Hi,

I am about to bottle some Red Zin I made from fresh wine making 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. It 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 wine making mystery?

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 wine making 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. on the wine making hydrometer. 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 wine making 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 wine making 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

Here's an email we received from Bob concerning a method he uses to keep his wine making fermenters warm during the cooler months:

Just a tip for warming carboys during fermentation. warming mats, originally designed for warming seed beds, work very well when placed under the wine making carboy. At least 2 carboys can fit on one mat, and the heat is so gentle that, with care, it does not overheat the fermenting wine.

Bob, a loyal reader
_____

Thanks Bob for your great suggestion!

One of the biggest issues when using artificial heat on a fermenter is making sure the heat is not too excessive. For example, any electric blanket we've seen on the market will easily over-heat a wine making fermenter in the 5 or 10 gallon range, even on its lowest setting. Anytime your fermentation gets over 80-85F you are compromising flavor. An electric blanket will put five or six gallons well into the 90F's if not over 100F. So as you can see an electric blanket is over-kill.

However seeding mats turn out to be a great idea for wine making. Their heat is very gentle and if you really want to get fancy, you can even look into purchasing a thermostat to go with it to keep the temperature of your fermentation nailed-down.

The biggest drawback to them is price. A seeding mat like Bob has which will accommodate two fermenters will run you around $40 and the thermostat would be another $60.00. So it would definitely be an investment, but if your options are limited it may be the way to go to keep your wine making efforts cozy.

One company that offers these supplies is Gardener's Supplies Company, and for those of you into gardening they have a very nice web site.

hi:

i want to use honey in my wine making 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 homemade 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 during the wine making process. 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 making 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 in the wine making process 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 in your wine making 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, "Wine Making 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

Throughout the wine making process you will need to rack your wine several times. Racking is just a funny wine making term that basically means to transfer your wine into another container so as to leave any sediment behind. Don't get it confused with meaning to bottle your wine as some have in the past.

Performing rackings as called for in most wine making directions is critical to the flavor of the wine. Wines that stay on excessive amounts of sediment for an extended period of time can start to develop off flavors--the reapings of a wine gone neglected.

There are many ways a racking can be accomplished. You can simply siphon the wine with a hose. Adding a racking tube to the end of the hose will make this wine making process easier. If you have one of our fermentation vessels you can rack the wine by using the faucet at the bottom of the wine making container. Our 3/8 inch vinyl hose will fit over the spigot nicely.

While wine recipes will vary somewhat as to when to rack a wine, there are three wine making rackings that are pretty much standard:

- A racking around the 5 day of fermentation.
- A racking when the fermentation has completed.
- A racking right before bottling you wine.

Depending on how long it takes for the wine to clear, more rackings may be necessary before bottling, usually one every 2 to 4 weeks as necessary.

You can find more detail information about racking a wine in the article "Racking Your Wines" on our wine making website.

On many occasions we have been asked this simple question, "Should a wine making fermenter be sealed with an air-lock during the first few days of fermentation, or should it be left open, exposed to the air?"

This question arises because there is so much conflicting information floating around in wine making books, on the internet and in other places as to which method is correct. In fact, even our own wine making website recommends just covering the primary fermentation with a thin towel, while the box ingredient kits we sell recommend using an air-lock.

Even commercial wineries are not consistent in this area. While most wineries will put white wines under an air-lock and expose red wines to air, there are many, many wineries that will do the very opposite.

The reason we recommend leaving the must exposed to air during the primary fermentation is because this method leads a more vigorous fermentation, one that is able to complete more thoroughly and rapidly. Wine making kit producers recommend sealing up the primary fermentation with an air-lock because they are more concerned about eliminating any risk of spoilage than providing the fastest fermentation possible.

Spoilage can be of concern on those rare occasions when the fermentation does not start as planned, but if the fermentation takes off in a timely manner, spoilage is of no issue. The activity from the wine making fermentation will easily protect the must by stifling the growth of any unwanted organisms.

So, What Should You Do?
While we do recommend using a thin, clean towel to cover the fermenter during the primary fermentation and nothing more, if you are concerned about your fermentation not starting there is a compromising method you could follow:

When you first pitch the yeast into the must, put an air-lock on the fermenter. After a few hours, once you see that the fermentation has begun--indicated by activity or foam on the surface--you can then take the air-lock off and safely allow air to get to the must. This is, in a sense, giving you the best of both worlds--the protection and an invigorated wine making fermentation.

As A Side Note:
It is important to note that an air-lock should always be used after the must has gone into its secondary fermentation. This usually starts around the fifth or sixth day, or when the first racking is performed. It is about this time you will notice the fermentation's activity level starting to taper off.

First off, many of you may be wondering, "what is racking"? So let's get that out of the way first. In terms of wine making, racking is the process of transferring a wine or must from one wine making fermenter to the next so as to leave any sediment behind.

Many beginning winemakers will often waste too much wine during the racking process by trying to eliminate all the sediment with each racking at the expense of losing some wine. Losses can total up to 3 or 4 bottles in a 5 or 6 gallon batch when using this type of thinking. Losing wine is something I'm not particularly to fond of, and I doubt you are either.

To minimize losses when racking your wine, always try to get as much liquid as possible each time you rack, even if some sediment comes with it. It is not until you get to your very last racking (usually right before bottling) that you will want to eliminate all of the sediment at the expense of a little wine.

By racking your wine using this wine making methodology your losses will usually be less than half a wine bottle throughout the entire wine making process.

Hello,

Not sure how to exactly word this. I have been using Splenda for sweetening. What is your opinion using Splenda?

Wayne
_____

Dear Wayne,

There is nothing wrong with using Splenda to sweeten your wine, if the flavor is acceptable to you, however there are some things you should know.

Splenda is made by taking sugar and altering its molecular structure so that it can not be metabolized by us humans. That is what makes it effective as a diet substitute for someone who's either a diabetic or someone who's just trying to watch their figure. It simply goes right through the body.

The same holds true for yeast. Yeast are unable to metabolize Splenda and ferment it into alcohol, at least while it is in its current altered state, but given enough time the enzymes that the yeast produce are able to break some of the Splenda back down into a fermentable sugar. It is usually a matter of weeks not days.

This means two things: 1) Caution needs to be taken when bottling Splenda treated wine. Potassium sorbate needs to be added to the wine to make sure that the yeast cannot become active again and ferment the broken-down Splenda, just as if you were adding regular sugar to it. And, 2) for diabetics, in all likelihood some of the Splenda in the wine will be turned back into a regular simple sugar by the yeasts' enzymes. How much and how fast is not yet understood, but suffice it to say extreme diabetics beware.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear Wine Gurus,

I need an unbiased opinion. We're crushing about 1250 pounds of Cynthiana and Chambourcin wine grapes this weekend. In the past, we've left the crushed grapes, seeds, skins, etc. for up to 7 or 8 days in crocks before pressing the juice.

Is this too long? My Dad is concerned that we need to press the juice out within 4 or 5 days.

Thanks,
Joe
_____

Dear Joe,

I am going to give you a very definitive answer. You're both right.

It's more of an issue of wine style. By keeping the must on the pulp for 4 or 5 days you will be creating a lighter-bodied wine with less intensity in color. The main advantage is of this type of wine is that it will mature much sooner, possibly peaking in quality around 12 to 18 months. It becomes drinkable sooner.

When keeping the must on the pulp for 7 or 8, or even 10 days you are creating a fuller wine, a wine with more body and intensity in color. These wines can take as much as 3 years to mature fully, but are typically ready for consumption in 1 to 2 years.

So how many days you choose is really a personal decision. It's a question of what kind of wine do you want to make, not so much who's right or wrong.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Dear Kraus,

I seem to have a problem making mead wine. It starts off with an SG [specific gravity] of 1.100 and over a period of 3 days, during primary fermentation it drops to 1.060 and seems to stop. I think that the fermentation has just slowed down and rack it into a secondary fermenter and install an air lock. I rack it a month later and the SG is 1.040. Now it has been three months and the SG is 1.030. Is this normal?

Thanks Tarn
_____

Dear Tarn,

Turning honey into alcohol can sometimes be a difficult task for a wine yeast. This is due mostly to the complexity of some of the sugars contained within the honey, but some of it is also

due to the set of nutrients that the honey provides for the yeast. Both are issues that need to be addressed to have a complete fermentation.

Honey has simple sugars as well as complex sugars. Simple sugars are easily metabolized by the yeast into alcohol--an example of a simple sugar would be regular table sugar--but complex sugars are not so easy. A complex sugar is a chain of simple sugars that are bound together on a molecular level. These chains must be broken apart by the yeast before they can be metabolized into alcohol. The more complex the sugar is the longer the chain and the more work that is required of the yeast before metabolization into alcohol can occur.

Honey has all different lengths (complexities) of sugars. So what happens as the fermentation begins, the yeast start by consuming the simplest sugars first--the lowest hanging fruit--so to speak. As the simple sugars are deplete they moves on to the next easiest sugars and so on until there is nothing left but the most complex, longest chains of sugars.

This is what has happened with your fermentation. It started off just fine as it ate away at the simplest sugars, but when the remaining sugars became nothing but the most complex it became too much of a burden on the yeast, and now they can do little more than nibble on them.

Your only defense to this is to make sure your yeast stay healthy by providing them all the nutrients they need. Many mead recipes will call for nutrients of sorts at the beginning of the fermentation, but these nutrients are a consumable for the yeast and can become lacking before the fermentation has completed.

At this point I would recommend adding 1/2 teaspoon of Yeast Nutrient for each gallon of must. This should give the yeast a kick-start. If Magnesium Sulfate was not called for by the recipe then I would recommend adding that at the rate of 1/4 teaspoon per 5 gallons as well.

If you would like more information about making mead, you may want to take a look at the article, "Making Wine With Honey" that is listed on our website. It has some more insights to fermenting honey along with a few mead recipes.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

The water you use in a wine recipe is normally not a big issue--tap water will do--but you should be aware of a couple of issues.

Dear Mr. Kraus

Your newsletter states that using distilled water is not recommended but what about tap water filtered via reverse osmosis?

Thank You
John
____

Dear John,

You are correct. We do not recommend using distilled water in a wine making recipe. Not only does the distilling process remove valuable free oxygen from the water, but it also removes nearly all the nutritive minerals. Both are valuable commodities for the yeast during a fermentation.

We do not recommend reverse osmosis either. While the free oxygen does remain in the water through this process, critical minerals are still being removed. Magnesium sulfate can be added back to the water in an attempt to condition it for fermentation, but your best option would be to purchase bottled drinking water from the store. These waters either have the original natural minerals in them or the water has been completely purified and then had an optimum blend of minerals added back to them.

It is also important to note here that while oxygen is good for the fermentation it is bad for the wine once the fermentation has completed. Having oxygen in the wine after the fermentation can lead to oxidation or browning of the wine. Fortunately, most all of the oxygen that is in the must before fermentation is either consumed by the yeast or driven out of the wine by CO2 gas produced during the fermentation. For this reason we do recommend using oxygen-free distilled water for topping-up purposes after the fermentation has completed if needed.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. Kraus

Freezing your wine making fruit is perfectly okay. Doing so can even be an advantage in terms of breaking down the fruit's fiber so that more flavor can be released. Here's an email that deals with this very subject.

Hello,

I'm looking for a recipe for my sisters father-in-law. He was wondering if you can make

blackberry wine from frozen fruit? I think he's picked a lot of blackberries and froze them and now would like to use them in wine. So I told them I would see what I could find out.

Thank you
Cindy
_____

Dear Cindy,

You can use frozen fruit in wine making. Just let the fruit thaw then follow the normal procedures. Refer to the following links for our recipes (Blackberry is included) http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-recipes.html and The 7 Easy Steps to Home Wine making http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-steps.html.

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

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

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

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

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 fermenation 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

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 havn'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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

Can't believe it's November already. The frost is already on the pumpkin and the turkey is on its way. Just looked at the national weather map and it looks like cooler weather is also on the way for most areas of the U.S. as well.

I would like to take this time to remind those of you who are fermenting right

now that the temperature of your must is critical to the rate of fermentation. Don't let cooler ambient room temperatures get in the way of your fermentations.

Make sure that the must stays at least 70 degrees F. Temperatures below this can slow the fermentation dramatically and in many cases stop it altogether. Even a fermentation that's still at 70 degrees F. will only ferment about half as fast as a fermentation at 75 degrees F. on average, so as you can see just a few degrees can make a big difference.

To who it my concern,

I received a basic wine fermenting kit for Christmas from you guys. And when the peaches ripened on my tree I picked them and started my new hobby. I've found your site very informational and a great help. I just had a few questions I have run into. It's been four days and my wine already has gone from 13% potential to 0% I added enough sugar to bring it back to 3.5%. Is this in any way normal or do you have any information concerning this. I'm not sure yet if I should move it to my secondary fermenter. I'm going to wait for your e-mail so please e-mail me soon.

Thank you!

Christopher
_____

Dear Christopher,

The fact that you had a beginning reading of 13% on your hydrometer's "potential alcohol" scale and then just four days later had a reading of 0% would indicate two things:

1) The fermentation had produced 13% alcohol at that point. This is calculated by taking the beginning hydrometer reading of 13% and subtracting from that the ending reading of 0%.

2) The fermentation created this alcohol at a very fast pace. While fermenting that much alcohol in just four days is not unheard of, most recipes you run across will not assume that the rate of fermentation will go that fast.

Fermentations will go fast or slow based on a number of factors, from the must's temperature to yeast nutrition. The primary factors that effect the rate of fermentation can be found in the article "Top 10 Reasons For Fermentation Failure" on our web site.

Regardless of the reason, a fast fermentation is of little consequence to the wine. The fact still remains that the fermentation did what it needed to do--make alcohol.

Moving the wine to a secondary container--with an air-lock--would be wise at this point. The amount of CO2 gas that can potentially come off a wine at this point is too little to protect it from airborne contaminants such a bacteria and mold spores.

Adding more sugar at this point was probably not a good idea. Yeast have limitations as to the amount of alcohol they can produce. Most have an upper limit of around 14%-16%, and even this amount can only be reached if the conditions are favorable--temperature, nutrients, etc. If the new sugars you added ferment out completely that means your wine will have 16.5% alcohol, 13% plus the 3.5% from the sugar you added later--and everything's fine--but if the yeast do not ferment all the new sugars you added you will have what is called a "stuck fermentation", a situation where the yeast are not fermenting at all but could start up at any time, including after the wine is bottled. Hopefully, this is not the case.

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

This is a question we get quite often about having head-space in a fermenter during secondary fermentation.

Hello,

I recently purchased your California Connoisseur starter kit that includes the 2 9 Gal. Tuff-Tanks with Air-Locks. I have a question about using those tanks as a secondary fermenter.

I'm new to wine making, but shouldn't there be less air space in the top of the secondary fermenter to prevent oxidation towards the end of fermentation? Would I be better off using a 6 gallon glass carboy for the secondary fermenter and make sure it's filled nearly to the top?

Thanks for any advice you have.

-Nick
_____

Dear Nick,

Because these are 28 day kits, you do not have to worry about any head/air space in your container. The amount of time here is too short to make a difference of any kind. Oxidation occurs over weeks not days.

It is also important to realize that during the secondary fermentation there is nothing but CO2 gas from the fermentation in the head-space. All the air is driven out by this gas. It is not until you open the container after the fermentation has stopped that air even has an opportunity to get to the wine.

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E.C. Kraus