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Primary Fermenter. The basic wine fermenter is a 7.5–12 gallon (30–46 L) food-grade plastic container. It should come with a cover that allows you to attach an airlock. Even though the volume of wine made in a kit is only 6 gallons (23 L), you will need the extra fermenter volume to deal with foaming during primary fermentation.
- Train Up Your Tasting Skills
- Rack It, Rack It Good!
- Cultivate Healthy Yeast: Choose Carefully and Treat It Right
- License to Calibrate: Know Your Ph Meter
- Overcome Oxygen
- Sulfur Dioxide: Don’T Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
The best winemakers are also very often great wine tasters. While you don’t need to be a tasting super hero to make excellent wines, it will certainly help if you are a good taster, and can entice some friends to learn to taste with you. Knowing how to identify wine tastes and aromas, especially the faults, can really boost your wine quality. Anna-...
Once you transfer the wine to the fermenter, the work isn’t over. Wine needs to be transferred periodically to get it off of the lees (dead yeast cells and other particles that fall out of suspension over time) to prevent off odors. Christina Musto, Head of Business Development and Vineyard Relations at Musto Wine Grape Company in Hartford, Connect...
Wine kits already contain a suitable yeast for fermenting, but with fresh grapes and pails of juice you’re faced with a multitude of yeast options. The wrong yeast choice could result in a stuck fermentation and the prospect of a sweet wine when you were making a dry. Poor yeast nutrition leads to off aromas. However, by following a couple of simpl...
Acid is such an important contributor to a wine’s flavor, potential longevity and its ability to deal with microbial issues. So it makes sense that regularly calibrating your pH meter to ensure accurate readings from harvest time through to the end of the winemaking is a must (get it?). Sheridan Warrick, author of the book The Way to Make Wine: How...
Oxidation is a big bogeyman for the hobby winemaker. Once fermentation is over (which provides a natural protection from oxidation by creating CO2), there are many points during the rest of the winemaking process when oxygen can impact the wine so one technique won’t be enough to completely stop it. Use any of these three techniques and you’ll be s...
Alison Crowe, Winemaker for Plata Wine Partners, says maintaining proper free SO2levels during bulk storage is critical. She explains two methods. “If you have the equipment to do it yourself at home that’s great (see photo on facing page). You can buy, for about $200, the set-up to do what’s called an AO or aeration-oxidation titration for free SO...
Here are 10 proven winemaking techniques and practices you should know and implement if you want to make that leap. SEEK THE BEST FRUIT, JUICE OR CONCENTRATE It is often said that wine is made in the vineyard. Not literally, of course, but rather, to make great wine you must start with the best fruit possible. You can make great wine from great ...
Winemaker Kent Rosenblum of Rosenblum Cellars in Alameda, California goes back to his early roots by offering his thoughts on making Riesling. Back in 1973, he and his wife made their very first homemade batch – 5 gallons (19 L) of Reisling – officially launching them into the world of winemaking. Tips on Riesling In that first foray into making wine, Rosenblum says he took the grapes to ...
For too long, rosé remained cast under the shadow of overly sweet and one-dimensional White Zinfandels. But the surge of popularity in North America has removed the myth that rosé wines are similar in character to the mass-produced White Zins. Learn how to craft your own rosé, whether starting from fresh grapes or from juice, in order to nail the color and aromatics you are looking to ...
Nothing feels as satisfying and authentic as making your first batch of wine from fresh grapes. And there’s no better time to try it than in early autumn, when grapes all over the country are ripening in vineyards and backyard gardens. There are many kinds of grapes to choose from, depending on where you live. Vitis vinifera is the classic choice for flavor, varietal character and historic ...
You have two ways to do this: applying petroleum-based fertilizers or using organic fertilizers. Both will work well to help establish the vine. Using a half-cup of calcium nitrate (15-0-0) per vine a few times during the vine’s first year will definitely make the vine grow faster and remain nice and green.
