Recently I’ve heard from more than one confused beginning winemaker asking if their wine was ruined because they never put water in their airlock. It’s not all that surprising as a beginner has a lot to figure out with all the steps, additives, and equipment. I’m sure there is wine making shops that forget to mention that the airlock needs water. For a seasoned wine maker it’s just how things work.
An Academy member by the name of Robert recently wrote in with just this problem. He purchased everything he needed to make a kit wine but didn’t know that the airlock needed water in order to protect his wine. At the time he wrote in his wine had been fermenting for two weeks and was well past the vigorous fermentation stage.
So let’s take a look at which airlocks require water, which don’t, and how they work in the first place. Continue reading “My Airlock Needs Water?”
As winemaker’s we’re always concerned with how our wines taste and whether or not there was anything we could do to improve upon them. To help us understand how to better taste our wines we have Jeff Siegel, the Wine Curmudgeon, on the show for this episode. 
Which answer is right? The only one who can say is you.
Grapes are complex little things. If we’re to make great wine from them then we’re going to need to have a good understanding of the chemistry that makes them what they are. That’s the topic for this Winemaker’s Academy episode. 