Wine Making Process – Winemaker's Academy

3 x 3 in 3 Kit Wine Making by William Forsch

admin — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 23:55:48 +0000

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 …

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When and How Often Should I Degas My Wine?

admin — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 16:35:58 +0000

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 …

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Fermenting Wine in Open Containers

admin — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 00:35:31 +0000

There’s a lot of discussion around open fermentations. Beginners especially wonder why some recipes call for open fermentations and kit instructions call for an airlock to be placed on the fermenter as soon as you’ve pitched the yeast. The truth is, you can do it either way. When you’re first getting into winemaking I do not recommend …

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Making Wine from Kits, Juice Pails, and Grapes

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 10:37:00 +0000

[ Podcast not currently available. Podcast content has been lost. We are attempting to recover them. If you have any of this content saved please contact the site administrator using the Contact Us form on this site. ] Winemaker’s Academy member Craig joins us on this episode of the podcast to share his experience making …

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Racking Wine For Clarity

admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 02:24:26 +0000

Clearing a wine in preparation for bottling can be tricky. There are many different clarifiers on the market and each have their own strengths and weaknesses. An alternative to using clarifiers is to rack your wine strategically over time to help clear the wine. But how are you supposed to know when to rack your …

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Basic Wine Chemistry – WMA027

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 03:10:09 +0000

In this episode of the Winemaker’s Academy Podcast I go through the recommended values for various chemistry related aspects of wine such as: pH Titratable Acidity Alcohol Residual Sugar Sulfites For each of these I share the recommended values you can shoot for when making wine to help produce a more balanced wine. As you’ll …

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How to Back Sweeten a Wine Kit

admin — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 17:54:34 +0000

So you’ve made a wine kit and it turned out all right but maybe it needs a bit more sugar to suit your palate. Recently Sam wrote in with this exact dilemma. He had made a wine kit per the instructions and everything turned out as it should have but the wine just wasn’t sweet …

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How to Detect a Stuck Fermentation

admin — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 02:44:00 +0000

Recently Barbara wrote in with this question on a possible stuck fermentation: How can I tell if my wine is stuck and not fermenting in the secondary fermenter? Should the airlock be bubbling? -Barbara Matt’s Answer: Hi Barbara, Thank you for reaching out with your question! Being able to identify a stuck fermentation is an …

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Why, How, and When to Degas Wine – WMA019

admin — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 16:35:48 +0000

Why How and When To Degas Wine Degassing is one of those wine making tasks that can be quite frustrating if you don’t have the right tools or know the best conditions under which you should degas. If not done correctly degassing can take hours if it is successful at all. In this episode we …

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A Wine Making Timeline

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 10:50:10 +0000

Knowing when to do what when making a wine is critical to producing a quality wine. When you make wine from a kit each and every step is spelled out for you but when you go to make wine from fresh fruit it’s up to you to decide / determine when to perform each of …

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