Videos – Winemaker's Academy

Awesome Reusable Wine Labels

admin — Thu, 02 May 2013 02:24:33 +0000

While it is great fun to have your very own wine label on the bottles you made it can also be a hassle when you go to reuse the bottle. Most wine labels leave a sticky mess behind that require chemicals to remove. There is one company, however, that makes a reusable wine label that …

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The Most Neglected Piece of Winemaking Equipment

admin — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 04:50:18 +0000

It’s inexpensive, easy to use, and easy to neglect. The cost of neglecting it, however, is all the wine your making. So what is this little savior of wine? The airlock. Why Are Airlocks So Critical? First, they keep out all of the undesirable micro-organisms that seek to ruin your wine. Vinegar bacteria, lactic bacteria, and weak …

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How to Remove Wine Labels

admin — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 12:42:10 +0000

Reusing wine bottles is the perfect way to save some money when making your own wine. The problem is how do you remove the labels? I’ve found there are mainly three types of labels, paper, plastic, and plastic coated paper. Paper labels are easy as they’ll come off after only a few minutes in water. …

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How to Use a Racking Cane

admin — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:20:52 +0000

A racking cane is simply a hard plastic tube used to siphon wine from one container to another. Despite their simplicity they can be a bit tricky to use. The most difficult part of using this device is getting the flow of wine going. While you could suck on the end of the tube like …

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Using a Hydrometer for Making Wine

admin — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 10:38:44 +0000

The hydrometer is the testing instrument you’ll use most when making wine. While it looks simple enough it does take some practice to fully understand both how to use it and what it’s telling you. I’ll show you how to use a hydrometer as well as what the results mean in this three and a …

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Checking the Specific Gravity and Racking

admin — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:00:31 +0000

After the primary fermentation has slowed down (after about 7 days) it’s time to check the specific gravity. What this tells us is how the density of the wine compares to that of water. Grape juice is more dense than water. Thus before we fermented the grape juice the specific gravity was over 1.0. As …

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Equipment Required for Making Wine from a Kit

admin — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 19:32:05 +0000

Once you’ve decided on what wine kit you’d like to make we now move onto what equipment you’ll need to get started. In this video I outline the minimum amount of equipment required to get going. You can always add more gadgets but this is an affordable place to start. In summary, you’ll need: a …

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What Comes in a Winemaking Kit?

admin — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 18:57:44 +0000

So you’ve decided you want to make wine but what do you need to get going? First of all you’ll need to choose a wine kit. A wine kit includes a grape juice concentrate, most importantly, but also several additional chemicals used during the winemaking process. In this video session I’ll show you what you …

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