Month: May 2014

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How Long Do Primary and Secondary Fermentations Last?

Nearly every wine kit and wine making recipe has a different recommendation on how long primary and secondary fermentations are supposed to last. It turns out that there are a lot of variables that can affect how long each of these last. This means that there’s a good chance your wine will behave differently than what the instructions or recipe you’re following say should happen.

Primary fermentation is the more vigorous portion of the fermentation process during which time approximately 70% of your total amount of alcohol is produced. It will generally go by much more quickly than secondary fermentation. For more information on the differences between these two check out Primary Vs Secondary Fermentation.

So how long should each of these take? Continue reading “How Long Do Primary and Secondary Fermentations Last?”

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How to Bottle Your Wine – WMA012

Bottling Your Wine

Bottling wine.
375 ml Bottles Ready for Wine

Bottling is the final step in the wine making process (aside from aging). If done correctly your wine will be protected from oxygen and spoilage preserving your wine to enjoy for possible years to come.

In this episode I will go through the entire bottling process. The first thing covered is determining when to bottle which is equally as important as knowing how to bottle your wine. From there you’ll learn about cleaning and sanitizing bottles, back sweetening, bottle filler options, and much more. Continue reading “How to Bottle Your Wine – WMA012”

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How Wine Clarifiers Work – WMA011

Clarifiers help reduce hazes and cloudiness in your wines.
A very clear wine.

There are a lot of clarifiers out there. But how do they work? Is there one that is better than the rest These questions and more will be addressed in this podcast episode.

While not always completely necessary clarifiers have become a key component of the modern wine maker’s repertoire of tools used to craft a quality wine. You do have to be careful with them though because if you over do it you could strip out more than just the cloudiness. The trick is to use just enough to get the job done and no more. Continue reading “How Wine Clarifiers Work – WMA011”

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Bottling Wine at a Small Winery

Recently I volunteered at two different Colorado wineries to give them a hand bottling wine. It was a great experience and one that I learned a lot from.

While I did expect the two different wineries to have different bottling procedures I was struck by just how different they were. On the one hand was a simple, no frills bottling process much like any amateur wine maker does on their own. On the other hand was a more complex process that required some specialized equipment.

Here is a synopsis of each bottling process. Continue reading “Bottling Wine at a Small Winery”