What Went Wrong – Top 10 Wine Making Mistakes #2

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

Blog Content © 2009 Vintners Circle Franchising LLC. Any duplication or use of information from this blog without reference and linking to www.VintnersCircle.com is strictly prohibited.

Tags: cleaning and sanitizing, wine making mistake, wine making mistakes, winemaking mistake, winemaking mistakes