Winemaker's Academy

June 18, 2015June 27, 2018

Thirty-Eight Wine Kits and Counting – WMA033

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About two and a half years ago Winemaker’s Academy members Dennis and Cathy decided to give winemaking a try. They started with one kit but their new hobby soon blossomed into thirty-eight wine kits!

Dennis and I decided to get the three of us on the phone and talk about how they got into winemaking and what lessons they’ve learned along the way. So grab a glass of wine and listen in as Dennis and Cathy share their experience diving into making wine head first.

If you’d like to connect with Dennis you can find him in our Facebook Group

June 10, 2015June 25, 2018

Racking Wine For Clarity

Clearing a wine in preparation for bottling can be tricky. There are many different clarifiers on the market and each have their own strengths and weaknesses. An alternative to using clarifiers is to rack your wine strategically over time to help clear the wine. But how are you supposed to know when to rack your wine?

racking-for-clarity Recently I discovered a recommended racking schedule while reading From Vines to Wines by Jeff Cox and expanded upon it to give you a complete schedule from start to finish. This schedule assumes that you are not using a fining agent to clarify your wine. Continue reading “Racking Wine For Clarity”

June 4, 2015June 27, 2018

Bulk Aging, Corks, and Specific Gravity – WMA032

In this Question and Answer podcast episode Matt addresses the following questions:

Is it okay to leave red muscadine wine in the carboy for several months under the protection of airlock?
Do you do anything with your corks before bottling?
My kit wine specific gravity is supposed to be between 1.090 and 1.110, but my hydrometer reads 1.070. What’s the reason for this?

May 22, 2015June 27, 2018

Why Synthetic Corks Are Worth Using

Since I started making my own wines I’ve been a bit of a purist when it comes to closures. Like most home winemakers I started out with the cheap agglomerated corks that came with my equipment kit. From there I moved on to the premium #9 corks and started looking at buying solid natural cork. I didn’t give much thought to synthetic corks because they were not natural. They weren’t the closures that wineries have been trusting for hundreds of years. They weren’t “authentic”.

Nomacorc Synthetic Corks One day I volunteered to bottle at a local winery (more about that here). They were using Nomacorcs and were quite happy with them. As I continued to volunteer at this winery I got more and more interested in the closures, how long they last, and what the benefits of using them are. Continue reading “Why Synthetic Corks Are Worth Using”

May 14, 2015June 27, 2018

Inert Gases, Racking, and Preserving Fruit Wine Flavor

Winemaker’s Academy Podcast Episode 30

Racking wine into a sanitized carboy. In this question & answer episode of the podcast we cover the following questions:

At what point in the winemaking process will I benefit the most from using inert gases?
I racked all the sediment after primary fermentation. Was this a mistake?
My pear wine lacks actual pear flavor. What can I do to bring it back out?

Continue reading “Inert Gases, Racking, and Preserving Fruit Wine Flavor”