That was an outstanding summation of the many elements involved. Most enjoyable viewing. There are many things about your videos that I enjoy. But the top three are: you are respectful, you are professional and finally - I love the way you throw in those off the cuff comments - such as “ thin wimpy wine that sucks”. Nothing more needs to be said after that. We know exactly what you mean. Keep it up. Craig ( New Zealand)
Starting with Grapes: To make high-quality red wine, it's essential to use whole grapes and ferment them on their skins and seeds for a complex flavor. Starting with high-quality grapes grown in optimal conditions, like higher elevations, is crucial. Cold Soaking: A technique called cold soaking, which involves chilling the crushed and de-stemmed grapes before fermentation, helps extract fruity flavors and allows for better measurement and adjustment of the grape's acidity and sugar content. Fermentation Control: Choosing the right yeast strain and controlling the fermentation temperature significantly affect the wine's characteristics. Cooler fermentations produce fruitier wines, while warmer ones yield more complex, full-bodied wines. Punching Down and Pressing: Regularly punching down the grape skins during fermentation ensures better extraction of flavors. Separating the free-run juice from the harder-pressed juice during pressing allows for blending to achieve the desired wine structure and flavor. Malolactic Fermentation and Sulfur Management: Conducting malolactic fermentation, which converts malic acid to lactic acid, smoothens the wine. Proper sulfur dioxide management is critical to protect the wine from spoilage while maintaining its stability and preventing off-flavors.
Wow, thanks for doing this! This is only year two for my small front yard vineyard and I always seem to get really stressed this time of year. Somehow you manage to get me to calm down and set me straight. Keep these coming please!
I entered my blend of three different Italian varietals in my county fair tasting. Out of 60 entries my wine was 57th. Admittedly, I like dry reds and this wine suited my taste. The top 15-20 wines were all sweet fruity wines. It made me wonder about the judges.
Hi I appreciate your hard work. You have studied lot in the field of oenology. Your frank and free dissemination of the knowledge is appreciable. I am an ardent follower of your videos. But in India the availability of good grapes is a mirage. Our growers are too eager to flood the grapes with all possible pesticides and as soon as the bunch turns purple they are cut and packed !! Our grapes are loaded with even DDT !!
Great video - had to take some notes. "Make better wine" has been my mantra for the past 25 years of wine making from just about any fruit, kit or juice. Last few years I've been ordering grapes from Delta Packers and focusing on red wines (Cab, Merlot, Alicanti). I think SO2 management is my biggest issue at the moment and I need to break down and buy a proper tester rather than guessing with "rules of thumb." One question, do you sterilize the must prior to the cold soak?
Amazing summary! I regularly watch your videos especially this time of year. I noticed I've already seen this one and gave it a thumb up but I just watched it again and 👍👍 I do have a question if you happen to see this comment; I'm making Pinot Noir from fresh grapes picked up on October 1st and I had them that same day, hours after picking. Destemed them, crushed them, sulfited them and cold soaked for 3 days, then added yeast and primary fermentation finished within 8 days. It started at 23°Brix or 1.096, ended all the way down at 0.992. I kept it on the skins for another 2 days then pressed. Lightly. Ended up with 30L, filled 3 10L carboys but now after 4 days there's so much gross lees in there that I imagine I'll be able to fit all or most of that into a 6 gallon carboy. I'm just about to rack it off of the gross lees and onto lightly toasted French oak, but I don't want too much wood in the Pinot Noir, especially since I've discovered I like the New World style Pinot like the one from Oregon or California way more than the Burgundy. My question is: how much oak chips would you recommend I use in 23 - 24L? The recommendation on the package is 30g per 10L max. but I think that's for big, bold reds like Cab Sauvignon.
In cold stabilization, do not use glass containers if there’s a possibility of freezing!! It will expand and break the carbuoy. I use 3 liter soda bottles and have not had any problems. I usually kept it out for the winter, then doing the malolactic . Adding malo to a must with a killer yeast sounds not good..
Great video. I just found your channel. I know your channel is geared more towards actual wine with grapes but as far as using acids in fruit wine would you recommend starting around a similar ph and what acids would be used to adjust? Still mostly tarteric? Thanks for any guidance you can provide.
Thanks for another great video. Do you average 10 days becofe pressing or rely on gravity or brix before pressing. I have a cab tbat finished within 4 days but I want more maceration for ageability. Can I let sit on the skins if my bucket is equipped with an airlock. I’m at 7 days today.
New to wine making, I'm getting ready to start my 2nd kit wine, a Chardonnay, and I don't think I've asked this question before. You were talking about some positives with malolactic fermentation, would you recommend doing MLF with kit wines? I doubt I will ever make wine from fresh berries, but you never know and I am always interested in learning more. Cheerz and thanks for any thoughts.
Great information. I've been growing grapes and making my own wine in central IA for around 10 years. It always taste the same year after year. I've added tartaric acid, reduced acid with calcium carbonate, done a malolactic fermentation, added tannins, and mosty dumped the wine down the drain. What am I doing wrong??? or is this just a rotten climate to grow good grapes?
It seems like you are doing the right things on the Winemaking side. It is most likely a problem in the vineyard. I pull leaves on the red grapes to expose the berries to more sun which will reduce the green pepper taste and aid in ripening. In your climate you will probably want to wait as long as possible to harvest. It could be the variatals you are working with. If you are dealing with hybrid red grapes they can really work you as a winemaker thanks for the super high malic acid in most of them. I have never had much luck with a hybrid red as a single varietal wine and usually sneak a little merlot or cab from california in to round them out.
Thankyou. I am only growing hybrids from UM. They grow well but don't make a clean dry wine. I do leave them on the vine as long as possible. Measuring brix along the way. This year they got up to 21 with a pH of 3.4. Best I've had to work with yet. Looking forward to following all your videos. Thanks again for replying.
Your awesome , hey question my wine grapes have have reach the brix level of 25 but my grapes but very small can i go another month to see them if they grow ? thanks Randy
Would you add campden before cold soaking ? I’m planning on crushing my grapes in a few days any tips would be great this would be my first red from actual grapes . Can I store my wine in a food grade sealed bucket with air lock rather then a glass demijohn after it’s been syphoned from the lees ? Is lavlin 71b ok to use for red ?
Thank you soooo much for the information. I'm part of a little home vineyard project with friends, and we've actually taken the skins after crushing, and put them in muslin bags. We then submerse the bags for several weeks during fermentation. Our wines neveer come out super great, and I'm wondering if this is part of the reason? a punch-down never happens, because all of the stuff that would typicallly float to the top is held within the bags. Is this a problem? thanks!
That is possible but probably not the root cause. I would make sure to monitor the smell of the wine during the fermentation. If you leave it too static it will likely get a little stinky, thanks to all the gross lees piling up on the bottom and starving out the trapped yeast of oxygen. Another possibility is that the problem is in the vineyard. Make sure to pick the grapes at optimal ripeness which is basically right when the birds and yellow jackets also want to eat your grapes. From the time they look ready to pick til they are actually ready can be a few weeks. If you don't have a refractometer, get one to monitor the sugar in the vineyard. More importantly in my opinion is the pH which should be 3-3.3 for a white grape and 3.35-3.55 ideally for most red grapes at harvest.
Ok I have learned so much from you but I am stuck. After 7 days of bucket primary fermantation(went real well) I drained into carboy and added yeast nutrient. 10 days later and I am at .0999 g, 2.82 ph and 5 brix. Should I add sodium bicarbonate? It seems really low on ph, could I have too much acid?
You can definitely have too much acid. As for nutrient, you generally don't want to add too late in the fermentation unless the wine is stalled out since it can feel bad microbes in the wine. I'm not sure what you mean by .0999. If you mean specific gravity and added a zero, .999 would be about 0 degrees brix. If your wine is 2.82 pH after fermentation and you have tested your pH meter against some 4.0 pH buffer, then you will need to do an adjustment. As a white wine it will only need a little nudge up to about 3.1 to be acceptable. If it is a red wine, the grapes were probably very under ripe which will result in very vegetal tastes.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Background. I moved into my home it had a overhead arbor trellis 16x16 feet. It developed brown blight 2 years ago. I cut it back to 3 main branches 14 ft long 1-2 inches thick. Last year nothing grew but shoots and leaves. in January I cut back new growth to 10" long leaving at least 2 feet between shoots. In spring this year treated it with anti-fungal every 7 days for 21 days(3 times)when clusters started as precaution . BTW looks like a Blaufrankisch leaf's. I pruned about half the leaves and non grape growth shoots back on June 15, and again end of July to allow sun in the afternoon to shine on red formed grapes. I picked the red grapes on Aug 12, 2020 when seeds were brown and crunchy like granola. When I crushed the 200 lbs of grapes on Sept 14th I had a reading of 20 brix on my refractometer and 1.080-1.085 specific gravity. I added 1/4 tsp potassium bisulfate to each of my now four 5 gallon buckets of crushed grapes. The next day the 15th I added yeast to crushed grapes leaving it in the buckets in a room set to 80 degrees and let primary to start and pushed down cap 3 times a day. After 7 days transferred free juice to a 5 gal carboy. remaining free juice I put in another 5 gallon carboy totaling 8 gallons free juice, and topped it off with pressed juice to make 10 gallons. The carboy with pressed juice went crazy, had to clean airlock every 10 min for 6 hours. (That was fun) After that I let it sit and did not touch till the 27th when I saw it not doing anything so I gave it a light stir with a sanitized spoon and added 2 1/2 tsps yeast nutrient to each carboy. They bubbled crazy for 10 seconds or so then ... nothing. like I killed them Today 10/03/2020 Yes MY specific gravity is .0999 on hydrometer. On my refractometer now shows 6 brix. You can see why I am confused. After a week it now shows a 3.28PH. I performed your acid test with a PH meter calibrated to 6.86 solution. With 15ml wine it took 23ml of sodium hydroxide (.1N) to reach 8.2 PH which came to 11.5 acidity. You are more than likely right about not ripened enough or maybe not a top grade grape. I am not showing any fermentation if any, the airlocks are holding some CO2 pressure and it smells awesome, sweet and like wine. Tastes Yeasty of course. Any info you can give me? I will probably just add acid crystals and cool it down for a couple weeks. After watching your videos you most likely are right but I'm hoping to save what I can if any. BTW just started composting vine this year after I picked. I am having Newby wishes I guess. Sorry for the long winded story i wanted you to have all the info i could give. OMW right now to support you at www.patreon.com/makewine #Keepyourknowledgealive
I have made my first 2 wines. Small batches of Grape and Pomegranate Plum from store bought juice. They both taste and look good. The grape with a more bite that I feel will smooth out in time. They are only 1 month old but and fermentation has stopped and they have been racked once. The Pomegranate Plum lacks any aroma at all. What can I do to give it a pleasant aroma?? Will the action change the flavor much?
I drink a few glasses if wine in my younger years ...the best wine I ever drink was from an old Amish man in Arkansas. Taste like grape Kool aid ..but man was I drunk hehe I was only 10 years old then in 1974. Wow it was great..never seen it again. Would love to reproduce this wine. Anyway you think it could be done?
Probably was a pretty sweet concord wine. Concord wine tastes like welch's grape juice. Being in Arkansas it also could have been a really sweet muscadine wine. You basically will ferment as usual and back sweeten once the wine becomes crystal clear. To back sweeten you will need to add potassium sorbate to prevent re-fermentation. If you want to make a concord wine and cant get grapes you can find frozen grape juice concentrate from Concord and use that to make a fermentable juice.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel thank you so much... I have a friend by the name of Andy hoffer he is the new owner of St James winery in St James Missouri... It's a third generation winery... He does have concord grapes hundreds of acres and he does sell grapes as well as wine and jellies and ect... Seems like they're harvest season is in August and September... I think I will start with a kit.. get a few batches on my belt... The next fall I'll run my first free-handed batch riding everything down as I go... And I'll remember what you said. Thank you
I’m making my first chock cherry wine, I’m worried about the bitter seed overpowering the taste of the wine at the finish, any idea to bring it of the pulp without loosing the body and color? I’ll take all the help I can get 🤔
How long do you typically wait to pitch your yeast after crushing/destemming? Do you need to add sulfite after you crush to prevent wild yeast from getting in?
I normally do a cold soak for two or three days after crush if the volume is small enough for me to keep it cold work frozen ice jugs, a refridgerator, or a stainless wort chiller (don't use copper with wine). Yes, you will want to sulfite at crush to suppress wild yeast and other microbes, unless you are feeling risky and want to try a wild fermentation. Even then a light sulfite can help knock out undesirable wild yeast etc.
Do you do any blending? I have been looking into the technique of how to do it as a home wine maker. Plenty of videos about the tasting to blend but not how to blend then bottle properly. I am fermenting merlot right now. My first wine ever. But my brix was only 21.5 when i started fermentation. We’re in so cal and thinking of getting a later harvest grape (either merlot or another nice blend-able varietal) in order to raise the overall alc level and blend a more full bodied wine.
Yes, I blend almost all the wines before bottling. You will want to ferment and age separate if you can. Then you can blend to taste around the time of bottling. If the wines are too different, it is a good idea to cold stabilize again after blending, or you could drop out a good bit of potassium bitartrate crystals in the bottle.
I'm starting my first wine ever...where would you start if you are me? I have 100.00 bucks to start and plenty of wine places here in the ozarks...with starter kits? I love red sweet wine extremely sweet ..if I could make it taste like grape Kool aid with a nice alcohol punch to it. .... Kool-Aid but all of a sudden you're drunk. That's what I want to achieve is this possible?
This is my 4th season making wine and a still refer back to this video every year. Thank you! One point that confused me a bit. At the end of fermentation you mentioned you like to stretch out the skin contact for 2 weeks before pressing. Are you talking about the cold the total time on skins (cold soak + fermentation + post fermentation)? Seems like 2 weeks after fermentation would be risky. Thanks again
Yep. It's a little risky. Once the fermentation stops, you can lose that CO2 layer that protects it. Having said that, I just left my must for an extended maceration for an extra week. I put a lining of celophane over it to protect it. Keep your fermenter clean and don't tempt the fruit flies.
@@phaylon Thanks Bryon! So far so good with the extended maceration. I started MLF a couple weeks ago so I’m hoping the small amount of CO2 produced by MLF along with keeping things clean and oxygen free helps. Good luck with your wine.
Hello I have a issue every time I drain wine from fruits, it’s always stops fermenting, and I can’t figure it out and I can’t find any answer about , I do make sure there is right temperature and that sugar is there . Maybe you could help me please
Great timely video, re-energised my desire to participate in this years harvest! You've most likely covered this in a previous video, and I've probably watched it and just forgotten, but during your 14 day primary fermentation, do you leave it in the bucket with just a fly screen cover or do you put it under airlock? Is it a knife edge of stressing the yeast too much through oxygen starvation (when under airlock) and running the risk of too much oxygen and getting those vinegar microbes going? Or is it a case of all that is taken care of if you keep it under airlock and punch down three times a day and in doing so destress the yeast by giving them sufficient oxygen in doing so?
For the fermentation, I just throw a towel or sheet over it. It is much more likely to go reductive than oxidize at this point for a red wine on skins and seeds with all the tannin. I normally splash a little when punching down to give it even a little more air, unless I am using one of the yeast strains that won't create hydrogen sulfide (renaissance). If you have a high pH you may want to put a less air permeable lid on it and just sniff it a couple times a day to decide if you want to give it more air or less air.
Hey I've watched allot of your videos, you are super knowledgeable and we'll versed on winemaking. Could you please do a video on how to make a wine that will cellar for a really long time. Thank you for your hard work please keep making wine videos you are probably the number one resource on UA-cam !!
That is on the radar! In short, to make a wine that will age long you need a few things. Tannin, acid, SO2 and enough fruit/aroma to carry through for years. A red wine with a pH around 3.5 to 3.55 and robust tannin and appropriate SO2 will age for many many years. Probably 20 or 30 with a good high quality cork and proper storage. I'd err towards lower toast oaks for longer aging for the additional tannin and supplement with a little powdered tannin. Punch down a little more aggressive. Press a little harder and include use more hard press wine in your aging blend.
For a cold soak do you add K-Meta to keep the bad bacteria away? This is a new technique that I want to try for when CFP gets their Chilean grapes. The longer you let it sit without yeast the more prone you are to nasty bacteria dominating.
Yes, I always add SO2 before the cold soak. The grapes from CFP are usually really clean and intact but you still never know what wild bacteria might want to get going. Some of the spoilage yeasts will out compete wine at the cooler temps but they have very poor SO2 tolerance which is a blessing.
Yes, unless you use a product like Lafforts Zymaflore Egide which is a bio protection yeast that will protect the wine and stop all fermentation and oxidation during cold soaks.
May I ask you a question please I had 2. 5 gallon buckets of apples I juice the apples and through season all in the fermenters my question is did I mess up by using the seeds can you help thank you I’m still sitting in secondary with the cyser
Normally for an apple wine you will press the apples into juice before fermenting. It is fine to press with the seeds present. I can't say for sure about fermenting with the seeds since they do contain a tiny bit of cyanide. I would probably pour the wine if you did ferment on the seeds just to be safe but I am no expert on the toxicity there. Might want to reach out to one of the universities for that.
Your first question is a little unclear. Did you ferment with the pulp, skins and seeds as yo would with a red wine? Or did you grind up the apples and press them before fermenting? If you fermented with the seeds I would be concerned that you may be extracting some of the bad stuff. If you grinded and pressed before fermenting it should be fine. Commercial cider presses just grind the whole apples up and press them.
Yeah I would say it is a little risky to drink it. Apple seeds contain amygdalin which degrades to cyanide when processed by a humans digestive system. About 18 apples worth of seeds if fully extracted would be considered a potentially lethal dose. In red Winemaking, as the alcohol climbs in the must, the seed extraction becomes more effective. Apple seeds are pretty waxy so it is hard to say if it would extract at a similar level to a grape seed or not but probably not worth the risk.
I have a blending question. If I blend 2 wines today and the taste comes out fabulous. Can that fabulous flavor diminish in the bottle, and should I wait to bottle after blending?
It can change a bit but should be very close. Two cold stable wines can become unstable when blended also, so you could get a few tartrate crystals in the bottle if you bottle right away. If one has gone through malolactic and one hasn't, the blend could try to kickoff another malolactic fermentation. But, out of convenience I will often bottle at the time of blending. About one in five will get a few crystals which is really just cosmetic.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Thank you for your response, and your wisdom. Your response has given me the confidence to bottle immediately after blending. This is exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks again!
Renaissance Fresco. Technically a cider yeast but incredible on whites and roses. "The beverage people" are the only place that I know to offer it in smaller packets. It is a No hydrogen sulfide yeast so you can push the fermentation pretty cool without issue. In any wine I generally wait til the fermentation is underway for a couple days to add nutrient. You don't want to feed any wild bacteria or yeast that might be hanging out before your yeast gets going. The yeast should have plenty of nitrogen for the first couple days also. After about 1/3 of the sugars are depleted, go ahead and feed the yeast.
The Home Winemaking Channel thank you .. I can’t seem to have the option to ship that to the uk . Can you recommend one I can get here or order on amazon ?
Hi Ellis. I have Cabernet Franc, merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Blaufrankisch, Riesling, Traminette, Marquette, and Noiret. It is mostly experimental at this stage. If I were to plant a larger vineyard in the area I can learn what is most successful from this one. The hybrid grapes have been very grower friendly. I am very surprised with the Cabernet Sauvignon, as it is doing great. Blaufrankisch is doing great. The others are doing good but require a lot of attention so far and have been more prone to fungal disease. We will know better in a few years after a couple good harvests and a couple years of Winemaking from the grapes.
Man I don't want to kill anyone on my first wine making venture... hahaha you're a genius man ...but I want to learn . I need a don't die proof wine. Hahaha help !!!
You can do that. The thing you could run into is too much SO2. Usually a wine will be sulfited appropriately to go into aging. Malolactic bacteria has a relatively low SO2 tolerance. If you did not add much SO2 yet, the wine may have already gone through MLF with whatever wild strain came in on the grapes.
I have much more basic videos that cover those topics. If you have made this far in the channel, the assumption is that you are not making flawed or oxidized wine anymore and have a good grasp on the basics. I could have spent some time on the less intuitive side of oxygen management like micro-oxidation and how a little oxygen can benefit a young red wine. I find that a lot of winemakers that came from home brewing obsess about cleanliness but it it is really a whole different animal. A wine is anywhere from 50-100x more acidic than a beer, which makes it a very hostile environment, especially with a little SO2. It is never sterilized from the start. Scrubbing a crusher destemmer all day doesn't make sense when the spoilage yeast or bacteria are all over the grapes anyways. People generally think of wine as a sterile solution that is waiting to be contaminated, but it is better to assume it already is contaminated and learn to manage the microbiology at hand. A flawed or faulted wine may have got there because of a microbe but the solution would not the to clean harder next time but to better manage the medium that it is trying to grow in (wine).
You can get them for about $13-15 a case at your local brew shop. Or you can ask any local restaurant that serves wine if you can have their empties. Local wineries normally can hook you up from the tasting room also but with Covid they may have their tasting rooms closed.
Why? Table sugar is sucrose, which will be metabolized by the yeast into glucose and fructose before being fermented into alcohol. Both glucose and fructose are available in grapes in high quantities. The yeast will ferment it dry as if the sugar had originated from the vineyard. Now if you add to the point of making 18% alcohol yes I could see that rocking you to the point of a headache. It is common to "chaptalize" wines in Europe with beet sugars to fine tune the alcohol and cane sugar in the US. Some old school home winemakers would add so much sugar that the wine would be high alcohol but also high residual sugar after the yeast died out which is a recipe for a headache
The only reason for drinking wine is for the alcohol content. So, whichever way that can produce the highest percentage of alcohol within the shortest amount of time is the best way of make wine. LOL
Too bad there isn't an option for multiple thumbs up. I watch this video multiple times a year!
That was an outstanding summation of the many elements involved. Most enjoyable viewing. There are many things about your videos that I enjoy. But the top three are: you are respectful, you are professional and finally - I love the way you throw in those off the cuff comments - such as “ thin wimpy wine that sucks”. Nothing more needs to be said after that. We know exactly what you mean. Keep it up.
Craig ( New Zealand)
Starting with Grapes: To make high-quality red wine, it's essential to use whole grapes and ferment them on their skins and seeds for a complex flavor. Starting with high-quality grapes grown in optimal conditions, like higher elevations, is crucial.
Cold Soaking: A technique called cold soaking, which involves chilling the crushed and de-stemmed grapes before fermentation, helps extract fruity flavors and allows for better measurement and adjustment of the grape's acidity and sugar content.
Fermentation Control: Choosing the right yeast strain and controlling the fermentation temperature significantly affect the wine's characteristics. Cooler fermentations produce fruitier wines, while warmer ones yield more complex, full-bodied wines.
Punching Down and Pressing: Regularly punching down the grape skins during fermentation ensures better extraction of flavors. Separating the free-run juice from the harder-pressed juice during pressing allows for blending to achieve the desired wine structure and flavor.
Malolactic Fermentation and Sulfur Management: Conducting malolactic fermentation, which converts malic acid to lactic acid, smoothens the wine. Proper sulfur dioxide management is critical to protect the wine from spoilage while maintaining its stability and preventing off-flavors.
Wow, thanks for doing this! This is only year two for my small front yard vineyard and I always seem to get really stressed this time of year. Somehow you manage to get me to calm down and set me straight. Keep these coming please!
I need to pick your brain. I am on my second year of making wine from grapes and am going to try this in the spring.
Making wine is simple, making good wine, not simple.
Great information, thank you.
I entered my blend of three different Italian varietals in my county fair tasting. Out of 60 entries my wine was 57th. Admittedly, I like dry reds and this wine suited my taste. The top 15-20 wines were all sweet fruity wines. It made me wonder about the judges.
Hi
I appreciate your hard work. You have studied lot in the field of oenology. Your frank and free dissemination of the knowledge is appreciable. I am an ardent follower of your videos. But in India the availability of good grapes is a mirage. Our growers are too eager to flood the grapes with all possible pesticides and as soon as the bunch turns purple they are cut and packed !! Our grapes are loaded with even DDT !!
Great video - had to take some notes. "Make better wine" has been my mantra for the past 25 years of wine making from just about any fruit, kit or juice. Last few years I've been ordering grapes from Delta Packers and focusing on red wines (Cab, Merlot, Alicanti). I think SO2 management is my biggest issue at the moment and I need to break down and buy a proper tester rather than guessing with "rules of thumb." One question, do you sterilize the must prior to the cold soak?
Amazing summary! I regularly watch your videos especially this time of year. I noticed I've already seen this one and gave it a thumb up but I just watched it again and 👍👍
I do have a question if you happen to see this comment; I'm making Pinot Noir from fresh grapes picked up on October 1st and I had them that same day, hours after picking. Destemed them, crushed them, sulfited them and cold soaked for 3 days, then added yeast and primary fermentation finished within 8 days. It started at 23°Brix or 1.096, ended all the way down at 0.992. I kept it on the skins for another 2 days then pressed. Lightly.
Ended up with 30L, filled 3 10L carboys but now after 4 days there's so much gross lees in there that I imagine I'll be able to fit all or most of that into a 6 gallon carboy.
I'm just about to rack it off of the gross lees and onto lightly toasted French oak, but I don't want too much wood in the Pinot Noir, especially since I've discovered I like the New World style Pinot like the one from Oregon or California way more than the Burgundy.
My question is: how much oak chips would you recommend I use in 23 - 24L?
The recommendation on the package is 30g per 10L max. but I think that's for big, bold reds like Cab Sauvignon.
Don’t forget to make a white wine this year, crush then ferment, that would be super helpful and fun to watch!
Will do! Got some going right now from the little vineyard with a video in the works.
Good presentation. It has been about 8 years since I last made wine, and this is really a good refresher. Thanks!
In cold stabilization, do not use glass containers if there’s a possibility of freezing!! It will expand and break the carbuoy. I use 3 liter soda bottles and have not had any problems. I usually kept it out for the winter, then doing the malolactic . Adding malo to a must with a killer yeast sounds not good..
Keep up the good videos.Ive planted 4 new grape plants after getting an American grape to survive in the. Back yard!
Awesome to see a new video from you!
Great video. I just found your channel. I know your channel is geared more towards actual wine with grapes but as far as using acids in fruit wine would you recommend starting around a similar ph and what acids would be used to adjust? Still mostly tarteric? Thanks for any guidance you can provide.
You are so detail oriented you should teach on a platform
Worth GOLD! THANKS! First harvest approaching and I'm a noob.. Very gr8 info and excellent stuff tx! 👏
Thanks for another great video. Do you average 10 days becofe pressing or rely on gravity or brix before pressing. I have a cab tbat finished within 4 days but I want more maceration for ageability. Can I let sit on the skins if my bucket is equipped with an airlock. I’m at 7 days today.
New to wine making, I'm getting ready to start my 2nd kit wine, a Chardonnay, and I don't think I've asked this question before. You were talking about some positives with malolactic fermentation, would you recommend doing MLF with kit wines? I doubt I will ever make wine from fresh berries, but you never know and I am always interested in learning more. Cheerz and thanks for any thoughts.
Great video brother keep them coming!!!
Great information. I've been growing grapes and making my own wine in central IA for around 10 years. It always taste the same year after year. I've added tartaric acid, reduced acid with calcium carbonate, done a malolactic fermentation, added tannins, and mosty dumped the wine down the drain. What am I doing wrong??? or is this just a rotten climate to grow good grapes?
It seems like you are doing the right things on the Winemaking side. It is most likely a problem in the vineyard. I pull leaves on the red grapes to expose the berries to more sun which will reduce the green pepper taste and aid in ripening. In your climate you will probably want to wait as long as possible to harvest. It could be the variatals you are working with. If you are dealing with hybrid red grapes they can really work you as a winemaker thanks for the super high malic acid in most of them. I have never had much luck with a hybrid red as a single varietal wine and usually sneak a little merlot or cab from california in to round them out.
Thankyou. I am only growing hybrids from UM. They grow well but don't make a clean dry wine. I do leave them on the vine as long as possible. Measuring brix along the way. This year they got up to 21 with a pH of 3.4. Best I've had to work with yet. Looking forward to following all your videos. Thanks again for replying.
Your video’s are tops ,Thank you ! it’s that time of year.
Your awesome , hey question my wine grapes have have reach the brix level of 25 but my grapes but very small can i go another month to see them if they grow ? thanks Randy
Would you add campden before cold soaking ? I’m planning on crushing my grapes in a few days any tips would be great this would be my first red from actual grapes . Can I store my wine in a food grade sealed bucket with air lock rather then a glass demijohn after it’s been syphoned from the lees ? Is lavlin 71b ok to use for red ?
Thanks! Should I stir the wine during primary fermentation?
Thank you soooo much for the information. I'm part of a little home vineyard project with friends, and we've actually taken the skins after crushing, and put them in muslin bags. We then submerse the bags for several weeks during fermentation. Our wines neveer come out super great, and I'm wondering if this is part of the reason? a punch-down never happens, because all of the stuff that would typicallly float to the top is held within the bags. Is this a problem? thanks!
That is possible but probably not the root cause. I would make sure to monitor the smell of the wine during the fermentation. If you leave it too static it will likely get a little stinky, thanks to all the gross lees piling up on the bottom and starving out the trapped yeast of oxygen. Another possibility is that the problem is in the vineyard. Make sure to pick the grapes at optimal ripeness which is basically right when the birds and yellow jackets also want to eat your grapes. From the time they look ready to pick til they are actually ready can be a few weeks. If you don't have a refractometer, get one to monitor the sugar in the vineyard. More importantly in my opinion is the pH which should be 3-3.3 for a white grape and 3.35-3.55 ideally for most red grapes at harvest.
Excellent video my friend. I really enjoyed this.
Do you stir the lees during Malolactic Fermentation, or just leave the wine alone?
Blending....nice 👍🏻🍷
Ok I have learned so much from you but I am stuck. After 7 days of bucket primary fermantation(went real well) I drained into carboy and added yeast nutrient. 10 days later and I am at .0999 g, 2.82 ph and 5 brix. Should I add sodium bicarbonate? It seems really low on ph, could I have too much acid?
You can definitely have too much acid. As for nutrient, you generally don't want to add too late in the fermentation unless the wine is stalled out since it can feel bad microbes in the wine. I'm not sure what you mean by .0999. If you mean specific gravity and added a zero, .999 would be about 0 degrees brix. If your wine is 2.82 pH after fermentation and you have tested your pH meter against some 4.0 pH buffer, then you will need to do an adjustment. As a white wine it will only need a little nudge up to about 3.1 to be acceptable. If it is a red wine, the grapes were probably very under ripe which will result in very vegetal tastes.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Background. I moved into my home it had a overhead arbor trellis 16x16 feet. It developed brown blight 2 years ago. I cut it back to 3 main branches 14 ft long 1-2 inches thick. Last year nothing grew but shoots and leaves. in January I cut back new growth to 10" long leaving at least 2 feet between shoots. In spring this year treated it with anti-fungal every 7 days for 21 days(3 times)when clusters started as precaution . BTW looks like a Blaufrankisch leaf's. I pruned about half the leaves and non grape growth shoots back on June 15, and again end of July to allow sun in the afternoon to shine on red formed grapes.
I picked the red grapes on Aug 12, 2020 when seeds were brown and crunchy like granola. When I crushed the 200 lbs of grapes on Sept 14th I had a reading of 20 brix on my refractometer and 1.080-1.085 specific gravity. I added 1/4 tsp potassium bisulfate to each of my now four 5 gallon buckets of crushed grapes. The next day the 15th I added yeast to crushed grapes leaving it in the buckets in a room set to 80 degrees and let primary to start and pushed down cap 3 times a day. After 7 days transferred free juice to a 5 gal carboy. remaining free juice I put in another 5 gallon carboy totaling 8 gallons free juice, and topped it off with pressed juice to make 10 gallons. The carboy with pressed juice went crazy, had to clean airlock every 10 min for 6 hours. (That was fun) After that I let it sit and did not touch till the 27th when I saw it not doing anything so I gave it a light stir with a sanitized spoon and added 2 1/2 tsps yeast nutrient to each carboy. They bubbled crazy for 10 seconds or so then ... nothing. like I killed them
Today 10/03/2020 Yes MY specific gravity is .0999 on hydrometer. On my refractometer now shows 6 brix. You can see why I am confused.
After a week it now shows a 3.28PH. I performed your acid test with a PH meter calibrated to 6.86 solution. With 15ml wine it took 23ml of sodium hydroxide (.1N) to reach 8.2 PH which came to 11.5 acidity. You are more than likely right about not ripened enough or maybe not a top grade grape. I am not showing any fermentation if any, the airlocks are holding some CO2 pressure and it smells awesome, sweet and like wine. Tastes Yeasty of course.
Any info you can give me? I will probably just add acid crystals and cool it down for a couple weeks. After watching your videos you most likely are right but I'm hoping to save what I can if any. BTW just started composting vine this year after I picked.
I am having Newby wishes I guess.
Sorry for the long winded story i wanted you to have all the info i could give.
OMW right now to support you at www.patreon.com/makewine
#Keepyourknowledgealive
I have made my first 2 wines. Small batches of Grape and Pomegranate Plum from store bought juice. They both taste and look good. The grape with a more bite that I feel will smooth out in time. They are only 1 month old but and fermentation has stopped and they have been racked once. The Pomegranate Plum lacks any aroma at all. What can I do to give it a pleasant aroma?? Will the action change the flavor much?
I drink a few glasses if wine in my younger years ...the best wine I ever drink was from an old Amish man in Arkansas. Taste like grape Kool aid ..but man was I drunk hehe I was only 10 years old then in 1974. Wow it was great..never seen it again. Would love to reproduce this wine. Anyway you think it could be done?
Probably was a pretty sweet concord wine. Concord wine tastes like welch's grape juice. Being in Arkansas it also could have been a really sweet muscadine wine. You basically will ferment as usual and back sweeten once the wine becomes crystal clear. To back sweeten you will need to add potassium sorbate to prevent re-fermentation. If you want to make a concord wine and cant get grapes you can find frozen grape juice concentrate from Concord and use that to make a fermentable juice.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel thank you so much... I have a friend by the name of Andy hoffer he is the new owner of St James winery in St James Missouri... It's a third generation winery... He does have concord grapes hundreds of acres and he does sell grapes as well as wine and jellies and ect... Seems like they're harvest season is in August and September... I think I will start with a kit.. get a few batches on my belt... The next fall I'll run my first free-handed batch riding everything down as I go... And I'll remember what you said. Thank you
I’m making my first chock cherry wine, I’m worried about the bitter seed overpowering the taste of the wine at the finish, any idea to bring it of the pulp without loosing the body and color? I’ll take all the help I can get 🤔
How long do you typically wait to pitch your yeast after crushing/destemming? Do you need to add sulfite after you crush to prevent wild yeast from getting in?
I normally do a cold soak for two or three days after crush if the volume is small enough for me to keep it cold work frozen ice jugs, a refridgerator, or a stainless wort chiller (don't use copper with wine). Yes, you will want to sulfite at crush to suppress wild yeast and other microbes, unless you are feeling risky and want to try a wild fermentation. Even then a light sulfite can help knock out undesirable wild yeast etc.
Do you do any blending? I have been looking into the technique of how to do it as a home wine maker. Plenty of videos about the tasting to blend but not how to blend then bottle properly. I am fermenting merlot right now. My first wine ever. But my brix was only 21.5 when i started fermentation. We’re in so cal and thinking of getting a later harvest grape (either merlot or another nice blend-able varietal) in order to raise the overall alc level and blend a more full bodied wine.
Yes, I blend almost all the wines before bottling. You will want to ferment and age separate if you can. Then you can blend to taste around the time of bottling. If the wines are too different, it is a good idea to cold stabilize again after blending, or you could drop out a good bit of potassium bitartrate crystals in the bottle.
I like to ferment all varietals together and put press and free run juice together in the same tank during malolactic and then during aging.
just started a 5 gallon of blended red grapes in fermenter with a pH of 4.1, how much tartartic acid do I add to get a 3.6 pH?
What about lees?
Do you leave them until botling?
Or remove after pressing?!
Excellent video. Thank you
My wine has a strong alcohol taste, can I add something to soften the flavor. I used muscadine
What do you mean when you say acidic acid at 15:51 I like your videos please explain. thenak you
Is the cold soak *before* you start the primary ferment???
I'm starting my first wine ever...where would you start if you are me? I have 100.00 bucks to start and plenty of wine places here in the ozarks...with starter kits? I love red sweet wine extremely sweet ..if I could make it taste like grape Kool aid with a nice alcohol punch to it. .... Kool-Aid but all of a sudden you're drunk. That's what I want to achieve is this possible?
How are you accurately testing the TA and Ph throughout the process?
This is my 4th season making wine and a still refer back to this video every year. Thank you! One point that confused me a bit. At the end of fermentation you mentioned you like to stretch out the skin contact for 2 weeks before pressing. Are you talking about the cold the total time on skins (cold soak + fermentation + post fermentation)? Seems like 2 weeks after fermentation would be risky. Thanks again
Yep. It's a little risky. Once the fermentation stops, you can lose that CO2 layer that protects it. Having said that, I just left my must for an extended maceration for an extra week. I put a lining of celophane over it to protect it. Keep your fermenter clean and don't tempt the fruit flies.
@@phaylon Thanks Bryon! So far so good with the extended maceration. I started MLF a couple weeks ago so I’m hoping the small amount of CO2 produced by MLF along with keeping things clean and oxygen free helps. Good luck with your wine.
Howdo you sanitizethe frozen water bottles, if at all?
Hello I have a issue every time I drain wine from fruits, it’s always stops fermenting, and I can’t figure it out and I can’t find any answer about , I do make sure there is right temperature and that sugar is there .
Maybe you could help me please
I love this channel
Great timely video, re-energised my desire to participate in this years harvest! You've most likely covered this in a previous video, and I've probably watched it and just forgotten, but during your 14 day primary fermentation, do you leave it in the bucket with just a fly screen cover or do you put it under airlock? Is it a knife edge of stressing the yeast too much through oxygen starvation (when under airlock) and running the risk of too much oxygen and getting those vinegar microbes going? Or is it a case of all that is taken care of if you keep it under airlock and punch down three times a day and in doing so destress the yeast by giving them sufficient oxygen in doing so?
For the fermentation, I just throw a towel or sheet over it. It is much more likely to go reductive than oxidize at this point for a red wine on skins and seeds with all the tannin. I normally splash a little when punching down to give it even a little more air, unless I am using one of the yeast strains that won't create hydrogen sulfide (renaissance). If you have a high pH you may want to put a less air permeable lid on it and just sniff it a couple times a day to decide if you want to give it more air or less air.
IIf you have a red wine at 3.6...whats the best way to adjust it down to say 3.4?
Hey I've watched allot of your videos, you are super knowledgeable and we'll versed on winemaking. Could you please do a video on how to make a wine that will cellar for a really long time. Thank you for your hard work please keep making wine videos you are probably the number one resource on UA-cam !!
That is on the radar! In short, to make a wine that will age long you need a few things. Tannin, acid, SO2 and enough fruit/aroma to carry through for years. A red wine with a pH around 3.5 to 3.55 and robust tannin and appropriate SO2 will age for many many years. Probably 20 or 30 with a good high quality cork and proper storage. I'd err towards lower toast oaks for longer aging for the additional tannin and supplement with a little powdered tannin. Punch down a little more aggressive. Press a little harder and include use more hard press wine in your aging blend.
I just recently made Mangoe wine. How i know what kind of acid for mangoe vs grapes?
For a cold soak do you add K-Meta to keep the bad bacteria away? This is a new technique that I want to try for when CFP gets their Chilean grapes. The longer you let it sit without yeast the more prone you are to nasty bacteria dominating.
Yes, I always add SO2 before the cold soak. The grapes from CFP are usually really clean and intact but you still never know what wild bacteria might want to get going. Some of the spoilage yeasts will out compete wine at the cooler temps but they have very poor SO2 tolerance which is a blessing.
Yes, unless you use a product like Lafforts Zymaflore Egide which is a bio protection yeast that will protect the wine and stop all fermentation and oxidation during cold soaks.
Nice nice thanks! 🍷🍇👏
What a kickass video. Thank you!
Wow, well done!
May I ask you a question please I had 2. 5 gallon buckets of apples I juice the apples and through season all in the fermenters my question is did I mess up by using the seeds can you help thank you I’m still sitting in secondary with the cyser
Normally for an apple wine you will press the apples into juice before fermenting. It is fine to press with the seeds present. I can't say for sure about fermenting with the seeds since they do contain a tiny bit of cyanide. I would probably pour the wine if you did ferment on the seeds just to be safe but I am no expert on the toxicity there. Might want to reach out to one of the universities for that.
Are we saying go ahead and pour down the drain to be safe thank you Vernon
Your first question is a little unclear. Did you ferment with the pulp, skins and seeds as yo would with a red wine? Or did you grind up the apples and press them before fermenting? If you fermented with the seeds I would be concerned that you may be extracting some of the bad stuff. If you grinded and pressed before fermenting it should be fine. Commercial cider presses just grind the whole apples up and press them.
Yes I fermented skin seeds pulp everything
Yeah I would say it is a little risky to drink it. Apple seeds contain amygdalin which degrades to cyanide when processed by a humans digestive system. About 18 apples worth of seeds if fully extracted would be considered a potentially lethal dose. In red Winemaking, as the alcohol climbs in the must, the seed extraction becomes more effective. Apple seeds are pretty waxy so it is hard to say if it would extract at a similar level to a grape seed or not but probably not worth the risk.
very good information. Thanks
I have a blending question. If I blend 2 wines today and the taste comes out fabulous. Can that fabulous flavor diminish in the bottle, and should I wait to bottle after blending?
It can change a bit but should be very close. Two cold stable wines can become unstable when blended also, so you could get a few tartrate crystals in the bottle if you bottle right away. If one has gone through malolactic and one hasn't, the blend could try to kickoff another malolactic fermentation. But, out of convenience I will often bottle at the time of blending. About one in five will get a few crystals which is really just cosmetic.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel Thank you for your response, and your wisdom. Your response has given me the confidence to bottle immediately after blending. This is exactly what I was hoping for. Thanks again!
Great video Thanks You can make bad wine from good grapes but you cant make good wine from bad grapes.
Thank you for this great video.
Starting to like Serbian Oak Barrels, Specie: Quercus petraea oak.
What yeast would you use for the rose ? Also what stage would you add yeast nutrient or not in the red and rose ?
Renaissance Fresco. Technically a cider yeast but incredible on whites and roses. "The beverage people" are the only place that I know to offer it in smaller packets. It is a No hydrogen sulfide yeast so you can push the fermentation pretty cool without issue. In any wine I generally wait til the fermentation is underway for a couple days to add nutrient. You don't want to feed any wild bacteria or yeast that might be hanging out before your yeast gets going. The yeast should have plenty of nitrogen for the first couple days also. After about 1/3 of the sugars are depleted, go ahead and feed the yeast.
The Home Winemaking Channel thank you .. I can’t seem to have the option to ship that to the uk . Can you recommend one I can get here or order on amazon ?
How much it cost to get a license to sale your wine? Do you need to have a special place to make it or you can make it at home?
How can I fill my rose hip wine demijhons space at the top
What varieties of grapes do you have growing in your garden
Hi Ellis. I have Cabernet Franc, merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Blaufrankisch, Riesling, Traminette, Marquette, and Noiret. It is mostly experimental at this stage. If I were to plant a larger vineyard in the area I can learn what is most successful from this one. The hybrid grapes have been very grower friendly. I am very surprised with the Cabernet Sauvignon, as it is doing great. Blaufrankisch is doing great. The others are doing good but require a lot of attention so far and have been more prone to fungal disease. We will know better in a few years after a couple good harvests and a couple years of Winemaking from the grapes.
The Home Winemaking Channel Thank you did you get them from Double a Vineyards.com
What’s this degassing? What is that all about?
Watching this one a few times
Man I don't want to kill anyone on my first wine making venture... hahaha you're a genius man ...but I want to learn . I need a don't die proof wine. Hahaha help !!!
I have only bread yeast and supermarket juice . Need your tips
Can I add CH16 malo where the wine has a been in carboy for 8 months?
You can do that. The thing you could run into is too much SO2. Usually a wine will be sulfited appropriately to go into aging. Malolactic bacteria has a relatively low SO2 tolerance. If you did not add much SO2 yet, the wine may have already gone through MLF with whatever wild strain came in on the grapes.
Gr8👍
How to make doungs wine
De-gassing would like to know more about it
Check out my video from earlier this year called "Should you degas wine". That hopefully should answer any degassing questions
Oxygen control, cleanness and oak barrel are not mentioned in the video. We shall exchange our bottles.
I have much more basic videos that cover those topics. If you have made this far in the channel, the assumption is that you are not making flawed or oxidized wine anymore and have a good grasp on the basics. I could have spent some time on the less intuitive side of oxygen management like micro-oxidation and how a little oxygen can benefit a young red wine. I find that a lot of winemakers that came from home brewing obsess about cleanliness but it it is really a whole different animal. A wine is anywhere from 50-100x more acidic than a beer, which makes it a very hostile environment, especially with a little SO2. It is never sterilized from the start. Scrubbing a crusher destemmer all day doesn't make sense when the spoilage yeast or bacteria are all over the grapes anyways. People generally think of wine as a sterile solution that is waiting to be contaminated, but it is better to assume it already is contaminated and learn to manage the microbiology at hand. A flawed or faulted wine may have got there because of a microbe but the solution would not the to clean harder next time but to better manage the medium that it is trying to grow in (wine).
Where can I get cheap empty wine bottles?
You can get them for about $13-15 a case at your local brew shop. Or you can ask any local restaurant that serves wine if you can have their empties. Local wineries normally can hook you up from the tasting room also but with Covid they may have their tasting rooms closed.
@@TheHomeWinemakingChannel thank you
WTH is an "iced tea bag"?
Adding processed sugar during wine making is NEVER a good idea. Not gonna kill wine flavor, sure, but will give you horrible headaches next morning.
Why? Table sugar is sucrose, which will be metabolized by the yeast into glucose and fructose before being fermented into alcohol. Both glucose and fructose are available in grapes in high quantities. The yeast will ferment it dry as if the sugar had originated from the vineyard. Now if you add to the point of making 18% alcohol yes I could see that rocking you to the point of a headache. It is common to "chaptalize" wines in Europe with beet sugars to fine tune the alcohol and cane sugar in the US. Some old school home winemakers would add so much sugar that the wine would be high alcohol but also high residual sugar after the yeast died out which is a recipe for a headache
Bro, you take too much of time otherwise you are one of the best. Try to cut short.
The only reason for drinking wine is for the alcohol content. So, whichever way that can produce the highest percentage of alcohol within the shortest amount of time is the best way of make wine. LOL
put sugar in welches with some red star, knock yourself out 😂
if you want to teach then you tell easy to say but you did talking very very long ok it is boring hhh
Bla ! Bla ! Bla ! Only 🫵🏽
It’s boring 👌🏻
Make normal videos