You mentioned once that you don’t recommend rehydrating wine yeast, but I couldn’t find a follow-up or reasons why. My supplier in the KC area says they always rehydrate as do most wine yeast packs. I’ve tried both ways and haven’t noticed a difference other than rehydrated yeast usually starts working quicker. I am confused….

Name: Lynn T.
State: KS
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Hello Lynn,

There is nothing wrong with rehydrating the dried wine yeast. Just as you have stated, the fermentation will start off more quickly by a few hours. Some winemakers will refer to this rehydration process as waking up the wine yeast. But if someone came up to me and asked, is rehydrating yeast necessary? My answer would be a definite, no.

The reason I don’t generally recommend rehydrating dried wine yeast in passing is because of the potential for accidentally killing the wine yeast during the rehydration process. We run into this issue quite often, particularly with beginning winemakers.

It is usually because the water was way too hot and not checked and controlled with a thermometer, or the dried wine yeast was left in the warm water way too long because they didn’t use a timer. Both temperature and time are critical to the rehydration process.

Some of the yeast cells will die off while in the warm water, even if the correct temperature is used. If the wine yeast is left in for longer than directed, then an excessive amount of yeast cells will die. If the water is a hotter than directed, then the wine yeast will start dying off faster than the directions intended. Either issue can cause a significant amount of yeast cells to die – potentially all of them. The result is a fermentation that doesn’t start at all.

The point here is go ahead and rehydrate the wine yeast – your fermentation will start off more quickly and more vigorously – but follow the directions, exactly. That means using a thermometer to get the water to the right temperature and using a watch or timer to make sure your yeast does not have an extended stay in the warm water.

If you don’t want to bother with rehydrating the dried yeast along with the thermometers and timers, don’t worry about it. Rehydrating yeast is not a necessity. Your fermentation will start just the same, but it might take a few more hours to do so.

The blog post How To Add Yeast To A Wine Must discusses 3 different methods you can use to add your wine yeast to the wine must. You may want to take a look at this to see which method suits you best.

Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
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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.

I am new to making white wine (past 3 seasons). I have made red for about 10 years. I use fresh California grape wine juices in Sept. I have not figured out how to keep my whites from clouding after bottling. I rack several times then cold stabilize and rack several more times and the wine is clear. Any suggestions on where I might be going wrong.

Name: Jerry
State: NY
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Hello Jerry,

There are only three ways that a white wine can turn cloudy once it has already been clear. I will go over them in some detail, but it will be up to you to determine which one or which ones are responsible.

1. Sediment From The Original Fermentation:
   You mentioned that you have racked the wine several times, and that the wine was clear at bottling time. This is all well and good, but it is important to understand that a wine can look perfectly clear and still have a lot of wine yeast cells still floating around in it. This is why that once you rack a wine off its sediment you may want to give it some additional time, like a day or two, to make sure that sediment is still not occurring before actually bottling the wine. This same hold’s true for red wines.
    
   Using a fining agent can help with dropping out stubborn sediment. A good one for white wines is Isinglass. And lastly, never bottle your wine directly off the sediment. Always bottle your wine from a sediment-free fermenter. That means racking the wine off the sediment before starting the bottling process.

2. A Re-Fermentation In The Wine Bottle:
   If the wine decides to ferment again while in the bottle, it is going to turn cloudy from the new yeast that is created. A re-fermentation can occur if the original fermentation did not complete. It can also occur if you added sugar at bottling time without adding potassium sorbate to stabilize the wine.
    
   A quick check with a wine hydrometer to confirm that the fermentation has completed before bottling should always be done. Doing so will eliminate this type of issue, and always use potassium sorbate when sweetening a wine before bottling. Fortunately, it is easy to determine if this is the reason your wine turned cloudy. You will also notice pressure building up in the wine bottle. This is the CO2 gas from the re-fermentation.

3. Precipitation From The Wine:
   Precipitation occurs when particles are created within the wine itself — out of thin air, so to speak. There are two major kinds of precipitants that can be created by a wine. The first is acid, primarily tartaric acid. The second is protein, primarily tannin. Tartaric precipitation is normally associated with white wines. Protein precipitation is normally associated with reds.
    
   Precipitation happens because more of the substance is in the wine than the wine can hold in a saturated form. Given time, either of these substances can form sediment in the bottle and cause your wine to turn cloudy. Acid precipitation will look like tiny crystals, similar to a fine salt. Protein precipitation will look like a fine dust or flour. In the case of your white wine, the color would be beige to brown. In a red wine it would be dark red to black.
    
   Precipitation is even more likely to occur if the wine is being stored too cold or too hot. Chilling the wine may induce the creation of acid crystals; heating the wine may induce the creation of tannin particulates.You mentioned that you cold stabilized the wine, but if you see crystals forming in the bottom of the wine bottle, it is very likely that you need to chill the longer.

Jerry, there are really no other reasons why a bottle of grape wine would turn cloudy. If you where adding water to the wine must then you would want to consider too much iron in the water as the problem. This could form a condition called ferric casse. But since you are making wine from wine grapes, I am assuming that you are not adding water.

I would suggest reviewing your steps and see if any of the above 3 could possibly apply to your situation. Another blog post that you may want to read that answers your question in a different way is, Sediment In My Wine Bottles. This may be something that you may want to take a look at as well.

Happy Winemaking!

I’d like to make an Aussie Syrah for my next batch and experiment with oak barrel aging the wine. It will be a kit batch and I was wondering if it would be appropriate to age in oak? If so, when should I place the wine in the barrel and for how long?

Name: Rick R.
State: CO
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Hello Rick,

It is perfectly appropriate to barrel age wine such as Syrah. But realize that the Syrah wine kit you will have has been bench-tested for optimal flavor by the kit producer, and will include oak powder and/or oak chips to simulate barrel aging of the wine, as they feel it is needed.

Having said this, experimentation is always fun…

When barrel aging wine, think of it as a step that is done right before bottling. In other words, the wine needs to be fermented and cleared before going into an oak barrel. Rushing the wine into the barrel can lead to the wine sitting on lees while aging. This would not be a good thing for a Syrah. Unwanted, off-flavor could develop from such a scenario.

You will want the oak barrel to be as full as possible. It may be necessary to top it up from time to time due to wine evaporating through the wood. Topping-up can be done by adding a similar wine to the barrel, or by adding a water vodka mixture to keep the alcohol level constant. If you made six gallons and are using a 5 gallon oak barrel, you can use the extra gallon to top up the barrel along the way.

There is no direct answer as to how long you should barrel age a wine. This is because it is dependent upon so many variables. Such as: how many previous uses the barrel has had; the size of the barrel; the type of oak used to produce the barrel; how much the barrel was toasted; the type of wine in the barrel…. The list goes on and on.

Suffice it to say, it is up to you to make a determination as to how long is best. When barrel aging wine it is best to taste a sample of the wine periodically. See what you think. Let the winemaker in you come out. It is said that winemaking is both a science and an art. Aging wine in oak barrels is some of the art part.

What you are looking to see is how the wine is developing. Are the harsh flavors (that you probably noticed initially) starting to smooth out and become more velvety? Is the woody character of the wine starting to develop? Is it becoming too strong? Do you notice any coconut or vanilla flavors coming from the toast? How do they fit the wine’s overall flavor profile? Can you barrel age the wine long or has the wine aged enough, already?

Once the wine comes to a point that is too your liking, then feel free to bottle.

As you can see there are no direct answers when it comes to barrel aging wine. Everything is subjective. There are only generalities and good judgment. If we are talking about using a new, 5 or 6 gallon oak barrel, my guess is that the time needed will be somewhere around 2 to 6 months, but this is just a broad guess. In reality, it could take less time, or it could take more. One thing that can be noted is that as you go up in barrel size the more time it will take to age the wine. This is because as you go up in barrel size, there is less wood surface contact to each gallon of wine. It’s a matter of physics.

I hope this helps you out a little bit and gives you some idea as to what you are to expect when barrel aging wine. Just remember, it’s your wine. Age it until it tastes good to you.

Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
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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.

I have been making wine for a number of years and I’ve always had trouble taking hydrometer readings. When using the tube the wine hydrometer came in, the foam on the top of the must or wort and the moisture on the sides causes the hydrometer to stick to the plastic. When that happens, it raises the level of the liquid on the sides of the tube making a hydrometer reading pretty inaccurate. The obvious solution would be to use a larger container but I hate to waste that much material. I’ve tried to make sure the tube is level but the hydrometer always migrates to the side. Any suggestions?

Name: Rick S.
State: Michigan
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Hello Rick,

From what you are describing, the plastic storage tube is what’s causing a lot of your problems with taking hydrometer readings. We always recommend to customers that they use something other than the storage tube to take readings. It’s really not what it’s designed to do. Some of them will even leak.

You will be much better off with an actual glass hydrometer jar that is designed specifically for taking hydrometer readings. The diameter of the tube is larger than storage container. The sides are smoother, and the line of sight is clearer. All these things add up to you being able to take hydrometer readings with much more accuracy and less problem.

The glass hydrometer jar can also be quickly sanitized along with the wine hydrometer before taking readings. You can do this by using a sanitizer such as Basic A. By sanitizing your equipment you don’t have to waste any of your wine. Just take the reading and pour the sample wine directly back in the batch. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing this.

As for the foaming, there is not much you can do about it. Some of the foam is caused by the natural surface tension of the wine. The agitation causes the bubbles just as if you were pouring a finished wine into a wine glass. Some of the bubbles come from CO2 gas that was made, or is being made, by the fermentation. You can wait a few minutes to see if some of the bubbles settle down enough for you to get a clean reading, but beyond that, I know of nothing practical you can do to rid yourself of all the bubbles.

Also, when you’re taking a hydrometer reading during fermentation, you can have problems with CO2 bubbles clinging to the side of the wine hydrometer. This is when bubbles form from the wine being disturbed and then attach themselves all the way up and down the wine hydrometer.

These bubbles can throw the hydrometer reading off by artificially raising it in the wine sample. One way to avoid this issue is to give the hydrometer a quick spin before taking a reading. This is to dislodge any bubble away from the hydrometer.

One other thing I would like to point out is that when you are actually taking the hydrometer reading, you would like you eye to be level with the surface of the wine in the hydrometer jar. This will allow you to obtain the most accurate reading. If you are taking your hydrometer reading from an upward angle, the surface tension of the wine will cause it to curve a little against the hydrometer, giving a bit of an optical illusion.

Rick, I hope this information about taking hydrometer readings helps you out. It’s just a few of the things I’ve learned along the way while taking my own readings.

Happy Wine Making,
Ed Kraus
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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.