What can I do to make my wine a little heavier in taste. Some times it taste and feels light. Can anything be added during the wine making process or is it the grapes used for the juice.

Thank you
Paul
_____

Any wine that feels thin can be corrected by adding something called glycerine, also known as glycerin, glyceritol and glycyl alcohol.

Glycerin is a natural by-product of any wine making fermentation. It is what causes the tears or lace on the inside of a wine glass

when the glass is swirled.

By increasing the amount of glycerine in a wine you are increasing its mouth-feel which in turn gives the impression that the wine has more body. It also causes the wine's flavor to linger longer on the tongue. Another way of describing its effect on a wine is to think of the difference between drinking skim milk and whole milk.

You can add teh glycerine after the wine making process is complete, right before bottling. A typical dose would be 1 or 2 tablespoons per gallon of wine. The maximum dose that would be recommended is 4 tablespoons per gallon which also equals 1/4 cup. Using more that this could have a negative effect on the wine. Wines with too much glycerine are described as fleshy, chewy or even meaty.

Best Wishes,
E. C. Kraus

When you think about a wine you normally don't think of it in terms of being in a good mood, humorous or even under-the-weather, but there is a term used by the wine making industry that might make you think that such terms are appropriate.

Bottle sickness is often used to describe a wine that has taken a plunge in

quality, usually right after bottling. It is referred to as a "sickness" because the effects are temporary and with a little rest the wine will come back to its good-ole self once again.

Bottle sickness (also referred to as "bottle shock" or "travel shock") occurs when the wine absorbs too much oxygen in too little time, something that is likely to happen in the wine making process, particularly during bottling. Wines can handle the slow, gradual infusion of air that is naturally allowed by wine corks. In fact, most red wines will benefit from such a scenario, but when the oxygen comes too fast a build-up of an element called acetaldehyde starts to become prevalent in the wine.

Acetaldehyde is naturally found in any wine, at least in small, unnoticeable amounts, but in higher amounts its presence can be detected as an odor of rotting apples or nuts. This is what's noticed in wines that are suffering from bottle shock. The overall impression the wine gives can be described as flat or flabby, or just plain lacking in fruitiness.

Over the course of time the acetaldehyde will slowly convert to alcohol, bringing the wine back into line with something enjoyable to drink. How long this takes depends on the severity of the sickness. It could be as little as a few days or as long as a few weeks.

This is just one more reason of many as to why aging is so important in wine making. You could pick up a newly bottled wine from your cellar one week and wonder why it's so lifeless then the next week be overwhelmed by its superb flavor.

Help!

My homemade wine has started producing a rotten egg sulphur smell after about 1 week of fermentation. No sulphur has been used in sterilization etc, can you advise? chuck out?? cry???

Thanks Carrie
_____

Dear Carrie,

What you are more than likely smelling is hydrogen sulfide that is being produced by the yeast during

the fermentation. All wine making yeast produce this gas to some degree, but if you are experiencing a strong odor it could be that one of the following is occurring.

1. Wild yeast is doing the fermenting.
Even if domesticated wine making yeast was added, this is still a possibility, especially if you are using fresh fruit. Wild forms of yeast will produce all kinds of off odors. If this is what took over the fermentation, this would be the reason why the odor is so strong.

2. You are fermenting at too warm of temperature.
Fermenting at higher temperatures will entice the wine making yeast to produce higher levels of hydrogen sulfide.

3. The yeast does not have enough nutrients available.
You may want to consider adding more Yeast Nutrient or Yeast Energizer, particularly if you have not done so already.

Please realize that all three of the above reasons relate to putting the yeast under stress. Wild yeast hasn't been bred to do such a big job, so it is stressed; too warm of a temperature will add stress to any living organism; and being short on nutrition would obviously be stressful.

Usually the hydrogen sulfide will reduce to an acceptable level by the time you are ready to bottle the wine. It will simply release into the air and go away throughout the wine making process. However, if you get down to bottling and the odor is still there, there are a couple of things you can do to reduce it.

You can rack the wine several times in a splashing manner, or you can pour the wine over sanitized copper. Either of these steps will speed up the release of the sulphur gas so you can get on with the rest or your wine making.

It is very important to remember that if you do either of these treatments, that you also add sulfites to the wine afterwards to drive out any damaging oxygen that may have been introduce to the wine.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Hi,

I have looked on your wine making website to try to find a question and answer section and I had no success. I made some scuppernong wine this past fall and have a question. When I open the wine bottle (by the way, I love the stoppers I ordered from you), there is a fizzing when I pour the wine into a glass and then the bubbles disappear. Is it safe?

Thanks Ruth
_____

Dear Ruth,

The reason your wine is fizzy is because it is fermenting ever-so-slightly in the bottles which is causing a small amount of carbonation. In the wine making industry this type of wine is referred to as a "crackling" wine. It is completely safe to drink.

This happens because either the fermentation was not complete when the wine was bottled, or you sweetened the wine at bottling time and did not add a wine stabilizer such a potassium sorbate. Depending on how much fermentation occurs in the wine bottles you may begin experiencing corks pushing out.

The best course of action at this point is to put all the wine back into a wine making fermenter and let the wine finish fermenting. Once the fermentation is complete and your wine making hydrometer's specific gravity is .998 or less, you can bottle the wine.

Either Campden Tablets or sodium bisulfite should be added to the wine at this time. And, if you decide to sweeten the wine you will need to add potassium sorbate to prevent a fermentation from occurring again.

If you do not want to re-bottle the wine, your only other option would be to store all the wine bottles in a refrigerator until they are consumed. This will stop the fizzing from getting any worse.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus

Hello:

Thanks so very much for your newsletter. I appreciate it, and the blog also. My wine taste is a bit on the vinegar side is this something I should worry about, and can I improve this before I bottle?

Thanks,
Clinton
_____

Dear Clinton,

It is not unusual for an individual who has not experienced a "dry" wine to mistake it for vinegar the first time they taste it. Inexperience with this flavor can throw a person off. I don't know if this is you, but I did want to bring it up.

All wines have some vinegar to some degree. Wine yeast actually produce some of the vinegar and if sulfites are not used appropriately during the wine making process, vinegar bacteria (acetobacter) can add even more.

The level of vinegar being talked about here is very low and can not be detected other than to say it may have altered the character of the wine in a interesting way, but when a wine starts to be taken over by a vinegar flavor it is without a doubt because acetobacter has had a chance to grow and produce an inappropriate amount of vinegar.

Unfortunately, there is no way to reverse the production of vinegar, but you certainly can stop anymore from being made. This is simply done by adding a standard dose of sulfites to the wine in the form of either Campden tablets or potassium bisulfite. This will easily kill the bacteria causing the problem.

Another angle you may want to try in addition to adding sulfites, is to experiment with sweetening the wine to see if this improves the wine. Adding just enough to take the dry edge off may be all that is necessary.

You can sweeten it with simple sugar, honey, grape concentrate. Just remember if you do plan on sweetening a wine it is important to add potassium sorbate to the wine as well to eliminate any chance a refermentation.

A couple of articles you may want to check out on our website are "There's Vinegar In My Wine!" and "Making Sweet Wines". Both of these article may be able to help you make the right decision for the situation you are in.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Crystals floating in the wine is a issue that
occurs from time to time among home
winemakers. Here is an email that deals
with that very issue.

Dear Kraus People,

I have a crystals in my wine. Is it gone bad or
can I filter out the problem.

Richard
_____

Dear Richard,

The crystals in your wine is the result of excessive fruit acids dropping out. There is a limit as to how much fruit acid a wine can hold. What the wine can't hold will precipitate out in the form of crystals. This is what you are seeing.

The fact that they are forming will only help to bring the total acidity of your wine down closer to a normal range, improving the taste. There is no reason to filter. They will drop out on their own as they form. You can just rack the wine off of them after they have all settled.

Cooling down the wine will help to speed up the precipitation process. Wineries commonly will chill their wines before bottling just to make sure it will not occur later in the bottle. This is a process known as "cold stabilization".

For more information you may want to take a look at the article "Maintaining Temperature Stability In Your Wine" listed on our website.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

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

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 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

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.

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!

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 Kraus,

Do you have anything to add to homemade concord grape wine to improve the flavor?

Thanks,
Cindi
_____

Dear Cindi,

You can add Wine Conditioner to sweeten the wine or you can add glycerine to add body or thickness. Both are simply added to taste. Be sure to use a measured sample of the wine for taste-testing purposes. This is an easy and safe way to establish a dosage for the rest of the wine.

Another idea is to use frozen concord concentrate from your local grocery store. This will add both sweetness and flavor to your wine. It is important that you add Wine Stabilizer at the same time to eliminates any chance of re-fermentation.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus

Hydrogen sulfide is the most commonly noticed off-odor coming from a must. This email covers the reasons for this odor and how to correct it.

Hi!

I have a quick question...My wine (SunCal Pinot Chardonnay) is 2 weeks into its secondary and ready for its 1st racking. However, I noticed a strong sulfur odor. I've never experienced this before. I've made several wines from different concentrates and grapes (mostly concord), but have never made a chardonnay or had such a strong odor like this. The taste of the wine is not really effected to a great degree. Is this a characteristic of this type of juice? Should I be worried? Will the odor dissipate over time after being racked off the sediment. Is there anything else I can do? HELP!!!

Jeff
_____

Dear Jeff,

The smell you are describing is most likely hydrogen sulfide, which is a natural bi-product of a fermentation. However, excessive amounts are not normal. There are a few reasons excessive amounts of hydrogen sulfide may occur.

The most probable reason you are getting this odor in excess is the temperature is too warm. The ideal temperature for fermentation is 70-75 degrees F.

Another reason would be lack of nitrogen (yeast nutrient), so make sure to put in nutrient or energizer if the recipe calls for it.

If the yeast did not multiply enough during the primary fermentation, you may also notice this odor because the yeast is overworked. The yeast need oxygen in order to multiply. We recommend covering the container with a cloth during the primary fermentation so the yeast can get oxygen. After the primary fermentation, you need to use an airlock.

The smell will lessen over time. If the odor is too much, you can do the following to a finished wine. You can aerate the wine by racking the wine in a splashing manner. You can also poor the wine over sanitized copper. This will help to release the odor. If you do either of the above, be sure to put in a dose of Campden Tablets or sodium bisulfite to drive out any oxygen you may have introduced and to help with any remaining odors.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus