When my grandfather started this company back in 1966, wine making at home was illegal. The truth of the matter was, he was selling supplies for the purpose of making an illegal substance.

But, that all changed when a bill making wine making legal was carried into Congress by Senator Alan Cranston of California and a signature from President Jimmy Carter in 1978 that turned it into law.

The bill made it legal for a single adult household to make up to 100 gallons of wine each year, and up to 200 gallons for a households with two or more adults. This law still remains in effect to this day.

A couple of thing should be noted here:

1) It is still very illegal to distill alcohol at home. Distilling is very different from wine making and was not covered in the bill.

2) The bill does not allow for the sale of homemade wine or beer. So don't think this gives you a green light to set up shop.

But, if you want to do a little wine making at home for you own consumption or to share with friends, it's nice to know you can do it legally.

Thanks Senator Cranston!

Dear E. C. Kraus

I am looking to purchase wine bottles for the first time, the (GL220) wine bottle. Your wine making information on the bottle does not give any information on if you are supposed to use a #7or #8 cork for this wine bottle, or is there a standard wine bottle opening? Also do you carry the tools to insert the cork into the wine bottle?  

Dan R.
_____

Dear Dan R.

Fortunately for home winemakers, the wine making industry has long-ago settled on a standard opening for the regular-sized 750ml wine bottle--what also used to be called fifths. All of these wine bottles have the same standard size opening of 3/4 inch.

The same holds true for all the 750ml's wine bottles we offer. The only exceptions are the screw cap finish wine bottles and the champagne bottles we carry, both of which are not designed to take a cork of any kind anyway.

The commercial wine making industry uses size #9 straight cork which is 15/16 inches in diameter for these openings. This size of a cork does require a wine making corker to insert them. Any of the wine making corkers we offer will put them in just fine, however there are some inferior corker models out on the market that will have trouble putting the full-size #9 corks. So beware. If you have one of these corkers, then you may need to go to a size #8 straight cork instead of size #9.

For more information on this subject you may want to take a look at "Corking Your Wine Bottles" which is listed on our web site.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear E. C. Kraus,

I am a first time winemaker. I am interested in buying a wine making kit that will include the necessary equipment and I noticed your California Connoisseur kit. However, I would like to have a higher quality juice such as your Legacy brand. Is it possible to order the equipment kit and the wine making juice separately or substitute the higher quality juice as an option?

Peter
_____

Dear Peter,

The equipment that comes in our California Connoisseur Necessities Box will work perfectly with any of our boxed wine making ingredient kits. So, yes, you can substitute any of them with this wine making kit including the Legacy brand you mentioned.

On the product detail page of the juice you want, scroll down and you will see an area asking, "Need the Equipment Too?" There is a link for the 6 Gallon Wine Equipment Kit. This kit has all the same equipment as the California Connoisseur Necessities Box. It just doesn't have the juice.

Just simply add the Equipment Kit to your shopping cart along with the juice you want and place your order.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus

This is a question we get from time to time that has no single, correct answer. This is for three reasons: 1) everyones' tastes are different, 2) how the wine is stored during the aging makes a difference as well, and 3) certain varieties will take advantage of aging more so than others.

Dear E. C. Kraus

I am interested in purchasing the Vinterra Amarone concentrate. After the initial 6 week waiting time, is it drinkable, or should I let the wine age longer before drinking, and how long will it age for?

Joe
_____

Dear Joe,

The wine will be drinkable at bottling time (6 weeks) but will continue to improve with aging. It is important to realize that most wine varieties will improve remarkably over the first 30 to 60 days and marginally so every month thereafter. Having said this, there will come a point in any wine's life where its quality will peak.

The producers of the Vinterra Amarone recommend that the wine be aged at least for 2 month before consumption is started. They also suggest that any aging beyond 30 months is of no value to the wine.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus
_____

This chart below lists the recommended aging period for each brand of wine ingredient kit we carry. Please realize that this chart represents guidelines for aging. Your wine could need more or less aging depending on how it is being stored. For more information on this subject you may want to take a look at the article "Wine Bottle Storage and Temperature" listed on our website.

RECOMMENDED AGING TIMES:

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

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

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 other, here on the blog, as well as with you.

As 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

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.

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

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 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

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

Taking shortcuts is usually not a good idea when it comes to making wine. Following any directions you are provided is your best bet for making a stellar wine. Here's an email that explains why siphoning your wine off the sediment during the fermentation [racking] is important.

Hello Kraus,

I read where you should drain the 6 gallon bucket before you put the air lock on, and I would like to know if that is absolutely absolutely necessary because that is a lot of extra work. I just put the air lock on after 10 days. Tell me that's ok.

Thanks Aaron
_____

It is necessary to rack or siphon the wine off of the sediment [lees]. It is extra work, but if you do not rack your wine, it could have a bitter, nutty to metallic after taste. Racking also aids in the clarification of the wine. If you do not rack the wine, it will be very easy for you to end up with a hazy wine when it come time to bottle.

There is an article on our website titled "Racking Your Wines". It explains when and how to rack your wine. It also goes over in more detail why racking is so important.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus