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What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #10

March 28th, 2009 by robin in wine making, wine making tips

So have you been following our list of wine making mistakes? We have discussed inadequate equipment, cleaning & sanitizing, failure to follow instructions, bad water, poor yeast handling, poor temperature control, adding sulfite or sorbate at the wrong time, leaving out the sulfite, and not stirring your wine. We will end this series of blog articles with not waiting long enough. (more…)

What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #9

March 27th, 2009 by robin in wine making, wine making tips

We have discussed inadequate equipment, cleaning & sanitizing, failure to follow instructions, bad water, poor yeast handling, poor temperature control, adding sulfite or sorbate at the wrong time, and leaving out the Sulfite. The next topic that requires our attention is Not Stirring your wine.

On day one, the kit needs to be stirred very vigorously. This is because the juice and concentrate are very viscous, and don’t mix easily with water. Even if it seems that dumping the contents of the bag into the primary with the water has done the job, it hasn’t. The wine lies on the bottom of the pail, with a layer of water on top, throwing off any gravity readings, and making the yeast work extra hard.

When it comes time to stabilize and fine the wine, it has to be stirred vigorously enough to drive off all of the CO₂ it accumulated during fermentation. This is because the dissolved gas will attach to the fining agents, preventing them from settling out. You need to stir hard enough to make the wine foam, and keep stirring until it will no longer foam. Only then will the gas be driven off so the fining agents can work. The most effective way to stir your wine sufficiently to degas it is by using a 3-prong wand and electric drill.

Tomorrow will be our last entry on the topic of top wine making mistakes – not waiting long enough.

What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #8

March 26th, 2009 by robin in sulfites, wine making, wine making tips

So what can possibly be left you ask? We have discussed inadequate equipment, cleaning & sanitizing, failure to follow instructions, bad water, poor yeast handling, poor temperature control, and adding sulfite or sorbate at the wrong time. Our next wine making mistake is actually one that often done as a conscious decision based upon a misconception – Leaving out the Sulfite.

Some people believe that they are allergic to sulfites, and want to leave them out of their kits. While this is their option, it’s a bad idea. Yeast make sulfites themselves during fermentation, so no wine can ever be sulphite-free, no matter what.

Without added sulfites the kit will oxidize (similar to how apple slices turn brown) and spoil very rapidly. Oxidation will start in less than 4 weeks, and the wine could be undrinkable in less than three months. If use of the sulfites are omitted but the Sorbate is added, the wine has a high probability of being attacked by lactic bacteria, which will convert the Sorbate into the compound hexadienol, which smells like rotting geraniums and dead fish.

If you have reactions to wine and suspect that you may be allergic to sulfites, please read our article on red wine headaches and levels of sulfite in wine kits for further information on this subject.

Tomorrow’s discussion will focus on stirring your wine.

What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #7

March 25th, 2009 by robin in sulfites, wine making, wine making tips

We are in the home stretch now. We have discussed inadequate equipment, cleaning & sanitizing, failure to follow instructions, bad water, poor yeast handling, and poor temperature control. Our next wine making mistake, adding sulfite or sorbate at the wrong time, may short discussion, but no less important.

Sulfite and Sorbate are the stabilizers in the wine making kit that work to inhibit yeast activity. Once you understand that this is the role they play in the process, it is easy to understand that if, by mistake, you add them too early your wine may not finish fermenting. If you add the Sorbate on day one, the yeast will never become active, and the kit will not ferment.

Moving on, we will tackle wine making mistake #8 – leaving out the sulfite.

What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #6

March 24th, 2009 by robin in wine making, wine making tips

We are half way through our list of the top 10 wine making mistakes. We have discussed inadequate equipment, cleaning & sanitizing, failure to follow instructions, bad water, and poor yeast handling. Number six is one of great significance – poor temperature control.

Kit instructions tell you to ferment your wine within the recommended temperature range of 65°F to 75°F. When striving to be in this range, we recommend the closer to the top end, the better. Yeast thrives between these temperatures. This is one of the situations where wine making kit instructions are different than commercial wine making techniques. In commercial wineries, some white wines are fermented cooler than this, sometimes below 55°F. Commercial wineries have the luxury of taking a year (or two, or three) before they bottle their wines, so they don’t have a problem. For the home wine maker though, if the fermentation area is too cool the wine will ferment very slowly. As mentioned in our discussion of mishandling of yeast, a cold must doesn’t allow the lipid tissue of the yeast cell to soften enough to grow. A cold start may be very difficult to overcome and in some cases may never even finish. In addition, slow fermentation will lead to an excess of CO2 gas (fizz) in the wine, and it may not be ready to stabilize and fine on the appropriate day. Finally, the kind of fining agents included with wine making kits don’t work well at temperatures outside of the 65°F to 75°F range. Below 64°F your wine kit may not clear at all!

Since we ended discussing stabilizing our wine, the next wine making mistake in our discussion will be adding sulfite and sorbate at the wrong time.

What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #5

March 23rd, 2009 by robin in wine making, wine making tips

In our list of top wine making mistakes we have covered inadequate equipment, cleaning & sanitizing, failure to follow instructions and bad water. Today we will discuss poor yeast handling.

There are several ways that yeast can be mishandled and as a result damaged. 1.) By prolonged storage at temperatures above 95°F. 2.) By prolonged exposure to air after the package is opened. 3.) By rehydrating yeast in too hot or too cold water. 4.) By excessive amounts of sulfur dioxide in the juice. 5.) By juice temperatures either below 60°F or above 90°F. Some of these are clear and don’t require further comment, for the others I will take a few moments to explain.

If you look at the instructions in your wine kit, they will likely instruct you to sprinkle your packet of yeast directly on to the must. Yet, if you read the yeast package (and many wine making textbooks) they recommend re-hydrating the yeast. If the objective is to deliver the maximum number of yeast cells to the must, which technique is best?

It turns out that the answer is not as simple as one or the other. When performed correctly, re-hydrating gives the highest live cell counts, and the quickest, most thorough fermentation. The catch is, it has to be done precisely correctly. Lalvin EC 1118 champagne yeast, for instance, asks you to add the yeast to 10 times its weight in water at 40¬43˚C (104¬109˚F).

Breaking it down, the amount of ’10 times’ is important if you’re trying to maximize live cell counts. That’s because the yeast is dried on a substrate of nutrients and sugars. At a ratio of 10:1 water/yeast, the osmotic pressure allows for maximum nutrient uptake (osmotic pressure is influenced by the dissolved solids in the water, like nutrients and sugars). If too much water is used, the yeast will grow only sluggishly. If too little water is used, the cells may burst from the flood of liquid and nutrients forced into them.

Secondly, the temperature range is inflexible. The outer integument of a yeast cell is made up of two layers of fatty acids. These layers soften best in warm water, much as greasy film will come off of dishes best in warm water. Once it has softened up, it will allow the passage of nutrients and waste products in and out of the cell much more efficiently. If the water isn’t warm enough, the cell won’t soften. If it’s too warm, generally anywhere above 52˚C (125.6˚F) the yeast cell will cook and die.

The next thing you have to worry about is temperature shear. Yeast is terrifically sensitive to environmental conditions. If it goes too quickly from a favorable temperature to a less favorable one, weakened cells may die, and others may go dormant, in an attempt to ride out the temperature shift. This reduces the numbers of live, viable cells available to ferment the must, and gives spoilage organisms a chance to get a foothold, and potentially ruin your wine. So if you are re-hydrating your yeast, you’ll have to wait as the yeast cools to within two degrees of your must temperature before adding it: accuracy counts!

On the other hand, simply dumping the yeast onto the top of the must should result in lower cell counts. Empirical evidence shows this isn’t the case: the yeast appear to know what they’re doing. Generally, a five-gram packet of yeast will have less than a six-hour lag phase on an average wine kit. This is perfectly acceptable, and isn’t long enough to allow spoilage organisms to get a foothold in your wine. Plus, it can be simpler than going through the re-hydrating process, fraught as it is with risks.

So in summary, nine times out of ten you will be able to satisfactorily start fermentation simply by sprinkling dry yeast on the must. If you wish to avoid problems the tenth time, measure your temperatures and water precisely. Then allow the yeast mixture to to sit for approximately 20 to 30 minutes prior pouring into your must to avoid shocking the yeast.

Up next in our list of top winemaking mistakes – Mistake #6 Poor Temerature Control.

What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #4

March 22nd, 2009 by robin in wine making, wine making tips

We have discussed inadequate equipment, cleaning & sanitizing, and failure to follow instructions. Today our focus will be on Bad Water.

Water is not quite as critical as many people think. In fact, if your water is fit to drink, it is usually just fine for winemaking. However, if your water has a lot of hardness or a high mineral content, especially iron, it could lead to permanent haze or off flavors. On the other end of the spectrum, if your house is equipped with a water softener, you shouldn’t use that water for winemaking either. Soft water tends to be missing sufficient magnesium for the yeast to be happy. Other water sources may contain chlorine or bacteria that is not good for your wine. Bottom line, if you are in doubt, use bottled water to make your wine: you’ll appreciate the difference.

Tomorrow we will move on to Wine Making Mistake #5 – Poor Yeast Handling.

What Went Wrong – Top 10 Winemaking Mistakes #3

March 21st, 2009 by robin in wine making, wine making tips

So far, we have discussed Inadequate Equipment and Cleaning & Sanitization. Today we will move onto mistake #3 – Failure to Follow Instructions.

Wine kit instructions may seem to be long and complicated, and the urge is to simplify them, or to standardize steps between different kits. This is always a mistake, for several reasons.

First, the kit instructions are based both on sound wine making techniques, and empirical trials. Instructions are based on book learning and the manufactures test the process, making the wine kits hundreds of times, to make sure they worked.

Second, if your kit fails to ferment correctly, or clear sufficiently, there may be no easy way to correct it if you have not followed the directions.

One of the biggest points to note: Wine kit instructions are very different from those for wines made from fresh grapes. Trying to use the techniques described in winemaking textbooks will usually lead to problems: wine kits are completely different from making wine from fresh grapes.

Tomorrow Wine making mistake #4 – Bad Water.

What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #2

March 20th, 2009 by robin in wine making, wine making tips

This is our second entry in our series about the most common mistakes people make when making wine. Last time, we focused on Inadequate equipment. Now we will discuss Mistake #2 – Cleaning and Sanitation

90% of all wine making failures can be traced to a lapse in cleaning or sanitation. Cleaning is the process of removing visible dirt and residue from your equipment. Sanitizing is treating that equipment with a chemical that will eliminate, or prevent the growth of, spoilage organisms. It is important to understand the difference between these two steps and that they are both important.

Everything that comes in contact with your wine must be clean, and properly sanitized, from the thermometer to the carboy, from the siphon hose to the bung and airlock. One single lapse could cause a failure of your batch. Creating a well practiced system for yourself will help ensure that nothing is overlooked. If you get in the habit of washing all equipment before and after it is used and sanitizing it just prior to use it will help eliminate this problem. You may want to check out our earlier article on the difference between cleaning and sanitizing for more information on this subject.

Coming up next – Wine Making Mistake #3 – Failure to Follow Instructions

What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #1

March 19th, 2009 by robin in wine making, wine making tips

This is going to be the first in a series of blog articles focusing on wine making problems. One of the best ways to ensure great wine making results is to understand the most common errors people make.

Mistake #1: Inadequate Equipment

Winemaking equipment, such as fermentation pails, carboys and spoons often seems similar to items that may be around the home. However, in many cases, proper wine making equipment and utensils are made of special materials, and this can influence your finished product.

Re-using plastic pails from other sources, like buckets that previously held food products, is always a mistake. The food odors will have sunk into the plastic, and will taint the wine. Also, plastic items not intended for food purposes, such as brand-new garbage pails must never be used for wine making. The pigments, UV protectants and plasticizers (chemicals used to keep the plastic from becoming brittle) will leach into the wine, and could affect your health.

Saving a few dollars by using suspect equipment is not worth it. It is better to invest in good equipment to help ensure the quality of your wine.

Tomorrow Wine Making Mistake #2 – Cleaning and Sanitizing….

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