Did Using Distilled Water In My Wine Ruin It?

Posted on September 25, 2019 by AIH

I just started my first batch of home made wine. I didn’t use my tap water because it’s salt water from water softener. I used distilled water in this wine, instead. After coming to your site I found out that it’s not good to use distilled water in wine making. Is there anything I can do to save my homemade wine? Or would I be better of starting over?

Name: Rory
State: Michigan
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Hello Rory,

Let me start off by saying that using distilled water in a wine does not mean the wine is ruined. We do not recommend using distilled water because it may cause problems with the fermentation.

Distilled water is water that has been ran through a still, or rather, steamed from one vessel to the next. This process drives out all the free oxygen and leaves the trace minerals behind. This is significant to a fermentation.

The one thing that wine yeast needs is oxygen, particularly in the first stages of the fermentation. Oxygen is what helps wine yeast to multiply into a larger colony. Without a larger colony, you will have a sluggish, drawn-out fermentation.

The little packet of wine yeast that is typically added to a fermentation needs to multiply itself between 100 to 150 times to sustain a vigorous fermentation. Most of the sediment you will see at the bottom of the fermenter are all these yeast cells that were created during the fermentation.

If you’ve used distilled water in your wine, we recommend adding yeast nutrient, if you haven’t done so already. Yeast nutrient is a singular form of nitrogen – diammonium phosphate. The recommended dosage for this is 1 teaspoon per gallon of wine. This yeast nutrient will work in place of free oxygen to help start the wine yeast to multiply successfully.

In rare and extreme cases, it may also be necessary for you to aerate the wine. This can be done by splashing the wine to allow air to saturate into the wine must, or you can siphon the wine must from one vessel to the next, holding the siphon hose back so the the wine splashes.

Minerals make up part of the nutritional meal that wine yeast need to ferment sugar into alcohol. Minerals are needed for yeast to metabolize these sugars freely. Without minerals, wine yeast have a difficult time consuming the sugar that is right in front of them. For this reason, if you use distilled water in your wine making we recommend adding a little magnesium sulfate to your wine — 1/2 teaspoon per 5 gallons is more than enough.

I would like to mention again that using distilled water in your wine making does not mean you have ruined your wine, but what it does mean is that you need to take some simple actions to mitigate the effects of the distilled water. By adding yeast nutrient and magnesium sulfate you can go on to have a great tasting wine.

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.

Controlling Oxidation When Making Wine

Posted on September 23, 2019 by AIH

Last fall I acquired some good wine grapes.. red and white not enough of either for 5 gals.. thought I could make a blush, so I added them together.. it turned a reddish color but cloudy. So I added bentonite three weeks later i have clear brown color, what happened?

Thanks Art
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Hello Art,

It sounds like your homemade wine has oxidized from excessive air exposure. Just like when an apple starts to turn brown after being bitten into, a wine can turn brown when it is exposed to too much air. This is called oxidation.

It was not necessarily caused by letting the wine be in touch with the open air, but in your case, probably had more to do with excessive splashing of the wine when you where using the bentonite. When you splash a wine air can saturate into it much more quickly than if the wine was just sitting still.

Unfortunately, there is no real effective way to reverse this browning effect of oxidation on a homemade wine. However, there are things you can do in the future to reduce its chances of happening again:

Keep Splashing To A Minimum: When stirring the wine, stir it in a way that blends the wine but does not splash it. When siphoning or racking the wine, have the end of the hose down into the wine in the fermenter you are filling up. Fill the vessel from the bottom up, so to speak.

Add Sulfites To The Wine After Racking: This should only be done to a wine that has completed its fermentation. You can use either Campden tablets or sodium metabisulfite to add sulfites to the wine. The sulfites will help to drive out any saturated oxygen that is in the wine before it has time to negatively affect the wine. You only need to add around 1/2 a standard dose. That would be either 2-1/2 Campden Tablets or one heaping 1/8 teaspoon to 5 gallons of wine.

Keep Out Of The Heat And Light: Both heat and light will increase a wines susceptibility to oxidation. By keeping the wine in a dark, cool place you are helping to protect the wine from the effects of oxidation.

Now that you are aware that a homemade wine can turn brown from oxidation, I think you can understand that controlling oxidation when making wine is important. Do the three simple thing above, and you will go a long ways oxidation to an unnoticeable level

Best Wishes,
Customer Service at E. C. 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.

Restarting A Stuck Mead Fermentation

Posted on September 20, 2019 by AIH

I just started my first batch of Mead. I followed your recipe to the tee. Now after 4 days my SG is 1.062. The Mead is fermenting slow or may have stopped fermenting completely. When will it drop to 1.030-1.040.?

Name: Tony A.
State: SD
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Hello Tony,

What you may be experiencing is a stuck mead fermentation. This is something that is not all uncommon when fermenting honey, so don’t feel like you’ve done anything wrong or that the mead is doomed to failure. A slow or stuck mead fermentation is a simple issue with a simple fix. I’m confident you will be successful in restarting the fermentation.

The reason this is happening is because there is an array of varying sugars in honey, each with its own molecular makeup. Some of the sugars have a very complex cell structures. Others are not so complex. These are called complex sugars and simple sugars.

When a mead fermentation starts off, the simplest of the sugars are consumed first. This is because these are the sugars that are easiest for the wine yeast to consume. The yeast grab on to the lowest hanging fruit, first, so to speak. But as the fermentation continues there slowly becomes a point when all that’s left are the more complex sugars.

These sugars have large cell structures that can not be readily consumed by the wine yeast in their current state. The wine yeast must first break down the complex sugars into a simpler form. This is done with enzymes. The wine yeast will naturally excrete enzymes through out the fermentation and even more so when simple sugars are less available. The enzymes break down the complex chains of molecules into something smaller, simpler and easier for the yeast to digest.

Tony, this is where your mead fermentation stands, currently. This is why you have a stuck mead fermentation. It has seemingly hit a brick wall because the wine yeast have ran out of simple sugars to consume. What’s happening now is that they are nibbling away the best they can at the more complex sugars as the yeasts’ enzymes slowly break them down. This equates to a slow fermentation or on that stops, too early.

If you do nothing, the mead fermentation will more than likely finish on its own… eventually. But this is something that could take months to run its course. Fortunately, there are some things you can do to help restart the stuck mead fermentation:

Review the Top 10 Reasons For Fermentation Failure. See if any of these reasons are contributing to your mead’s stuck fermentation. If they are, see what you can do to resolve it.

Add magnesium sulfate to the mead. Another struggle for the wine yeast is that a honey fermentation is low in pH. By adding a small amount of magnesium sulfate to the must (1/2 teaspoon to 5 gallons) you can put the wine yeast in the proper playing field for a healthier fermentation.

Add a 1/2 dose of yeast nutrient to the mead. This would be 3/4 tablespoon to 5 gallons.

By doing the above three procedures, restarting a slow or stuck mead fermentation should come about very easily.

Don’t Let Your Wine Fermentation Temperature Get Too Low!

Posted on September 18, 2019 by AIH

I am a newbie to wine making. I understand the primary fermentation temp should be 65-75? How about the secondary fermentation and subsequent processes? I am wanting to make my wine in my basement but it might be too cool.

Thanks.
Todd
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Hello Todd,

This is a great question. The answer to it is quite often what trips up many beginning home winemakers.

The effect that temperature has on a wine fermentation is enormous and greatly underestimated by many. This is particularly true for those new to wine making. As an example to the enormity of its effect, consider the 65°F. you mentioned above. This might allow a wine fermentation that is barely noticeable to occur, whereas the 75°F. you mentioned might end up producing a fermentation that results in a spewing volcano of foam. That’s how dynamic temperature can be to a wine fermentation.

The type of wine yeast you use, along with the wine you are fermenting and a whole host of other, more minor, variables also factor into how dramatic this comparison plays out, but without a doubt fermentation temperature is always vital enough to make your question an important one.

Whether or not your wine must is in a primary fermenter or secondary fermenter is not what matters to the temperature you maintain. What does matter are the readings you are getting with your wine hydrometer.

You will eventually want to keep your wine at a little cooler temperature than what you previously mentioned, but you also want the fermentation to be complete before moving the wine to these cooler temperatures. You determine if a fermentation is done by taking a hydrometer reading, not by whether or not it is in a primary or secondary fermenter.

Sometimes the fermentation finishes while it is still in the primary fermenter. Sometimes the fermentation carries on for a great deal of time while it is in the secondary fermenter. The reason for this inconsistency is because of all the variables mentioned before: yeast strain, type of wine, etc.

You can read more about checking the fermentation with a hydrometer in the article, Getting To Know Your Hydrometer, listed on our website. You may also want to check out, How To Know If Your Fermentation Is Done.

Even though you suggested wine fermentation temperatures between 65°F. and 75°F., we recommend between 70°F. and 75°F. Once you get below 70°F. some wine yeast strains have a tendency of dragging out the fermentation.

Once the fermentation has completed, and this has been verified with a wine hydrometer, you can maintain a lower temperature. An optimal temperature for storage would be 55°F., but it is not extremely critical. Just do the best you can to keep it out of warm temperatures once the fermentation has completed. What’s more important is that the temperature be even and not be all over the place while the wine is in storage.

Thank you for your great question on wine fermentation temperature. Just remember that you should have some type of control of the temperature. You do not want the fermentation to be too low or too high, but just right. I hope this information helps you out.

Best Wishes,
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.

Can I Use Welch’s Grape Juice To Make Wine?

Posted on September 16, 2019 by AIH

Hello Kraus,

I would like to know if wine can be made from Welch’s grape juice that you buy at your local grocery store if you use yeast and go through the process of wine making? Will the Welch’s grape juice ferment into wine?

Curtis
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Hello Curtis,

As a beginning winemaker, using Welch’s grape juice is a great way to learn how to make your own wine. The resulting wine may not necessarily be prize-winning, but it will be well worth the effort.

The really neat part about it is you can make a few gallons of grape wine without having to worry about crushing the grapes and dealing with using a grape presses. You will still need, however, regular wine making materials such as wine yeast, yeast nutrient, wine tannin, etc.

You can use other brands besides Welch’s. The main thing to remember is that the grape juice can not have any preservatives that would interfere with a fermentation. Examples of these would be: sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate. All of Welch’s products are fine for fermentation.

Here’s a basic Welch’s grape wine recipe. It is for making one gallon. If you want to make 5 gallons, just times everything by 5, expect for the yeast. Each packet of yeast is good for 1 to 5 gallons of wine:

Welch’s Grape Juice Wine Recipe (1 Gallon)
2- 64 oz. Welch’s Grape Juice
1/2- lb. Cane Sugar
1- Package of Yeast (Red Star Montrachet)
1- Teaspoon Yeast Nutrient
3/4 – Teaspoon Acid Blend
1/8 – Teaspoon Grape Tannin

If you prefer, you can use Welch’s Frozen Concentrate, you can do that as well. Just reconstitute the Welch’s concentrate with water as the directions from Welch’s indicate, and start from there.

You can follow the 7 Easy Steps To Making Wine that are listed on our website. We also have other wine recipes you can use with these Easy Steps on our Wine Recipe Page.

This should be all the info you need to make some Welch’s grape wine. If you have any other questions just let us know.

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.

4 Tips For Losing Less Wine When Siphoning

Posted on September 13, 2019 by AIH

I generally wait until the stuff has settled out of the wine, and then I very slowly siphon my wine. I have set my wine outside when it is below 0 degrees and that clarifies it. I know there is a chemical I can use but I don’t like doing that. My biggest problem is the waste that occurs when I siphon. Is there a filtering method to save this wine? Thanks!

Name: Roger M.
State: WI
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Hello Roger,

Thanks for asking such a question about racking your homemade wine. Losing too much wine when racking is something that is concerning to many home winemakers.

Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to decrease the amount of wine you lose when racking (siphoning) your wine. These are simple little techniques that will allow you lose less wine. I’ll go over them one-by-one:

Use An Actual Wine Yeast
By using a wine yeast verses baker’s yeast, you will be able to get more wine with less sediment. Wine yeast is bred to pack more firmly to the bottom of the fermenter. This creates a sharper line between the wine and the sediment. This makes it easier for you to get all the wine.

Tilt The Fermenter
By tilting the fermenter towards the end of the siphoning you can cause the wine to roll off the yeast, into the corner, giving you a deeper area to siphon from. This is very helpful. Again, an actual wine yeast will help in this regard. If the yeast doesn’t pack firmly, this method is not nearly as effective.

Save The Murky Stuff
If you are in a situation where there is a lot of cloudy wine towards the bottom, save it in a separate container, like gallon jugs. Give it more time to clear up on its own. Then siphon off the sediment.

Rack (Siphon) The Wine More Than Once
Rack the wine right after the fermentation has completed. Wait a few weeks and then rack the wine again, right before bottling. And here’s the secret part. When you do the first racking, get as much of the wine as you can, even it if comes with some sediment. But when you get to the final racking, before bottling, do whatever it takes to leave all the sediment behind. What you will find by doing this is that you will have very little sediment at the last wine racking, maybe a dusting, causing you to loose hardly any wine at all.

Additional Thoughts:
You mentioned that you did not want to add chemicals to your wine, but I would ask you to consider adding bentonite to your wine to help clear it out faster and pack more firmly on the bottom. Bentonite is a natural clay that attracts particles such as the wine yeast and fruit fiber, and drags it to the bottom. We sell it in a food-grade form. It does not permanently mix with the wine and does not affect the wine in any way other than to clear it. The bentonite settles out and is left behind, just like the particles. This will help you quite a bit.

I hope these tips on racking your wine helps you out. Another blog post that you might want to take a peek at is How Do I Get The Wine From The Sediment? This blog post may give you some clearer ideas on racking your wine.

My Wine Fermentation Is Not Bubbling

Posted on September 11, 2019 by AIH

I made a batch of wine using concentrated grape juice. The fermentation is not bubbling, so I do not think it’s fermenting. I think it’s too cool in my basement. Can I add more wine yeast, or what can I do to save my wine?

Name: Glenn , beginner
State: WV
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Hello Glenn,

Thank you for your question, and sorry you are having such a problem with this batch of wine. I think that your assumption is probably correct. By far, the #1 reason for a wine fermentation to not start bubbling is because of temperature. Wine yeast is very sensitive to temperature… some strains more than others.

My recommendation is to keep your fermentation between 70° F. and 75° F. Getting out of this temperature range can cause your fermentation to not bubble. You can use a thermometer to keep tabs on the fermentation temperature. I prefer to use a liquid crystal thermometer. This is a plastic strip that you stick on the outside of the fermenter. The correct temperature will always illuminate. It’s very easy to use and very accurate.

The good new is that if the temperature is the reason your fermentation is not bubbling, then your batch of wine is in little danger of being ruined, and the solution is very simple — warm the wine up! You can do this by:

Moving the wine to a warmer location
Warming up the room the fermentation is in
Applying heat to the wine fermenter, itself.

Many beginning wine makers will instinctively run to the closet to get an electric blanket to throw around the fermenter. This is not a good idea. Every electric blanket I’ve seen, even on its lowest setting, is way, way to warm for this application. Unless your wine must is about to freeze solid, what you need is something much more subtle.

Fortunately, there are several products on the market for this specific purpose. We carry the one we think works best. It’s call the Brew Belt. Just as the name sounds, it’s a belt that goes around the fermenter and applies a gentle heat.

If temperature is the reason your fermentation is not bubbling, once you get the fermentation to the correct temperature range, you will see the fermentation start to bubble on its own. There is no need to add more wine yeast. The yeast that is already in the wine is just fine. It has just become inactive because of the cooler temperature.

The last thing I’d like to mention is that we are under the assumption that temperature is the reason why your fermentation is not bubbling, and I’d say that assumption is probably correct, but for the sake of completeness, I would suggest that you also take a look at the Top 10 Reasons For Fermentation Failure that are listed on our website. These 10 reasons cover well over 95% of the issues we run across when helping others — temperature being #1 on the list. See if any of the other 9 ring true to your situation.

I hope this helps you out.

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.

Using Pasteurized Juice For Making Wine

Posted on September 9, 2019 by AIH

I have decided to get in to the mysterious world of wine making. I have gotten my hands on carboys, yeast, corks, airlocks, etc. My only problem is that I can’t find any preservative free, unpasteurized apple juice, or any juice, to use in my first batch. Is using pasteurized juice for making wine OK? I’ve been told that the pasteurization process takes away from the final flavor. How much of an impact does it actually make? Thanks for the help!

Name: Steve G.
State: North Carolina
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Hello Steve,

I’m glad you’ve decided to make some wine. Using a pasteurized juice for making your wine, is a pretty good place to start for a beginning winemaker. The process is fairly straightforward and representative of the winemaking process in general.

You are correct in your assumption that you need to read the label and see what’s in the juice before actually buying it and using it to make wine. You need to look for preservatives that could sabotage your fermentation.

For example, you want to make sure that the juice does not have sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate. These specific preservatives will interfere with wine yeast ability to multiply and start a fermentation. However, things like potassium metabisulfite or ascorbic acid are just fine and will not give you any troubles whatsoever.

About the pasteurization, it is perfectly fine to make wine from a juice that has been pasteurized. It does not effect the flavor in any way and is a good thing for the juice to go through. While this process does have a big fancy name — named after Prof. Louis Pasteur, the creator of process — it is really a very innocent and simple process. Pasteurization is simply performing a flash heating and cooling of the juice.

These days, the juice is heated and cooled so fast that it does not even have a chance to oxidize the juice. But it is being heated long and hot enough to kill any microbes that would have eventually caused the juice to spoil. This process has no chemistry to it and is nothing more than what I have described. So as far as affecting flavor, it does not.

The bottom line is that using pasteurized juice for making wine is perfectly fine. What you want to be on the look-out for is things like sodium benzoate or potassium sorbate.

Is Grape Juice Quality the Key to Making Great Wine?

Posted on September 6, 2019 by AIH

The art and science of winemaking has been around for millennia, though certainly the techniques and procedures have evolved throughout the course of winemaking history. It takes a lot of time, practice, and patience to become an expert winemaker, and even then, a bad batch can come along despite all your best intentions and efforts. With all that being said, one thing has always remained true over time:

“It doesn’t matter how skilled you are at making wine, if you don’t have quality grape juice, you are not going to make quality wine.”

How do you get quality grape juice for winemaking? Well, there are several different sources, all of which can result in quality wine if you are careful and follow the instructions.

The first source for grape juice for winemaking is to simply buy a grape juice concentrate. There is an extremely wide selection of grapes varieties to choose from when shopping for a grape juice concentrate. Some of the concentrate on the market are produced by using low-quality grapes. These are fine for drinking sweet, but not so much for making wine, so it is important to do some research into the overall quality of the grapes used to create the grape juice concentrate. There are a lot of products out there utilizing known vineyards and quality grapes, so do your research!

The next source for grape juice for winemaking is freshly pressed juice. This may be a more expensive option, as you will need to work directly with a vineyard, which may or may not be charging higher prices than the easy-to-get grape juice concentrate. Keep in mind that when purchasing freshly pressed grape juice for winemaking, you will only be able to attain the juice at a particular time during the year, and you will be bound to the grape variety that is being grown by that particular vineyard. Grape juice concentrates stay perfectly fresh in the packaging for years.

Another source of grape juice for winemaking is to grow the grapes and press them yourself! This, of course, is the most labor intensive and most expensive method, however, it can be very rewarding, particularly if you have a “green thumb” and would like to be a part of the entire winemaking process from vine-to-wine, as they say. Similar to getting fresh grape juice from a vineyard, you will only be able to get the juice at a certain time of the year (harvest) and only the same variety year after year.

There are many sources for attaining winemaking juice: grape juice concentrate, local vineyard, or you own backyard. Any of these sources are fine. Just be certain you are getting quality juice from quality sources, otherwise you can end up with bad wine before you’ve even begun making it!

Another blog post that discusses the virtues of grape juice concentrate and fresh grapes is, Concentrate vs. Grapes.
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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.

Can You Increase The Alcohol In A Wine Kit?

Posted on September 4, 2019 by AIH

Most red wine kits give a finished wine with 12.0% to 12.5% alcohol. Is it harmful to add additional sugar to the wine kits (with Sp. Gr. control) to increase the alcohol to about 13.5%?
Thanks,

Name: H. Dalesponaugle MD
State: VA
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Hello Dr. Dalesponaugle,

By all means, you can increase the alcohol in a wine kit. It will not harm the wine in anyway.

All you need to do is add sugar to the wine during the fermentation. Make sure it gets dissolved completely and does not end up hanging at the bottom of the fermenter. For each pound of sugar you add to a 6 gallon wine kit, you are increasing the potential alcohol by about 8 tenths of a percent (0.8%).

But before you get all excited and run to the store to buy a few sacks of sugar, there are a couple of things you should know:

There are limits to how much alcohol a wine yeast can ferment. Which means there are limits to how much you can increase the alcohol in a wine kit. As the alcohol level of a wine increases, the more the ability of the yeast to ferment is diminished. The ability of the yeast to ferment at higher alcohol levels is is known as the wine yeasts’ alcohol tolerance. Different wine yeast have different tolerances, so it is important that you do not shoot for an alcohol level that is higher than the wine yeasts’ tolerance. There are yeast profile charts are our website that will list the alcohol tolerance.

With this in mind, you should have a specific target alcohol level for your wine kit in mind. Definitely use your wine hydrometer to help you do this. Hopefully, the hydrometer has a potential alcohol scale on it. This hydrometer scale will make it easy. You should also be using a wine yeast that can reach that target alcohol level without stalling out. If the wine yeast stalls out you could end up with a finished wine that is too sweet to drink.

Increasing the alcohol in a wine kit will take its flavor out of balance. These winemaking kits are flavor balanced. They are tested and re-tested before ever going to market. One major component of any wine’s flavor balance is its alcohol. If you increase the alcohol in the wine kit by too much, the wine will taste hot and watery. The extra burn from the alcohol will reduce the tongue’s ability to taste, giving the wine this watery impression. It will also have less body. There’s another blog post that goes into the subject more thoroughly, Keeping Fruit Wines In Fruity Balance, but for now just understand that more alcohol means less flavor.

Something you could do to experience this for yourself is to take a bottle of wine that you currently have to drink and slowly add measured amounts of grain alcohol to it as you drink it. This should illustrate more clearly what I’m talking about.

So, it is very possible to increase the alcohol in a wine kit. It’s simply a matter of adding sugar to the kit. The bigger question is do you really want to? These win kits are carefully balance. Increasing the alcohol will take it out of balance.