making wine. The selection available to home winemakers is vast and they are available every month of the year. We currently offer over 200 different grape juices that have been collected from around the world. If you would like more information about these grape juices, just visit our website.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear E C Kraus,

Before i launch these questions at you, i wanted to thank you for your excellent customer support. It is very helpful.

i wanted to add some toasted French oak chips to my red wines. i understand it varies with individual taste, but on the average how many packages do i need per 6 gallon container? Your catalog sells 4 oz packages.

Is it better to go with the real chips or how does the Oak Wood Extractive compare to this? Is one better than the other?

Also, i seems to think that oak chips just go with red wine. Is that correct or can/should i add oak chips to my white wines too? Again, thank you so much for your support.

Looking forward to your answers,

Mariette
_____

Dear Mariette,

Thank you for the positive feedback. It's always good to hear that we are doing something right.

These are very good questions. I'll take them one at a time:

Most people will be happy using 2 ounces of oak chips for every 5 or 6 gallons of wine. It can be added any time after the fermentation has completed and the wine has had time to clear. The amount of time to keep the oak chips on the wine does vary, but it is usually somewhere between 2 and 4 months. The general rule of thumb is the "bigger" the wine the more oaking it can benefit from.

Having said this, we always recommend sampling the wine throughout this maturation process. What you do not want to do is over oak the wine. We also recommend boiling the chips before using them. This is to release the excessive tannins that are in fresh oak chips. Doing this will put a less woody, more toasty character in the wine.

Most people would agree that oak chips are a better benefit to the wine than oak extractives, however the oak extractives have an immediate effect on the flavor whereas oak chips take time. This is a big benefit for someone who is ready to bottle their wine now. While you would want to lean towards using oak chips, oak extractives are certainly a viable solution for any wine that has no oak character at all.

Oak chips can be used in any white wine, however traditionally only heavier whites such as Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc are considered for oaking. Unless you are using a wine ingredient kit that provides a pre-tested, specific amount of oak, oaking a white wine can be a treacherous endeavor--the biggest risk being over-oaking. White wines are very delicate and can be easily overcome by the oak. If you do decide to oak a white on your own we recommend using only one ounce per 5 gallons, and definitely monitor the flavor very closely.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Now you can create your own professional-looking wine labels and share your wines with pride. These labels can be customized for any type of wine or for any occasion--weddings, birthdays, holidays, etc. It`s a personal touch that makes a grand statement and one that allows you to present your wines with a more attractive look.

You can customize them by

using your computer's word processor and then running them through any sheet-fed printer. You get a total of 28 labels. Seven pages of 4 labels on a standard 8-1/2" by 11" sheet. Each label is pre-gummed and die cut. They adhere very easily to any wine bottle. Just peel and stick. The actual size of each wine label is 4-3/4" by 3-5/8".

You can get more information and see the styles we offer by visiting our website.

Dear Kraus,

I recently made KenRidge Chilean Chardonnay and bottled it at the end of December. While the taste of the wine is fine, any wine left in the bottle (re-corked) for two days turns the color orange.

The wine fermented correctly, all directions were followed, and the wine was filtered prior to bottling.

What is the cause of the wine turning orange in color? is this a

health hazard?, and is there anything I can do now to prevent this colorization?

Thanks,
Terry
_____

Dear Terry,

The answer is very simple. Your wine is oxidizing.

Oxidation is a process that occurs when a wine is exposed to excessive oxygen for too long of time. Once the cork is pulled from a wine bottle, you are allowing air to enter the bottle which starts the oxidative process.

The first signs of oxidation will show itself as light orange tinge that will later turn to a light amber, then dark amber, then brown. It is perfectly safe to drink, however you will probably notice some deterioration in the wine's overall character.

There are some things you can do to help reduce the occurrence of oxidation:

Add sulfites to the wine at bottling time. Doing this will delay the oxidative process once the bottle is opened. It will also help the wine to keep better while in storage.

Keep partial bottles in the refrigerator. Cooler temperatures will slow down the oxidative process.

Use a Vacuvin Wine Saver on partial bottles. The Vacuvin Wine Saver allows you to pump the air out of the bottle, keeping it fresh for weeks. Very effective.

-- And, then there's the most effective solution of all... drink the whole bottle!

If you want to read more about oxidation and how it effects a wine you may want to take a look at the article, "Controlling Oxidation In Your Homemade Wines."

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello Kraus,

Can I make my wines sweeter than the wines I buy at the store?

Thanks,
Dewayne
_____

Any wine you make can have the level of sweetness you desire. You have complete control.

This is one of the major advantages to making your own wine. You can create it to your own liking. It's a much nicer situation than rolling-the-

dice at your local wine shop. There you can only make a rough guess as to how a wine will taste.

It's really very simple. Any sugars that are available to the yeast at the start of fermentation will be turned into alcohol. Any sugars you add after the fermentation, when it's time to bottle, will contribute to the wine's sweetness. You simply add to taste.

The only thing you need to remember is that wine stabilizer must also be added at the same time you sweeten the wine. This is to prevent any chance of refermentation while in the bottle.

What you sweeten the wine with is up to you. Most home winemakers will use table sugar, but you can use honey or even sweet grape juice that's been held back from the fermentation. It's your choice.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello EC Kraus,

I want to know what is the difference between bread yeast and wine yeast, what are the benefits of one against the other.

Sincerely
Thomas G.
_____

Dear Thomas,

This is a question we get quite often. Many people have been making wine with bread or baker's yeast and have done fine to meet their own satisfaction. But, the fact of the matter is they could be doing so much better if they would use the correct strain of yeast for the job. Certainly, money could not be the issue with a packet of wine yeast costing around a dollar.

To say, "yeast is yeast" and it all makes alcohol, is close to saying that a dog is a dog and one can hunt as well as another. When you make wine with baker's yeast, you are hunting with a Chihuahua.

Different yeast have different characteristics. There are thousands of strains that have been identified and they all behave differently. Some are only capable of fermenting up to 6 or 7 percent alcohol. Others will ferment to higher levels, but will also produce foul tasting enzymes in the process. Some are more sensitive to temperature than others.

In the case of bread yeast there are several issues that should be brought to light:

Baker's yeast will only ferment up to around 8% with ease. After that, the yeast must work much harder, producing all kinds of off-flavors that are normally associated with an over-worked yeast.

Baker's yeast is packaged under food-grade conditions not sterile conditions. This is perfectly acceptable when the yeast only needs to be active for an hour or so to rise a batch of dough, but when making wine, the yeast will be working for days not hours. You need it to be packaged with no traces of contaminants such as mold or bacteria that will have plenty of time to grow as well.

Baker's yeast does not clear out very well. When you open a pack of yeast, you will see little granules. These granules are not the individual yeast cells themselves, but rather, each granule contains millions of yeast cells dried together. Once the granules are saturated within a liquid, they will break apart to a consistency that is as fine as flour. In the case of baker's yeast, this silty mix is so fine it has a hard time settling to the bottom of a fermentation vessel. What you end up with is a cloudy area towards the bottom that never seems to clear out all the way.

Wine yeast is trained or bred to cling together through a process of "selective mutation". This "clinginess" is referred to as flocculation. The more the yeast flocculates, the faster and more firmly it will settle out. This allows you to have a clearer wine sooner.

With all this being said it is hard to imagine why someone would want to use a baker's yeast. There is simply no upside to using it, and with all the hard effort you are putting into your wine why would you not give your wine the best.

Hope the helps you out.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

We still have in stock a few of the video "Making Wine" on VHS tape. This is the exact same video that we now sell on DVD for $19.95, but only in the VHS cassette tape format. We have lowered the price of this VHS version to only $9.95.

If you've been toying with the idea of making wine at home but are just not sure, this is a great opportunity to learn all about it. It is a great introductory video that clearly shows you how to make wine at home. It covers all the basics, step-by-step, and then goes into some of the finer details. Plenty of information to get you started.

VIEW SAMPLE PREVIEW: Double-click on the picture below with your mouse to preview a sample of the "Making Wine" video.

For more information go to the following link on our website:
http://www.eckraus.com/VD110VHS.html

GOOGLE GROUPS
The amount of information on the internet today is astonishing. It's getting to the point that you would be hard pressed not to find an answer to your question or a fulfillment to your curiosity just by doing just a bit of typing.

This has been a liberating revelation for home winemakers. In the past, a source for information was always the one thing lacking within the hobby. If you had a question, you could ask your supplier or thumb through the two or three books you had picked up. If the answer wasn't there you'd end up scratching your head--at a total loss as to what to do next.

One great resource on the internet is Google groups. Google has set up an incredible number of groups that act as forums for individuals to either contribute to or learn from that cover different topics from computers to home health. One of these groups is "Winemaking". They currently have over 600 members and are continually discussing a variety of topics surrounding home winemaking.

While becoming a member and posting your own questions is strongly encouraged, one does not have to become a member just to simply read through all the valuable posts. You can even do a search through the postings to find information on a specific subject such as "bottling" or "wine yeasts."

Dear EC Kraus,

I really enjoy the information in your newsletters. I bottled my first wine, a California Merlot, last Oct (picked 2006, bottled 2007). It aged in 6.5 L carboys and had 8 months of French oak chips. I racked it twice. It is still a bit young, but interestingly, if I decant the wine and drink it 24 hours later, it is a much better wine. Can you speculate as to why letting it breath for 24 hours improves it so much?

Thank James

-----

Dear James,

What is really going on when a wine "breathes" is it is being introduced to fresh air again, something that it hasn't had contact with for quite some time. By pulling the cork and simply letting the bottle stand or by pouring the wine into a carafe, the air will start a mild oxidative process that will soften the rough edges of the wine's tannins. It also allows time for any odd gasses to escape that may have developed during aging. Allowing a wine to breathe has also been known to intensify both the flavor and bouquet of a wine--something that can be a problem for wines that have not been fully aged.

While allowing time to breathe can benefit some wines, for most it will have no benefit at all and for others it may even bring damage, particularly with older wines whose flavor structure has been known to collapse very shortly after decanting. The wines that are most likely to benefit from breathing are younger, heavy reds that have not yet had time to take complete advantage of the aging process.

How long you should let the wine breathe is another question. Usually we are talking minutes, not hours. More than likely, 60 minutes would have been just as good as the 24 hours you mentioned with your Merlot. As a general rule-of-thumb the younger the wine the more time it may need to take full advantage of breathing and vice versa, but to say a wine needs 24 hours is excessive from any perspective. Think in terms of 10 or 20 minutes.

With all this being said, unless you have previous experience with decanting a specific wine, giving it time to breathe is a crap shoot. In the case of your Merlot, you have specific experience with it, so I would not hesitate to let it breath for 30 minutes and see what you think. In the case of an unfamiliar wine, if it is white, breathing is pointless; if it has been aged more than 4 years, not necessary; and if it has been aged 8 or more years, risky. Stick with the red wines that are heavy in tannins and short on aging.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

hi:

i want to use honey in my wines so i have a few questions: do i put the honey in the must to start with, or, to sweeten after the wine is done. Also one pound of sugar equals how much honey?

thank you Tom

----

Dear Tom,

There are different ways honey can contribute to a wine. You can add it to the must, before fermentation, and have its sugars ferment into alcohol, or you can add it just before bottling and have its sugars contribute to the sweetness of the wine.

When you add honey before a fermentation, what will be left when the fermentation is complete is the herbal character of the honey. No sweetness will remain. For example, if the honey was spun off of wild flowers then a wild flower character will be added to the wine. If it was spun off of strawberries then you will notice a strawberry character in the wine, and so forth.

What this means is you can alter any fruit wine recipe you find by replacing some or all of the sugar called for with honey. As a general rule-of-thumb you can replace 1 pound of sugar with 1.2 to 1.3 pounds of honey, or if you use a hydrometer you can keep adding honey until you get to the appropriate S.G. reading--usually between 1.070 and 1.090.

If you use honey at bottling time you are contributing to the sweetness of the wine instead of the alcohol. The herbal characters of the honey are being added as well but along with its sweetness. It is important to note here that any time you add a sugar to a wine at bottling time you must also add potassium sorbate (wine stabilizer) to eliminate any chance of refermentation later on in the bottle.

We recommend using pasteurized, filtered honey--the kind you typically find on the grocery shelf. This type of honey has been cleared of wild microbes and various solids that you do not want in your wine. If you do plan on using raw honey you will need to heat it up to 170F. for a full 30 minutes. During this time you will also want to skim off the top whatever rises.

You can find more information on our website in the article, "Making Wine With Honey". It gives a basic run-down of how honey has been used in wine over the years along with some basic recipes.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello EC Kraus!

Love your site, learning a lot about home winemaking; haven't taken the plunge yet but I am still researching. I had a question for you folks. What is the going opinion of making wine with fresh grapes and crushing them, as opposed to using a wine ingredient kit? Is

one better than the other by default, or would you say either method can produce excellent or horrible results?

How is the quality of the juice that comes with the kits? Can you say that some kits are better than others? Or does it, like the method used, depend on the variables surrounding the grapes, where they came from, etc, which, in my opinion, would apply to either method.

Thanks for your time,

Phil B.
_____

Dear Phil,

Thanks for the great question!

Whether you are making wine from grapes or ingredient kits the quality of the wine starts with the quality of the grapes. There is an adage in the wine making industry that says, "You can never make a wine that is better than the grapes used to make it." What this means is that you'll never make great wine out of cheap grapes. Quality wine always starts with the grapes.

When making wine from fresh grapes the individual winemaker usually has a limited selection of grapes to choose from. Quality can suffer when dealing in the take-it-or-leave-it type market that often arises for the home winemaker.

The quality of grapes that you will find in ingredient kits vary from great to outstanding. It is not in the interest of these kit producers to spend time packaging poor grapes, so great care is taken to locate and acquire grapes that are above average quality. This is one of the major advantages to using a wine ingredient kit. You are able to rely on the kit producer's expertise in selecting quality grapes. So on the whole you'll be starting with a better quality grape when using a wine ingredient kit versus obtaining grapes on your own.

We offer an array of different brands. As you go up the ladder in price the finer your selection of grape--starting with our California Connoisseur line which produces fine, everyday drinking wines on up to our KenRidge Founder's Series which features specially selected grapes from specific wine regions (appellations) around the world.

How much you spend depends on your level of appreciation for wine. Some people are completely happy with the California Connoisseur and could not tell a difference even if they did go up the ladder in price. For others the California Connoisseur simply would not do. So how far up the ladder you go is very much a personal issue.

Unfortunately, quality grapes do not guarantee a stellar wine, it's just the first requirement necessary to get there. Between the grapes and the bottle is a whole host of other factors such as: acidity, alcohol, sweetness, etc.

Making wine from an ingredient kit alleviates you from these factors. They have already been taken care of for you by the kit producers. They balance the acidity, sugar content and many other features such as clarification and oak treatment to match the character of the wine you are making. By eliminating as many variables as possible they are insuring that you will make a remarkable wine every time.

So while making wines from grapes or concentrates each holds its own rewards, by starting with a wine ingredient kit you are virtually eliminating any chance of producing a bad wine. Add to that the incredible kit selection that is now available to the home winemaker and it starts to become apparent that a winemaking ingredient kit is the way to go for the beginner.

I hope this covers all your question and curiosities. Please realize that regardless of which road you decide to take we will be more than happy to help you in any way you need.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hi,

I am about to bottle some Red Zin I made from fresh juice. Since it has finished working (S.G. .996 ) I had it sitting in a glass carboy waiting for the time to bottle it. I went into my garage and found that the stopper had blown out of it. I put it back on and put a small weight on top of the stopper to keep it in. I filtered it a few days later and the same thing happened again in my kitchen. What is causing this? I stabilized it with Potassium Bisulfite and i thought all was well. I had this happen with some Johannisberg Reisling also. I tried stirring it for about a minute to see if that makes any difference. Can you shed some light on this?

Thanks
Rick
_____

Dear Rick,

There are only three things that could be causing this to occur:

1)  A continuation of the fermentation,
2)  An unexpected malo-lactic fermentation,
3)  Expansion of the wine due to temperature fluctuation.

We can almost rule out number 1 because you have a specific gravity reading on your hydrometer of .996. This confirms that there are nearly no sugars left to cause a fermentation, however it is possible that the wine is still fermenting ever-so-slightly and you'll eventually end up with a reading of .994 or something like that instead of .996. A very small amount of fermentation can cause a lot of gas.

Number 2 can be ruled out simply by the fact that you have used potassium bisulfite on the wine. Wild MLF bacteria is very sensitive to sulfites and would have been easily destroyed by the addition of potassium bisulfite.

This leaves us with number 3. When a liquid cools it contracts; when it warms up it expands. With a volume as large as 5 or 6 gallons, like you have, it only takes a rise in temperature of 3 or 4 degrees to pop a rubber stopper out of a carboy. More than likely this is what is causing your problem.

There are a couple of things you can do. First try to eliminate the temperature fluctuation as much as possible. And second, keep an air-lock on the container during this time instead of using a solid stopper. You can fill the lock with glycerine instead of water if you are concerned about the water evaporating over this longer period of time. Also, if the glycerine does happened to get sucked into the wine because of it contracting it will not be harmful in any way.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hello EC Kraus,

We like sweet wine, I have ordered (KC501) IceVine White twice. We were very happy with it! In the KenRidge Classic what would be the sweetest kit. I'm not fond of strawberries.

Thank You
Darlene
_____

Dear Darlene,

In our KenRidge Classic brand of winemaking juices there are 5 different types that come out sweet: White Zinfandel, Port, Sherry, IceVine Red and also the IceVine White which you have already tried. The reason all these five come out sweet is because each includes a sweet reserve pack that is to be added after the fermentation has completed.

Of these five the sweetest is the IceVine White which has a sugar code of 20. The sugar code of the others is as follows:

18  IceVine Red
8    Port
8    Sherry
2    White Zinfandel

It is important to understand that while all of our wine making kits are pre-designed to come out balanced and true to their commercial counterparts, you can sweeten any wine that you find is too dry for you. This can be done right before bottling. The only requirement is that a stabilizer be added to the wine first. In the case of the KenRidge products this is packet #4.

Just add regular cane sugar to taste. We recommend making a syrup out of if first by heating it with equal parts water. Or, you can use Wine Conditioner which is a combination of fructose and glucose sugars.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear Kraus,

After reading your emails for the past year and receiving a kit from the kids for Christmas I am finally ready to take the big step and produce my own wine. Most questions I had from sanitizing to first fermentation considerations have been answered either in your emails or on your blog. One remains however: filtering. The

directions with my kit recommends filtering the wine before bottling. however I take it that it is not absolutely necessary if I am careful with racking. Would appreciate your input on this.

Jon
_____

Dear Jon,

You are correct. Filtering your wine is not a necessity. Your wine will be clear with or without filtering as long as you are following the directions that are provided with your kit.

What filtering will do is add polish to a wine that is already clear. In other words it will give the wine a more brilliant, glassy appearance. This is one of the reasons why most wineries invest in such activities. But when it comes to the home winemaker it may be a step that you want to skip--particularly if you're just starting out.

You may want to take a look at the article, "Filtering Your Wines" that is on our website. It contains more information about wine filtration and may help you to make decision as to what you would like to do with your first batch.

Hope this helps you out.

Best Wishes,
customer Service at E. C. Kraus

This is a story of two wines, Syrah and Shiraz, and how they both are the same, yet different, at the same time. On the surface it seems to be somewhat of an exercise in semantics, with their names being the only difference, but after taking a closer look, it starts to become clear that there is much more to the story than just names.

Syrah and Shiraz teaches us a lesson, one that illustrates how a grape's environment and the way in which it is processed can influence the outcome of a resulting wine.

Any wine expert will tell you that Syrah and

Shiraz are two varietal wines that are made from the exact same grape. If you analyze the DNA of each of the grapes used to make these wines you will find that there is no difference between them.

Then Why The Two Names?
The French refer to the grape and the wine they make from it as Syrah. Other parts of the world such as: South America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and parts of the United States refer to the grape and the wine as Shiraz.

But there is something more than just a difference in name. There is a difference in style as well. While both wines are very assertive red wines, a Syrah tends to be a little more elegant and complex. It usually has more of a smokey, earthy character with flavors of plum and spicy pepper. A Shiraz on the other hand is more crisp and fruity, less layered with slight, jammy flavors of berry as compared to a Syrah. This is a very wide generalization of each wine, but even so it would be safe to say that if you tasted both wines side-by-side you would notice more differences than similarities between the two.

So, Why Are These Wines Different?
While the grape remains the same in each wine there is so much else that is different. The soil, the climate, the cultivation, and the fermentation all vary to make a Syrah a Syrah and a Shiraz a Shiraz.

While different soils can not assert their own character onto a grape, they can guide the way in which a grape develops its own flavor. This is referred to as the terroir. The French vineyards are heavy in limestone which can hold moisture better and deeper than most soils. This forces the vines to get more of their nutrients from deeper soils. The result is a wine with more layered, complex flavors.

The French are not allowed to use irrigation or fertilization on their vines either. This stems from governmental laws designed to keep the grape production limited. This leads to stressed vines with fewer berries, but with each berry packing more flavor.

This is all in contrast to places like Australia, South Africa and New Zealand where Shiraz grapes are produced in sandy soils with plenty of fertilization and irrigation. The cultivation is abundant. This creates a wine with a more even character than a Syrah and with the ability to mature more quickly.

The Syrah is also grown in France's cooler climate. This lends to the plum-like, smokey character of this wine. This is in comparison to Shiraz which is grown in warmer climates which makes the wine more jammy and berry-like.

Even the rate of fermentation plays some role in the flavor development of the wine. A Syrah is fermented more slowly so as to increase the time the pulp can stay on the fermentation. A Shiraz is fermented at a faster, more-normal rate which helps to make the wine, in general, more fruity.