Winemaking
How To Make Wine – Part 5
Items Needed: 1. 30 sanitized bottles. 2. Syphon tube. 3. Sanitizing solution. 4. 30 corks 5. Bottle corker (Often, the store where you purchased your kit will lend or rent a corker to you. You may want to consider purchasing a hand corker if you are going to make wine at home on a regular…
Read MoreFining Agents – Bentonite
A question that seems to come up regularly on home winemaking bulletin boards, newsgroups and faq’s have to do with fining agents. A fining agent is something that is added to the wine at some point before bottling to help it clear. There are quite a number of differing fining agents – even egg whites…
Read MoreFining Agents – Eggshell
A few years ago, I had some problems with a Mead I was making that wouldn’t clear. I had tried a few different fining agents but to no avail. In retrospect, I probably could have given it more time as I let the mead bulk age for another couple of years before bottling it but…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine For Free? Part 1 – Equipment
I’ve seen a number of advertisements online suggesting that you can make wine for free. There are “experts” who apparently claim they can tell you how to make wine at no cost to yourself. Can you really do this? Well… yes and here’s how: First, let’s assume you have a vessel of some sort like…
Read MoreDegassing Wine
Most wine kit instructions do stress the importance of degassing wine. But they are usually pretty short on instructions. This article will fill in the details for you.
Read MoreHow To Siphon And Rack Wine
Some years ago, I received a phone call from my brother. He was obviously “sloshed.” Between some giggles and slurred words, he asked me, “Ian, how do you start a siphon?” I didn’t know at the time why he wanted to know how to siphon something – especially when he was so obviously tipsy. So…
Read MoreSave Hundreds Or Thousands on Your Wedding Bill – Make Your Own Wine
Several days ago, I came across an article in a local newspaper discussing ways to save money on weddings. With the tight economic times today, everyone seems to be tightening their belts and looking for ways to save money on just about everything. The article I found was interesting and discussed a number of different…
Read MorePlanning Your Wedding With Your Own Homemade Wine – Part 1
Many brides and grooms-to-be are feeling the economic pinch and are carefully considering all their options when it comes to the expenses of their wedding. If you’re like many other soon to be married couples, you might be thinking about providing your guests with your own homemade wine. With savings of potentially thousands of dollars…
Read MorePlanning Your Wedding With Your Own Homemade Wine – Part 2
In Planning Your Wedding With Your Own Homemade Wine – Part 1, we discussed the cost savings of making your own wine to serve your guests at your wedding reception as well as some of the things you’ll need to think about when making wine for your big day. But not only will making your…
Read MoreFining Agents – Isinglass
(Positively Charged Fining Agent) Many might be surprised to know that a commonly used fining agent in wine comes from the bladder of some fishes, usually sturgeon, cod or cichlids. It often comes packaged in some white wine kits as "Iso-Kleer," and is added to the wine after fermentation has taken place. Isinglass, a form…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine For Free? Part 2 – Ingredients
In Part 1 of “Can You Really Make Wine For Free,” we discussed the basic equipment costs you will have to budget for when making wine and discovered that for about $35.00, you can get yourself ready to start fermenting juice. You can of course spend much more than that on other equipment and chemicals,…
Read MoreCleaning And Sanitizing Wine Bottles – Three Essential Pieces Of Equipment In Home Winemaking
If you’ve decided that home winemaking is for you, you’ll want to know how you can save some money and make the process more efficient. One way to save on costs is to reuse your wine bottles. Although a case of 12 Bordeaux style 750 ml wine bottles is relatively inexpensive at about fifteen dollars,…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine – Part 1
So you’re thinking about making your own wine but don’t know where to start? Wondering just how complicated it can be? I was at that point once as well, until I received a Father’s Day gift of a wine making starter kit. I was delighted to learn just how uncomplicated home wine making can be.…
Read MoreWhy You Might Need Acid Blend When Making Fruit Wines
Wines that are enjoyable to drink are those that are in balance with acidity, tannin and sweetness. Professional grape winemakers often have to make adjustments to their juices before and during the fermenting process in order to attain the balance they are desiring for the wine they are making. Home winemakers that ferment the juice…
Read MoreHow To Make Wine – Part 2
In the previous article, Getting Started, we discussed what you should get in a good basic wine making starting kit. Today, we’ll take a look at the process of wine making using concentrated grape juice purchased from a wine making outlet. Tonight, I started a Grand Cru Liebraumilch that I purchased from Winemakers here in Orangeville. The staff…
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