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.

One of the biggest concerns is finding the right sized fermentation tank. There are several types on the market (some of which are listed below) and each have their benefits and draw backs.

Beyond fermentation and storage capacity, there is heating and cooling issues that can arise with larger volumes, as well as how you will rack the wine. It’s not easy to move large tanks full of wine, nor is it advisable. Listen to the episode by clicking play above to find out more.

Listener Questions

Here’s the list of terrific listener questions addressed in this podcast episode.

  • Can I pasteurizing fruit instead of using potassium metabisulfite?
  • My wine didn’t foam at all when I degassed it. Is it okay?
  • My wine is in the garage now should I move it to a refrigerator when it warms up?
  • How can I get more flavor out of the grape?

The following products and resources were also mentioned in this podcast episode:

  1. Brehm Vineyards Frozen Wine Making Must
  2. Skip’s article on frozen must
  3. Speidel Variable Volume Stainless Steel Tanks
  4. Speidel Large Scale Plastic Fermenters
  5. Winemaker’s Answer Book by Alison Crowe
  6. How to Hydrate Yeast
  7. MoreWinemaking.com Manuals

Yeast Resources

  1. Choosing the Right Wine Making Yeast
  2. Selecting a Wine Making Yeast (podcast episode)
  3. The Great Riesling Yeast Experiment: part I, part II, part III, the tasting

Photograph by: Jim G