Wine Making Equipment – Winemaker's Academy

July 17, 2016June 25, 2018

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”

September 10, 2015June 25, 2018

Always Use Airlocks On Carboys

It’s a fairly common mistake to use airlocks only during fermentation and switch to a solid plug or bung for bulk aging in a carboy. Why wouldn’t you? After all fermentation is over so there really shouldn’t be anything going on in there.

The truth is that there are other forces at work that can cause problems when using a solid plug on a carboy.

The Trouble With Solid Plugs on Carboys

Continue reading “Always Use Airlocks On Carboys”

May 22, 2015June 27, 2018

Why Synthetic Corks Are Worth Using

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Since I started making my own wines I’ve been a bit of a purist when it comes to closures. Like most home winemakers I started out with the cheap agglomerated corks that came with my equipment kit. From there I moved on to the premium #9 corks and started looking at buying solid natural cork. I didn’t give much thought to synthetic corks because they were not natural. They weren’t the closures that wineries have been trusting for hundreds of years. They weren’t “authentic”.

Nomacorc Synthetic Corks One day I volunteered to bottle at a local winery (more about that here). They were using Nomacorcs and were quite happy with them. As I continued to volunteer at this winery I got more and more interested in the closures, how long they last, and what the benefits of using them are. Continue reading “Why Synthetic Corks Are Worth Using”

May 4, 2015June 27, 2018

Using Inert Gases in Winemaking – WMA029

Just recently I tested out Private Preserve while bottling a raisin wine. Private Preserve is an aerosol can filled with a mixture of inert gases. In this episode we’re going to explore what inert gases are, why it’s beneficial to use them, and I’ll share my own thoughts and experiences using these gases. Continue reading “Using Inert Gases in Winemaking – WMA029”

December 17, 2014June 25, 2018

Kurt’s Fermentation Temperature Control System

Recently a Winemaker’s Academy member shared this amazing system, that he developed, for controlling the temperature of a wine fermentation. In this post Kurt shares all of the equipment necessary to build this system.

Kurt's Temperature Control System in action. The original email included links to equipment available on eBay, however, given the frequency at which items turn over on that site maintaining those links proved to be too difficult. So you’ll have to do some hunting for these components but they should be easy enough to find given the amount of information Kurt has provided.

And now for Kurt’s Temperature Control System: Continue reading “Kurt’s Fermentation Temperature Control System”