Category: Podcast

Posted on

Racking Your Wine – WMA010

Racking Your Wine

Racking is simply the process of moving wine from one container to another. There are several different ways you can accomplish this, each of which requires different equipment. In this episode we explore four different ways to rack and the equipment involved.

Racking the Riesling from the primary to secondary fermenter.In addition to the nuts and bolts of racking you’ll also learn about why we rack and how to gauge when to rack. Understanding how and when to rack is a key part of making quality wine. Waiting too long to rack or doing it too often can have a negative impact on your finished wine. Continue reading “Racking Your Wine – WMA010”

Posted on

How to Control Your Wine Fermentation Temperature – WMA009

Fermentation tank with a glycol chilling system.
A glycol cooled fermentation tank.

The temperature of your wine fermentation plays a big role in how your final product will turn out. If it gets too hot or too cold things you can end up with flavor issues, or worse, a stuck fermentation.

In this podcast you’ll discover a few different ways of heating and cooling a fermenting wine to ensure that you maintain the proper temperature. There are simple and inexpensive methods and then, of course, there are most costly methods that can sometimes offer better temperature control. Continue reading “How to Control Your Wine Fermentation Temperature – WMA009”

Posted on

Scaling Up Your Wine Making Production – WMA008

It takes thought and planning to scale up your wine making operation.Making more wine is something almost all wine makers seek to do at some point or another. Sure it’s fun to make five or six gallons here or there but there is a certain allure to producing a 50 or 100 gallon batch.

Whether you just want to produce more wine or you’re looking to grow into a full-scale winery the issues surrounding growth are pretty similar. In this episode you’ll learn about some of the basic concerns when moving from kits to frozen must then moving on to working with fresh fruit. Continue reading “Scaling Up Your Wine Making Production – WMA008”

Posted on

Cleaning and Sanitizing Wine Making Equipment – WMA007

Cleaning and Sanitizing Wine Making Equipment

Clean and sanitized equipment is a critical component of making quality wine.One of the most important and time-consuming parts of the wine making process is cleaning and sanitizing. While it seems pretty straight forward at first there are some technical aspects that are important to understand so that you can be sure you’re properly preparing your equipment.

In this episode of Winemaker’s Academy we’ll take a look at exactly what’s entailed with cleaning and sanitizing separately. Also, we’ll dispel some of the confusion that occurs when the term sterilizing is used instead of sanitizing. Continue reading “Cleaning and Sanitizing Wine Making Equipment – WMA007”

Posted on

All About Potassium Metabisulfite – WMA006

Potassium metabisulfite is a complex additive. In this episode of the podcast I break down how it functions, what the difference is between potassium metabisulfite and sodium metabisulfite, as well as the difference between free and total sulfites (which come from potassium metabisulfite).

It’s an important topic for many wine makers and consumers alike. One that deserves our attention to fully understand how best to work with it so that we can create the best possible wines.

Adding to the complexity of it all are the many names by which it goes. You’ll see wine makers referring to potassium metabisulfite as PM, k-meta (the k stands for potassium on the periodic table of elements), and campden tablets. Continue reading “All About Potassium Metabisulfite – WMA006”