0:55 Too many rackings. 3:15 Head space mismanagement. Too little during fermentation or too much during aging. 6:14 Too little oxygen during fermentation. Temperature. 8:00 Making wine that has too much alcohol. 8:55 Over-correcting acidity. 10:37 Way too little acidity, susceptible to spoilage. 13:06 In-bottle fermentation, popping corks. 15:05 Misdiagnosing problems, especially blaming uncleanliness. 17:43 Uncalled-for treatments and techniques, e.g. oak. 18:42 Using the wrong grapes for the intended wine.
Yeah great tips. Oxygen and acid control are probably my main issues. Most of our wine end up tasting strongly alcoholic and acidy. Going by descriptions our red wine should be fairly close to the wines the ancient Romans and Greeks drank lol. Just add water and honey and voila.
you can buy beermaking fermzillas and "rack", take it from yeasts and sedimants, as much as you want to under smallest pressure you desire 🤔 in pure co2
How many days may take for a wild fermentation to start as i have a batch of grape juice that is still haven’t fermeneted and it was pressed 30 days ago.
Thanks for the tips Rick. Newer to wine making so this was helpful. Also I have a blackberry I’ve intentionally left on the lees but needing to rack it soon. Happy wine making
Jesus made new wine (unfermented) out of purified water. The purification jars made of lime stone, played an important role in preserving the new wine against acidity and bacterial contamination that would make it ferment. Remember, Jesus would not drink again until He drink it NEW in the kingdom of God! Blessings🕊️
This channel is easily the best source of well informed wine making information I've come across. This years batch will be my first after discovering your webpage and youtube channel and I'm expecting leaps of improvement.
I find it interesting that when you discussed backsweetening with fermentable sugars, you mentioned a number of chemical additives to neutralize the yeast. What you failed to mention is *Pasteurization*. Why? Properly done, the wine can then be be backsweetened with pretty much anything without any fear of refermenting. As a benefit, more particulates drop out of suspension & the wine takes on a more 'aged' character.
Because we don't want to cook the wine. "Cooked" or maderized wine is considered a wine fault/flaw that most consumers and judges would pick out pretty easily. If you are making fruit wine (apples, strawberries, etc), then by all means you can pasteurize, since there really isn't a quality standard to chase. With premium grapes, you don't want the chemical changes that occur when heated. Kosher wine is heated, but that is the exception and... It's not really considered premium because of it.
I agree with unicomjennie , that's how I make my wine. I use wild mustang grapes sugar, and water from my well. That's it. People over complicate wine making. I mash up those grapes, stems, leaves, bugs and all and let them start fermenting after 2 weeks give or take a few days depending what the fermentation looks like. Then I strain off the juice and add the sugar and water in a 5 gal carboy. When the fermentation slows and it settles some I'll rack it. The next time I rack it'll be into bottles. Done! I've made grape, black berry, pear, plum, watermellon, and mead. Been doing this since 1985.
Can you please tell me if you know of any hands on wine making workshop somewhere? I wish to attend one to see and learn in person. By any chance do you teach wine making? Your YT content is one of the best without a doubt😊
Thanks Rick...Crushed and destemmed on Friday and this video is very timely. Following your methods on 720 lbs. of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Lodi. The Ph is 3.53 and the BRIX is 26.
Me too Rich! Crushed and destemmed my Cabernet from Carmel valley today! I'm at about 50 gallons of must but we didn't weigh it. My pH meter broke so I'm hoping the replacement gets here soon. I was way high on the sugar. Pushing 28 brix. Gonna try to finish tomorrow before it gets too hot. Good luck Rich!
@@richca2004 haha yeah my grapes came in whatever buckets I could find to put them in and carry to the garage. After lugging them up the hill I was too tired to care what they weighed!
Great tips, you are my reference for all home making wine tips and tricks. Made a few mistakes myself but only one that I was not able recover/salvage where I added way to much potassium Metabisulphite. I would like if you could make a video dedicated to "country wine". I do not have access to grapes, but I have access to heaps of fruits like black berries, pears, and plumbs that I frequently use for making my wines.
I haven't started yet but I've watched hours of video and planning a visit to my nearest wine making supplier soon. But I was wondering how "top off" a carboy later during fermentation so that the carboy goes from all that volume of space to an inch between the wine and the bung with airlock? Do you add distilled water, or are you adding more wine from another carboy? Thanks in advance and thank you for the great video. Very informative.
A couple sold me a complete winemaking kit for $16 but I tossed them a $20 and told them to keep the change. I've made beer, cider and mead but not wine
On point #2... a demijohn works really well for this. Instead of the drastic decline in neck area of a carboy, the demijohn tapers much more gradually and I feel that it gives you a better chance at decreasing the surface area without having to get right up to the top.
Thank you some great advice here. Right yeast for the fruit makes all the difference. Ive made white wine from tinned fruit and has come out like a good shop bought wine.
ive made delicious wine from elderflowers mixed with mango and pineapple juice. Its true about yeast, i kill the existing yeast and add the best, most interesting stuff i can find and it tends to work. I live in a hot part of new zealand so the grapes in my garden are pretty ripe which helps
I love your channel. You've been exceedingly helpful. We harvested Petite Pearl here in MI a couple of weeks ago, and the ph was @ 3.1 (which isn't entirely optimal). However... as you mention here... after primary fermentation... it climbed to 3.42 which is really great. I think people need to understand the impact on ph that fermentation has and adjust when you pick based on that. Too many people worry about getting the brix where they think they need to be. It has served us well to pick based on optimal ph (as long as you can there) and then add sugar to make up the shortcomings in your brix to insure that you have a wine that falls somewhere in the 12-15% range. I think you've mentioned this before, but a good rule of thumb is to pick an alcohol content that you want and calculate for the optimal brix for your sugar addition. Just calculate by 0.59. Meaning... 23 brix in a red wine will yield a wine with roughly (23X0.59)=~13.6% alcohol. So add sugar until you get to an optimal brix level. However... if your brix were at 15... I personally think that you're better have a lower alcohol wine, than having a wine with higher alcohol and very noticeable back sweetening. Adding enough sugar to raise a 15 to a 23 wouldn't be the greatest.
Hi! Your videos are so helpful! I’m going to start my first red with home grown grapes I froze. Not sure what kind they are but the vine is really old and huge. Where do I purchase renaissance muse yeast? Sounds like the safest way to go for a first timer. TIA
kind of i live in a village in BEST antique winery region at last 2.5 thousands years at least, for only 10 years. and i know, that you can have peaches at its BEST only few weeks a year, when to harvest apples, GRAPES, plums, tomatoes etc exactly, +-1, 2 week and you CANT EVER IN ANY COINCIDENTS to buy same in grocery store nearby. ingredients making product, not smartassnesses 😂 INGREDIENTS
and main advice for all brewers and winemakers - at first do youre beverages 100% from one type of grain, grape, yeast, hops etc. so forst youll understand how it actually taste 100%, and only after you can think that youre so awesome that you can mix some of those, and some of those, change temperature etc and got youre PERFECT BUKE 😂 and one more advice - ingredient is everything 😂 you cant make it beter than it is, if its really good 😂
When I made wine from grapes I made several rookie mistakes: I didn't control the temperature and most of the time it was at around 92 to 96 F. I fermented on the skins for too long and the wine got a mold smell. After fermentation I pressed the grapes too much and the wine tastes very bitter. I had to blend it with cheap tart wine to mask the bitterness. I have aged the wine for more than 4 years and it still does not taste good.
and only problem with cleaning i had for years is that you dont know what colony of yeasts will conquer fermzilla 😂 those that you add on purpose or those who covers somwhere in the fermzilla and activated faster 😅 thats the actual problem, so beter to use same yeasts in one fermzilla. one you love the most 🥰😆 and you can sterilize it as much as you want to. there will be some colonyes of yeasts somwhere and they can activate while youre beer is coolong, faster.. i suppose they re conservate themselve as stones at youre inner side of teeths, its full of bacterias. so there is same structures in fermzillas and they live there. i, persinally, had no problems with bacterias or fungus at all, never. but most of the time yeasts are boiling there in the morning BEFORE youve added them 😂
I bought a house from a former wine maker. There are three large vines on the property. I've never been a wine guy but just started by first batch ever. I'm fairly sure it's going to be vinegar. Hopefully watching your videos will help.
Good evening sir my name Dan Obi 🇳🇬 made the mistake on the process producing my whisky the problem that I have right now it doesn't last longer I need to know what to use and preserve it so that it can leat longer
Hi Rick! Great info on your channel. I’m new to wine making. I have regent grapes and decided to take the plunge this year and make wine. I ended up with about 45 lbs of grapes (still working on my netting technique). The brix stalled out at 17 so i destemmed and placed all liquid and grapes in a 6 gallon fermenter. The specific gravity at that time was 1.08 and looking at a table I added 27 oz of sugar for 3 gallons which I estimated should get my potential alcohol to about 14%. I pitched my yeast (Bourgogne RC212) and left in a room where the heat was about 78 degrees. I stirred the must 3x a day and it was bubbling quite vigorously. I also added bisodium bisulphite in solution 3tsp. 8 days later I’m ready to put it through my wine press, checked my gravity and it reads 1.0 ?? Anything I can at this stage in the game to fix? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you!
Just bottled last years wine. Going to harvest this years in about two weeks. This year I’m going to bleed off a couple gallons or so of early juice to make a blush. I will allow the rest to stay on the skins longer than last year. Exciting stuff.
How much ketchup should i add to get my acid level up? i think im going to get botch from this batch, but my brother said he will try it first if i let him drink some, so i will just wait to see if he gets sick and then adjust from there next time. He has a higher immune system than myself and my little cousin does he's still in his 20s and I'm in my mid 30s so its not a big deal, but i was wondering if you could give me some advise and we can try avoiding that all together. I am on a budget i already have my strawberries. The food bank gets them free and they were on a pallet for them to pickup in the parking lot and the owner gave me 4 flats of them for picking up his cig butts and trash in the parking lot, so that saved me alot of money. I didnt know how to get my acid higher to stop botch but i was told by uncle who used to make it in his closet that ketchup would be the best bet. Thanks man i always love wayching your vids
Lol definitely don't add ketchup to your wine. For a strawberry wine, you may not need any additional acid, depending on how little water you use and how much strawberries. If you have a pH meter I would use acid blend to target a pH of about 3.4. Otherwise id probably use as many strawberries as possible and as little water, like 1:1, and add acid blend to taste at the end. Use pectic enzyme to help break down the strawberries before fermentation.
noone talking about TEMPERATURES OF FERMENTATION at winemaking channels. in brewing its a HUGE theme, you can have a ale with banana or buble gum flavor only by changing temperature +-5 celsius.
I've tried making a wine w organic mango juice which had pulp. The pulp is not settling well. Do you think the yeast will still settle so I can remove it with racking?
Hello! I appreciate your videos, they've been super helpful for my first year of home winemaking! I have my '23 Zinfandel still bulk aging in carboys, and I just noticed some mold growth in my airlock water.. I took them out to clean, sanitize, and replace - I took a small sample of the wine and it looks (and tastes) good. Should I be concerned with the wine? How often should I replace the water in my carboys moving forward?
Why hasn't someone just made a simple video on making wine with just fruit, sugar and water. No yeasts tannins or chemicals. That's how wine was made along time ago.
People don’t make wine like that anymore for the simple reason it’s very unpredictable what the end product will be. Many ancient wines where nasty. Using pure strains isolated from grapes gives a consistent product
@@Adol666 my great grandma did but my mom who learned died before I could. My two aunt's and uncle always loved making it but a family rift caused a breach and I have never been able to find them. I know it's possble
Hi Rick Please help if possible!!! My white wine was ready to bottle yesterday and it was amazing green and clear. I then transferred the wine liquid from the carboy it was fermenting to another Carboy with the tap so I could bottle it today. It turned out the wire is now with dark colour close to pink😢. Is there anything I can do to save it please? Thanks
6.45?!?! I would check your pH meter against some pH buffer to verify the reading is accurate. At 6.45 there is no amount of SO2 (Camden tabs) that can protect the wine. The range a wine should fall into is 3 orders of magnitude more acidic (pH 3.2-3.8). The pH scale is logarithmic so 5.45 is 10x more acidic than 6.45, and 3.45 is 1000x more acidic. 1000x meaning the strength of the acid. 6.45 is nearly neutral, where 3.45 (normal wine range) is very acidic and requires only a bit of SO2 to combat microbes. Your wine is probably not salvageable at this point or at least will not be able to be what we are used to calling wine. The film is probably safe, but at that pH, all bets are off.
I just made my first batch of a Vintners wine using their concentrate. When I racked it after fermentation it tasted excellent. It had a good mouth feel and very good taste for a extremely young wine. Here is my question. Since this was my first time I came up short in the secondary. I should have made the batch a little bigger. The wine came up to about the shoulder of the carboy. I considered several things to remedy it and decided to buy a bottle of the same wine and add to it. It was really crappy wine but all I could get. Luckily it was only 3.5% of the total (one 750ml bottle) volume of the carboy. I really hated doing that because the wine had come out just like I wanted. I couldn't think of what else to do other than buying another gal of concentrate and mixing enough to fill it. I didn't want to spend another $45+ for probably 6 1/2 ounces of 4:1 concentrate. What do these people who rack 10 times do? You lose a little every time you rack it. What do you do to get rid of the air space? I don't really want to do marbles but if that is the best solution.
I am new(ish) to wine making too with same question. Disappointing that someone that “knows” hasn’t answered but I have several sizes of glass jugs and carboys (half gallon, gallon, 3 gallon, 5 gal, 6 gal) so I’ll rack from the 5 gal to the 3 plus a 1 gal and maybe a half gal all fitted with airlocks of course. The half and 1 gallons are used to keep the carboys full at the next racking. If I have a partial half gallon I drink it though I’d bet you could freeze it until needed as make up volume in next racking. I am very sure you could put a little sugar solution (just enough to provoke some additional fermentation) in the part full carboy and the brief fermentation it causes will drive the oxygen out the airlock but I haven’t actually done it.
I got one! A mistake that is. And a most unexpected one. Buying equipment, specifically airlocks and bungs. I purchased some silicon airlock bungs and after a couple of months I realized the bungs were melting my plastic airlocks! Only rubber or cork from now on.
Do you test for the ph value of your water first? And conductivity? DTS? I'm just starting out and I used a RO water that I boiled I should be OK But in the industry I worked in PH levels were very important
2 That's why I went with 5 gallon buckets with a twist on lid. When I make my agave wine (for tequila) I have it ferment with the lid slightly open. Since I'm distilling it. No big deal. I am still big on sanitation.
Hi rick. I'm going to buy this vessel "Conical trunk for wine 60° 200 L with air floating lid" ,do you think is ok for taking off the lees from the bottom of the cone? Thank you in advance.
My vines were maybe 2yo last year and some produced less or small but i had a stockpot of prepped grapes for making jam and i didnt get it processed in time so i left it in the pot with the loose pot lid sitting on it under the table in the summer patio temps and weeks later it smelled amazing like a winery and i tossed it in the compost cuz i didnt know how to move it forward but it probably could have been racked and aged and consumed i guess but this year i have several gallons of grapes ripening including chardonay, cabernet sauvngon, red suffolk and some fruits n seedless i will combine with some of the seeded grapes. I plan to add nothing but grapes and looks like i need get grapes going then add fruits in the blends and i will monitor stuff but mostly rely on the uncompromised natural bioculture thats coming in with the naturally grown grapes ......work just ahead i have 4 bubblers and 4 carboys and a few goodies that came with them, getting family to smile or spit next year awaits!
Hi I've been brewing wine for twelve months,but I have made a mistake today when I was racking it off to the final barrel I disturb the sediment now it's all gone cloudy how can rectify my mistake. Thank you Mike
I do raspberry wine every year for Christmas... I had an airlock get clogged when it expanded. Blew the cap.... my ceiling looked like a suicide took place
Question on racking in general. Instead of using a syphoning from one bottle to another. Does using a spigot about 2 in from bottom of container not work as well too? Maybe put a small mesh screen in front of that spigot when moving to next container.
If you are talking about fermenting in a carboy, you should be fermenting in a fermenting bucket with a cloth covering to keep out flies, etc. (been making wine since 1972). .
I have a question on how to make Amarone style wine. We have Barbera grapes that started to dry and turned into raisins. We started with brix of 36 and it seems it's stuck at 19. And recommendations?
Is it a must to keep the fermenting container in a pitch-dark place? If one tries to make a fruit wine, (say the total wine-making process takes 21 days), is it ok to remove the crushed fruits once the wine is fully made or should it be removed after the first few days in the primary fermentation?
A mistake I've made is buying 5 gallon casks that are charred. Apparently the market for aging cheap whiskey in casks is bigger than home winemakers aging in oak, thus most of the 5 gallon and smaller casks are charred. Typically you only want a toasted or no char at all for wines. When buying your casks, make sure to tell them to only toast the inside and if they can't do that then no char treatment at all.
My newbie mistake was not realising refractometers read differently when alcohol is present my Rhubarb and strawberry wine wasn't dropping from 10 brix for weeks so i added another dose of yeast and sugar and fermented it warmer and my god when i tried it i thought i'd brewed rocket fuel that tastes of yeast it's almost like a liquor basically undrinkable a lesson well learned should have pulled out a sample and used the hydrometer
i started with about 2.5 gallons of grape juice from concord grapes i juiced in a juicer, than added 2.5 gallons of welches 100 g juice, i added 10 lbs of sugar and some instant bread maker yeast tbsp about, its been fermenting since 9/22 ... i had it airlocked in a 6 liter bucket from a wine making kit just started stiring it once a day the last 3 days to give it some oxygen, what do i do next ? im thinking maybe a few more days fermenting then hydrometer reading of 1.0 then rack in into carbox ?
Really enjoy your videos. I have learned a lot. Need some help with this please : G'morning all. First time posting about my winemaking. (started making wine from kits less than a year ago) Started this Strawberry Zinfandel Jan 14 ( kept at 75 degrees with heating belt) ; racked Jan 27. De-gassed really well ; added all solutions as per instructions. It still has fair bit of bubbles / foam on top. Should I be concerned? Or just wait longer? ( starting sg: 1.066; at rack sg : 0.993) TIA
Really good info. I’ve been making soom very good tasting strawberry wine without yeast and I am looking for more information on yeast free winemaking with other fruit if anyone has any tips.
Ive had the issue of the wine turning into pure alcohol in a short period of time. Ive also switched to the twin bubble air lock. Not sure if thats the issue
Hi, HWC. This is my first time of trying to make wine at home. Can you give me an insight in regards to adding wine yeast at a later of time. Which is, after the naturally yeast that has occurent from dried grapes (resin) that I starting with in the begining. What effects will it be, if I adding wine yeast in it at this stage? Thank you
I have a question for you. a couple of months ago i made a 10gal batch of watermelon wine and I didnt have a hydrometer i was going on a buddys advice when it was ready, i added my campden tabs and potassium sorbate and after all that I got a hydrometer and its still at a 1.035, whats the best way to start fermentation again?
when using a conical bottom vessel for fermentation separating the leavings is significantly simplified also reduces the introduction of oxygen to the liquid filtering causes oxidation the use of the conical fermeter will make your life much more easy
Thank you for the great tips. Can I age the wine in a Glass carboy with a stainless spigot . I am afraid that stainless steel may react with the wine .
Thanks for the video. Ive been making wine for about 7 years and your videos consistently discuss the process in simple and clear terms that are easy to follow.
I rack a lot. The way to keep mold from forming is to airate(you are not going to oxidate wine ever) the wine so it releases enough gas to keep mold from growing. Mind you I make simple organic rhubarb wine using wild caught yeast,water and sugar. I like the look of racked wine and save the tailings into a jug in the fridge that I add a bit of sugar to after racking/shaking and cap it then back in the fridge it goes. Simple and no sterilization is necessary.
