Winemaking- Post your winemaking questions here

How do I making wine from Winemaking Grapes like zinfandel or muscato?

Winemaking from Vinifera Grapes

Red Wine: Crush (break the skins) and de-stem the grapes. For most grape varieties, about 90% of the larger stems should be removed. Test for total acidity following the instructions in your acid testing kit. If the acidity is less than .7%, add enough tartaric acid to bring it to that level. Test for sugar with your hydrometer. Correct any deficiencies by adding enough sugar to bring the reading up to 22% (22 degrees brix). When these tests and corrections have been completed, the must should be sulfited. Estimating that you will get roughly one gallon of juice yield for every 16 lbs. of grapes, calculate the anticipated amount of juice. Using this estimate, add enough sulfite to give you a sulfur dioxide (SO2) level between 50 and 130 parts per million (ppm). The amount needed will depend on the condition of the grapes, with moldy grapes getting the most concentrated dose. Unless you have found it necessary to add more than 65 parts per million SO2 in step 4, yeast should be added immediately. If using more than 65 parts per million SO2, you must wait four or five hours before doing so.

Add also one ounce of yeast nutrient for every 100 lbs. of grapes. Your yeast culture should be mixed into the crushed grapes (now called "must"). Stir it in thoroughly after eight to twelve hours. The must should be stirred twice a day until fermentation begins. The beginning of fermentation will be obvious, as the grape skins will be forced to the surface, forming a solid layer (called a "cap"). Once the cap has formed, it should be pushed or "punched" back down into the fermenting juice twice a day until it is ready to-be pressed. You may use your hand or a clean 2x4 to push down the cap. At some point, while fermenting on the skins, the must temperature should be allowed to reach as high as 90° F., at least briefly. This will help extract color from the skins.

The rest of skin fermentation should take place at 60-75°F. When the desired level of color has been achieved (four days to several weeks of active fermentation) your wine should be pressed to separate the wine from the skins. Funnel the wine into secondary fermentors, filling them no more than 3/4 full. Attach a fermentation lock, and allow the containers to set until all visible signs of fermentation have ceased (at least three or four days). When the wine is about half to two thirds fermented, most red wines should be inoculated with malolactic starter (either before or after pressing).

At the end of fermentation, when no more bubbles are coming up through the lock, rack the wine off the lees and fine the wine (following the instructions supplied with your fining agent). Place wine in storage containers (glass, stainless steel, or oak). Top up the containers and let stand for a month. Rack the wine away from the lees again, sulfite it to about 20 ppm. SO2, and place it back in topped up containers for three or four weeks. You can check for the end of the alcoholic fermentation by using residual sugar test strips.

In June of the following year, filter the wine if you plan to do so. Sulfite to no more than 20 ppm. SO2. Allow the wine to sit through most of the warm summer weather with a relatively low sulfite level. This will encourage malolactic fermentation to finish up. You can test for the end of the malo-lactic fermentation with malic acid test strips. In early September, (just before you need your storage containers for the next year's crush), carefully rack the wine from the lees, siphon into bottles, cork them, and lay them down for bottle aging. If you have enough storage capacity, you may wish to wait up to another year before bottling. At bottling time, test your wine for free sulfur dioxide, using a test kit for SO2, determining how much sulfite to add to bring the level in the wine to 30-35 ppm.

If possible, store your filled bottles on their sides. Otherwise, store them with the corks down. Most red wines will benefit from at least one year's additional aging, and frequently more. For more detailed information, we highly recommend the following books: Home Winemaking Step by Step (Jon Iverson) and Techniques in Home Winemaking (Pambianchi).

White Wine: Crush (break the skins) the grapes. It is not necessary to de-stem them. Test for total acidity. If the acidity is less than .7%, add enough tartaric acid to bring it up to that level. Test for sugar with your hydrometer. Correct any deficiencies by adding enough sugar to bring the reading up to 20% (20 degrees brix) for most varieties (22% for Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay). When these tests and corrections have been completed, the must should be sulfited. Estimating that you will get roughly a gallon of juice from every 16 lbs. of grapes (varies with the variety), add enough sulfite to give you a sulfur dioxide (SO2) level between 50 and 120 parts per million (ppm.). The amount needed will depend on the condition of the grapes, with moldy grapes getting the most concentrated dose.

Stir in pectic enzyme at the rate of one ounce to every 200 Ibs. of grapes. Place the crushed grapes in a covered container to stand from 2 to 18 hours (longer for the "big, less fruity" varieties). If left to stand longer than 2 hours at this stage, the crushed grapes should be refrigerated. The grapes are then pressed to separate the juice from the skins. Funnel the juice into topped up containers, cover, and let stand for approximately 24 hours. Siphon the clear juice away from the layer - of settlings into a glass, stainless steel, or oak fermenter which is filled no more than 3/4 full.

Yeast should be added, a fermentation lock attached to the fermenter, and fermentation allowed to proceed. Add also an ounce of yeast nutrient for every 100 lbs. of grapes. When visible signs of fermentation end, the wine must be racked off the lees, fined (according to the directions supplied with your fining agent), and placed in topped up storage containers (glass, stainless, or oak). Let stand for a month. After the end of fermentation, add 20 parts per million SO2 whenever the wine is racked.

In February or March, rack and sulfite the wine again, placing it back in topped up containers. This is a good time to filter the wine if you are going to do so. In late April or early May, before the onset of very hot weather, carefully rack the wine from the lees. Sulfite the wine. Siphon into bottles, cork them, and set them aside for whatever bottle aging is needed. If you wish to sweeten the wine, do so with simple syrup (two parts sugar to one part water, boiled), and add 1/2 tsp. Stabilizer per gallon to kill any remaining yeast. Light, fruity, white wines may be enjoyed within two months after bottling. For more detailed information, we highly recommend the following books: Home Winemaking Step by Step (Jon Iverson) and Techniques in Home Winemaking (Pambianchi).

How do I take care of my new bench corker?

Floor/Bench Corker Care and Use

The floor/bench corker is a precision designed, well constructed corking machine and with good care and maintenance will last for many thousands of bottles. Points to remember when using your corker are: 

Clean and dry your corker at the end of every bottling day. Water can pool up inside the mechanism, resulting in corrosion- especially if the water has sulfites in it. 

Don't over-soak your corks. Twenty minutes is more than enough time. Corks that have soaked up too much liquid will release it inside the mechanism when squeezed by the jaws and fluid pooling on the inside of the machine will corrode it. Many times corks can be inserted dry with no pre-soaking necessary. 

If the corks are going too far into the bottles, or winding up sticking out above the neck, adjust the cork depth with the knurled ring threaded onto the corking finger. Corks should be just below flush with the lip of the bottle. 

Lubricate the jaws with a small amount of keg lube (petrol gel). Do not use vegetable oil as it will attract too much dirt and gum up the jaws. Do not use DW40 as the solvents and propellants in the material will slowly dissolve the jaws on nylon jaw corkers. Also, it is not fit for human consumption. Occasionally lubricate other moving parts (i.e. those that do not come in contact with the cork) with WD40 to prevent sticking. 

If the shaft that holds up the bottle platform sticks or won't spring back up when the corking arm is released, tighten the two small nuts found on the bottom of the platform tensioning arm.  If your corker malfunctions or sticks, be extremely cautious about taking it apart. The jaw mechanisms are held in place by powerful springs and can leap out when the cover is removed and/or deliver a nasty pinch to unwary fingers. 

To assemble your corker, place it upside down with the front leg across your lap. Use a wrench (some models have one included) to thread-in the screw with washer into the hole to secure the cross leg in place. Tighten firmly but gently.  If the bottle platform fails to return to position when the corking arm is returned to the top position, tension on the platform can be increased by tightening the two small nuts on the bottom of the front leg. Adjust them clockwise one turn at a time. If they are over tightened the platform may fail to release at all. In this case, reduce tension by loosening the nuts counter-clockwise one turn at a time.

Make 2 6gal. carboys of pear wine on the same day one is clear and a golden yellow color the other is well cloudy and has a pink tint to it. both were made identically the same . I would appreciate any help to figure out what may have happened to turn the one pink and how to fix this. Both were started in mid Oct.

Hi John. It is hard for me to say what happened here. I would not be too concerned about that color really. Try adding a clarifier like isingass to the cloudy one. It may lighten the color and certainly help with the clarity. Filtration may be the only way to get rid of a 'pink'ness but try the fining agent first.

Thanks

John

Hi John. It is hard for me to say what happened here. I would not be too concerned about that color really. Try adding a clarifier like isingass to the cloudy one. It may lighten the color and certainly help with the clarity. Filtration may be the only way to get rid of a 'pink'ness but try the fining agent first.

Thanks

John

Made 2-6gal carboys of pear wine 1 was golden yellow like it should have been and one had a pink tint. They both taste fine but when we bottled them they both had a pink tint and there was sediment at the bottom of the bottles. We filtered this wine but are not sure as to what caused this?

How did you filter it? Did you add a clarifier or chill it prior to filtration?

Thanks

JOhn

What method did you use to filter the wine John. Did you add a clarifier first? Did you chill the wine prior to filtration?

John

G and G

Made Red wine and got to the time to bottle. I had filtered the wine and then bottled. We had noticed about a week later that there was sediment in the bottom of the bottles. Not sure what or how to eliminate this problem. We filtered with the mini jet twice before bottling.

Hi John. In order to completely get rid of the possibility of the wine throwing sediment, you would need to chill proof the wine (store it at 40-45 deg F for 2 weeks) prior to filtering it. Filter it while it is still cold. That would do it.

Thanks

John

Made apple wine from juice it has a weird taste and smell. We have reduced acid levels hoping this corrects this problem but no luck. Do you have any suggestions hoping to keep this a dry wine.

Can you use a destemmer crusher for grapes and apples. If so which model is desirable?

Hello Jerome. I would not recommend a grape crusher for apples. They are really only designed for soft fruit and berries. For apples, you really need a crusher with knives. A pair of rollers will not crush apples. We do not sell them but I have seen them online before.

Thanks

John

I'm making a 5 gallon batch of the peach wine (the 1 gallon batch listed below), and i misread the directions.

After prepping and freezing peaches, I put them in straining bag per instructions and left them in the must for the inital 24 hours prior to pitching yeast (the campden tablet waiting period). immediately BEFORE PITCHING YEAST, i pulled the mesh, strained, discarded pulp, pitched yeast, air-locked, and walked away. It has been fermenting normally for the past 5-7 days like it should.

My Question is, do you think i ruined entire batch by pulling out the fruit pulp BEFORE beginning fermentation? and if so, any way i can fix this at this point of racking into the secondary fermenter? or is it a start from scratch type scenario?

any ideas/insite would help.

thanks!

-tim

Ingredients for 1 gallon (so x5 all quantities is what i used for my 5gal must)

2 1/2 pound peaches (about 10 peaches)

7 pints water

Sugar to get specific gravity to 1.100 (about 2 lb)

1 Campden tablet

1 1/2 teaspoon acid blend

1 teaspoon pectic enzyme powder

1/2 teaspoon yeast energizer

1/4 teaspoon tannin

1 package wine yeast (only 1 pk used for all 5gal)

Hello Timothy. I do not think it is ruined at all. You just have less contact with the fruit making the wine less 'peachy'. Just put some additional fruit pulp in the secondary for a week. Then strain it out and continue as normal. I think the batch would be just fine.

John

Grape and Granary

Hello,

I am new to wine making. Wife and I took your beginner's class a few weeks ago and had a great time. We bought a Orchard Breezin kit, Very Black Cherry. I started it last Friday night. I washed and sanitized everything, and followed directions that came with the kit. By Sunday morning the air lock was bubbling like an old coffee percolator, and did so all week. However, fermentation seems to have slowed way down. Is this normal 7 days into a fermentation? I was going to do a hydrometer reading to see if fermentation was complete, but don't want to disturb the process if it isn't. At first the smell coming off the air lock was yeasty, like bread, then it changed to a fruity smell, now it smells more like a wine.

Should I just leave it alone for another week? Is it okay if I do a hydrometer reading?

Just don't want to mess my first batch.

Thanks,

Bill

My Winexpert Chardonnay kit is at 0.992 after 4 days of secondary fermentation. Should wait until 10 days to stabilize or should I do it now?

what is the shelf life of potassium sorbate

Nebbiolo Private Reserve number 008333. I have made this wine before without the grape skins. These skins have made a thicker wine and the yeast activity is half the normal in these kits. Should I use another package of yeast now on day 5 of step 1?

Also regarding this wine kit. The mesh bag that contains the grape skins was supposed to be stirred down each day of the first 14 days. In this kit the grape skin bag never rose to the surface. It's staying on the bottom. Do I still stir it each day?