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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”

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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”

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David’s Blackberry Port

This Blackberry Port recipe was written and contributed by David Knoll.

Where I live in Oregon, Blackberries grow as weeds. In July when Blackberries are ripe, I can walk across the road to my neighbor’s property and pick 5 gallons of Blackberries along his pasture in about 2 hours. They are big and juicy.

Blackberry Port
David’s Wines

Blackberry Port was one of my first wines I ever made because of the abundance of available free fruit. If blackberries are not available where you live, growing wild, you can purchase frozen blackberries at the store. I usually make 6 gal. at a time, but will give the recipe for 1 gal. Continue reading “David’s Blackberry Port”

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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”