Your Winemaking Educational Source
A strawberry mead recipe by Matt Williams.
This was my first fruit wine that I ever made. I used frozen strawberries from the grocery store and a local Colorado honey.
It took about 3 weeks to fully ferment and I recommend giving it a full six months or more to clear. I opted not to degas the mead as the tiny amount of carbonation added a nice touch to the finished product. The final alcohol content was 14.25% prior to back sweetening (optional). Continue reading “Matt’s Strawberry Melomel”
Yeast is the star of the show when it comes to producing wine. Without these micro-organisms wine making itself would not be possible.
In this episode of The Winemaker’s Academy Podcast we explore what the yeast go through during the fermentation process. This is what is known as the yeast life cycle.
This cycle is broken down into four major phases, each of which describe what the yeast population is doing. Continue reading “The Yeast Life Cycle – WMA003”
Nearly every fruit wine recipe calls for pectic enzymes to be added but what do they really do? How do the work? Are there any safety concerns when working with this additive? Let’s find out.
Pectic enzyme, also known as pectinase, is a protein that is used to break down pectin, a jelly like glue that holds plant cells together. In wines pectin can cause troublesome “pectin haze” that is not easily cleared without the use of pectic enzymes. Continue reading “Using Pectic Enzymes to Make Wine”
In this episode of the Winemaker’s Academy Podcast we’ll be exploring a simplified way of looking at the wine making process. After all the better understanding we have of this process the better wines we’ll be able to make.
The process discussed in the episode is based on an article I wrote previously entitled The Wine Making Process Simplified.
Additionally the show covers a variety of questions from Academy members and fans. Here’s a taste of what’s covered:
Carbonic maceration is a unique method of fermenting grapes into wine. While it doesn’t completely ferment all of the sugar into alcohol, it does impart a unique character on the wine.
What makes this method of fermentation so different is that you begin with whole, unbroken grape clusters still on the stems. The grapes are then placed in a sealed fermentation container filled with carbon dioxide. Continue reading “Carbonic Maceration of Wine Grapes”