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Making Wine from Grapes vs Kits

Wine kits are a great place to start when learning to make wine. They’re inexpensive, pre-stabilized, and come with a great set of instructions to help you through the process. You also need only a minimal amount of equipment.

At some point though we all want to graduate kit wine making to making wine from fresh grapes.

There are a few things that differ between the two methods of making wine. The most obvious is the equipment required to process the fruit. You’ll likely need a crusher / destemmer as well as a grape press, all of which are used to extract the juice from the fruit.Wine grapes prepped for pressing.

The other differences are on a deeper level and this is where I’d like to dive in and explore what the big differences are. Continue reading “Making Wine from Grapes vs Kits”

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Effects of Fermentation Temperature on Wine

Heat is a catalyst. By definition when it is applied to a chemical reaction or biological process it speeds things up. The same is true for fermentation.

Fermentation temperature is critical in the production of great wine.The higher your fermentation temperature the faster your yeast will convert sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. While this sounds great on the surface you never really want to rush anything when it comes to making wine.

Continue reading “Effects of Fermentation Temperature on Wine”

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Making Sulfite Free Wine

Sulfite Free wines have no added sulfites but may contain trace amounts.
Even wines made without sulfites will still contain trace amounts of SO2.

There is a lot of confusion out there regarding sulfites and what it means to make a “sulfite free” wine.In reality it’s nearly impossible for a wine to be sulfite free as they are a natural byproduct of the fermentation process

Beyond the fact that they are naturally produced there is the issue of stability. Sulfites are used to stabilize wine against microbial spoilage and oxidation. Without them our wines become much more vulnerable and can potentially have a shorter shelf life. Continue reading “Making Sulfite Free Wine”

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Malolactic Fermentation on Wine Kits?

Wine kits are great for experimenting. Whether you want to swap out the yeast, try a split fermentation with multiple strains, or use different types of oak kits are the most economical wine making medium to experiment on.

Malolactic fermentation, however, is not something that should be experimented with on most wine kits. In fact unless your kit came with malolactic bacteria I suggest steering clear of MLF altogether. Why? Continue reading “Malolactic Fermentation on Wine Kits?”

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Cork Closures and Oxygenation

Natural cork closures have been around for hundreds of years. At first they were merely a more convenient way to seal a bottle of wine. Over time, however, we have come to understand that corks offer an incredible benefit over synthetic closures: micro-oxygenation.

That’s right, natural corks allow your wine to get oxidized. While this may seem scary at first it is actually very good for wine in very small doses spread out over very long periods of time. Continue reading “Cork Closures and Oxygenation”