Wine Wizard

Shellfish and chitosan We’ve all heard of comments about sulfites or phenolic compounds causing headaches, but I use chitosan and kielsosol for clarifying agents. Chitosan is made from shellfish byproducts — could

Ethanol exclusion I’m interested in cold filtering to obtain alcohol-free wine. How is this done and what equipment is needed?  Lloyd Duncan via email Alcohol removal remains a relatively infrequent process in

Sparkling to still? Some of our wine turned from still to sparkling. Can we change it back to still at this point? Will nitrogen sparging take care of it or do we

Many of our readers may not be aware that, indeed, for some wine styles and types, we winemakers actually add residual carbon dioxide gas (CO2) before bottling. A tiny bit of sub-threshold

Choosing yeast I am new to the art of winemaking and have come to realize that there are many varieties of yeast available. I make mostly sweet fruit wines such as strawberry,

Barrel tests Can you tell me what I really need to handle one to one and a half barrels of juice annually? The TA and pH kits that I have seen are

Reusing corks? Will I ruin my wine by reusing corks removed from other wine bottles with a corkscrew? Jim Small Sultan, Washington There’s a simple answer to this question — you just

Raising pH the natural way I am seeking an organic means to raise pH. Any suggestions? Jim Romano Carrollton, Texas The most “organic,” natural way to raise the pH of your wine

Short answer (and it might work if your volatile acidity (VA) level is low enough, say, under 0.55 g/L, depending on your sensory threshold) is to bump up your free SO2 and

Like you I find oak pieces (segments, beans and sometimes chips) are a great way to practice elevage (aging and development) with small lots that won’t fit into a 60-gallon (227-L) barrel

Compromised kits? A friend of mine gave me quite a few wine kits. All of the white wines have come out very good, but the reds are a different story. The reds

Clarifying elderflower wine I made some elderflower wine last year and have now decanted it into bottles. It is very cloudy. What would you recommend to make it clear, please? Huw M.

Empty airlock I am new to making homemade wine and I recently started my own batch of Pinot Grigio. A week in I realized that I forgot to put water in my

Testing troubles I’ve been frustrated with the use of Clinitest tablets for measuring the end point or final dryness in my homemade wine and have been wondering and reading about the use

Increasing alcohol I made some wine about four months ago but the level of alcohol is at 8%. Is there something that I can do now to increase the level of alcohol?

I’m glad you wrote in this question. It points to the importance of thinking about our wines in the big picture sense. Decisions we make in the beginning can affect what decisions

There definitely has been an explosion in the number of people making and selling wine in this country! Every year, the number of brands listed with the TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax

Sparkling red? I made my first batch of Merlot and tried a bottle after it aged for a month. I noticed that the wine had some carbonation to it. Will this go

There are a couple of reasons I suggest we use tartaric or citric in the pages of The Winemaker’s Answer Book for cleaning and sanitizing purposes. First of all, acid is added

Wine and gluten allergy Can you tell me if typical wines in the store contain gluten or if certain yeasts contain gluten? Gluten is a protein in wheat, barley, rye and oats.

Heavy pressure I’m so pleased you’re paying such attention to detail in your winemaking. Absolutely we need to be concerned about extracting bitter seed tannins in our wines and during pressing we

I myself don’t suffer from Celiac Disease, nor am I gluten sensitive so I’ve never had to even think about this issue, though I know a lot of other people do. For

Freezing kit juice Will freezing affect the juice I get in a 5-gallon (19-L) kit? I am concerned about the variations that occur in home winemaking. My 6-gallon (23-L) primary fermenter works

Since these two questions are related I will answer them together. Layering ones’ containers with argon or CO2 gas may seem like an easy, pat solution to un-topped containers. It’s heavier than

Wine and gluten allergy Can you tell me if typical wines in the store contain gluten or if certain yeasts contain gluten? Gluten is a protein in wheat, barley, rye and oats.