Wines For All

Racking is one of the most essential parts to making stellar wine. Generally, you will need to rack the wine at least two times and in some cases you may need to rack it as many as four times. Making sure that you rack in a timely fashion will ensure the wine is properly clarified as well as prevent off flavors. If you are not familiar with racking, it is important to understand that racking does not refer to bottling ... Read More »

Whether you are a beginning winemaker or you have been making wine for some time and have experienced some problems, it is important to understand the most common mistakes made in winemaking so you can learn how to avoid them. By far, the most common problem in most winemaking failures can be attributed to equipment that is inadequate. Many people make the mistake of using common household items for their winemaking because they seem to be familiar to the carboys, ... Read More »

The process of racking involves siphoning the wine away from the sediment. Sediment is primarily comprised of inactive or dead yeast cells. While yeast is beneficial to the must in the beginning, over time it becomes multiplied many times over. As each new generation of yeast is produced, older generations die off. Most of what you will see at the bottom of your fermentation container is dead yeast cells. As the fermentation nears the end of the cycle, there should ... Read More »

Winemaking can be an extremely satisfying activity and hobby with a wonderful end result that also makes for wonderful gifts. If you have already experimented with brewing ales and beers you may already be familiar with many of the steps associated with the process of making wine. Winemaking is generally the next step for many home brewers. If you have already done some brewing at home, you probably already own much of the equipment that is required and are familiar ... Read More »

One of the most common questions you may have when you begin considering making homemade wine is what type of wine you should make. There are certainly plenty of different types of wines from which to choose. Understanding the different types of wines can help you to narrow down the choices and select the type that would be best for your first, or your next, batch of wine. First, it is important to understand that while wine is generally made ... Read More »

Two of the keys to making a great batch of wine are testing and making adjustments based on those tests. There are two critical areas where you will need to perform tests and possibly make adjustments. Those are sugar and acid levels. As you are already aware, the sugar level of your wine is incredibly important as it is the sugar that the yeast feeds off of in order to produce the alcohol. The amount of sugar that you start ... Read More »

In some cases you may find it desirable to stop the fermentation process before it comes to a stop on its own. The most common reason for wishing to stop the fermentation process is that you have found the wine already has the exact amount of sweetness that you prefer and you do not want it to progress any further. By stopping the fermentation at that point, many winemakers believe that they can preserve the amount of sweetness that the ... Read More »

The interest in Ros wine has become markedly increased. At one time this type of wine tended to be somewhat looked down upon and was frequently referred to as a summer wine due to the fact that it was much lighter than a white wine or red wine. Today there are many different styles of Ros wine available on the commercial market and many home based winemakers are experimenting with the different ways to produce Ros wine. Dry Ros wines, ... Read More »

While wine can certainly be made from a variety of different vegetable matters, most wines are produced from grapes. Ironically, grapes commonly grow in areas where it is difficult if not impossible to grow other crops. Bordeaux, France is known for producing some of the best grapes, and wines, in the world; however, at first glance the unfertile, stony ground in that region would seem an unlikely growing region. In order to completely understand the process of making excellent ... Read More »

If you have given some thought to the idea of making wine at home but just havent quite gotten around to it yet, there is no reason to delay any longer. Thousands of people around the world happily enjoy the benefits and rewards of making their own wine. While certain equipment is required, you do not need to make a prohibitive investment or even have a large space in order to enjoy a hobby that can be quite rewarding. In ... Read More »