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3 x 3 in 3 Kit Wine Making by William Forsch

Winemaker’s Academy is built on members helping each other make a better bottle of wine.  One of our members provided a very helpful presentation for the beginning kit wine maker.  As the title states you only need a 3′ x 3′ space and 3 hours of time to start your wine making experience.

Bill has been a kit wine maker for 9 years and has completed over 150 kits including all styles – red, white, and dessert.  He has also conducted full kit wine making classes for four years including almost 100 students.  After retirement five years ago, he began making wine from grapes.  Bill is an avid golfer, tennis player, chef/cook, and supporter of the Orange County Wine Society – Winemaker’s group and a member of their “leadership team”.  Bill’s Home Wine label is:  Lolita’s Claw Wines, named after the nasty calico cat that resides with him that tends to claw everything and everyone!

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Vacuum System for Home Winemaking

A vacuum system for amateur home winemaking
David W. Vehar

There are a number of pre-built vacuum systems available for the home winemaker, and there is no reason to disparage any of these.  However, during my 40-year career as an engineer making equipment work in a laboratory, I have found it considerably more satisfying to design and build something myself than to purchase it.  Besides, after said 40-year career, I prefer to avoid heavy lifting.  So, a few years ago when my wife presented me with a home winemaking kit, I immediately started to think of ways to make the material handling easier. Continue reading “Vacuum System for Home Winemaking”

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Choosing a Wine Kit – Part 2

WineKits2

Winexpert kits from smallest to largest. Each kit makes 6 gal. of wine

In part one of this article  (Choosing a Wine Kit – Part 1 Overview)   we discussed the characteristics that differentiate one size/price range of kit from another.  In part two we are going to look at how each of the product lines in the Winexpert family compare to each other using these characteristics.  Just by way of reminder, the aging times provided in this article are based on our experience, numerous customer reviews of various wines and a great deal of online research. However, many people are comfortable drinking their wines earlier than we recommend. Ultimately it’s your wine.  It’s up to you to decide when it’s ready to drink. Continue reading “Choosing a Wine Kit – Part 2”

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When and How Often Should I Degas My Wine?

This is a seemingly straight forward question I get asked quite often. The answer, however, depends a lot on your wine making methods and what tools you use to degas.

I recommend degassing a wine only once. It’s a lot of work, especially if you use the agitation method (with a drill attachment), and there’s really no reason to degas in the middle of fermentation as you’ll only wind up with more suspended carbon dioxide anyway. Degassing through agitation can introduce oxygen into your wine so it’s best to keep that to a minimum.

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Choosing a Wine Kit – Part 1 Overview

Selecting a wine kit can be a little daunting especially if it’s you’re first one. A lot of factors come into play including the type of wine, cost, kit complexity, processing time, minimum aging time and feedback from other kit winemakers. In this two-part series I’ll try to demystify the process. In this first article we’ll start by identifying the key characteristics that separate one product line from another. In part two we will use these key characteristics to analyze each product line and compare the different categories of kits. Then we’ll finish up by discussing how to select your first wine kit and how your kit choices can help build your wine cellar.

I’ve used the Winexpert product line for examples because those are the kits I am most familiar with. However, the same basic guideline should apply to other kit makers product lines as well as long as they start out with approximately the same number of liters per kit. Continue reading “Choosing a Wine Kit – Part 1 Overview”