From time to time I get asked by beginning wine makers for any tips or advise I might have, and my immediate reply is, “always be clean”.
Out of all the wine making tips I could offer, I have found this to be the most valuable to the beginning wine maker. It’s simple to do, and it eliminates a lot of the aliments I see in homemade wines with respect to off-flavors and off-odors.
So what do I mean by being clean? First, you need to make sure your equipment and bottles are soapy-clean. Any dirt, grime or dust needs to be removed. Secondly, you need to sanitize your equipment. This means using a disinfectant to destroy a majority of the microbes that may be present on the equipment.
I recommend using sodium metabisulfite for this purpose. It’s safe to use and effective. And unlike chlorine and many other sanitizers, it does not need to be rinsed. Just let your equipment and bottles drip dry.
Sodium metabisulfite comes in a granulated form that you mix with water to create a sanitizing solution. We offer it in 8 ounce jars. That’s enough to make 32 gallons of solution for just pennies a gallon. Just give a surface contact time of 20 minutes to all your equipment and you’ll be all set.
Visit our website to learn more about sodium metabisulfite and how it can be used in wine making. You can also visit the product detail page that will give you all the specifics about this product.
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.
