Date: Apr-May 2015
The Pearson Square
FREEThe Pearson Square is a tool to calculate the number of parts of two different solutions with different concentrations that are required to bring one of the solutions to a desired concentration. The Pearson Square can be intimidating to newbies, but when dissecting it piece by piece it is relatively straight-forward, and understanding it will pay dividends.
Fermentation Troubles, Natural Fining, and Get Your Swirl On
MEMBERS ONLYSome home winemakers cool down must ferments by freezing gallon water jugs and tossing them (closed tightly) into fermenting totes, bins or trash cans of must during a punchdown.
Get Your Swirl On
FREEI say Toe-may-toe, you say toe-mah-toe . . . this sounds like a bizarre wine myth in the making that we should just quash right here. Though undoubtedly, swirling your wine glass
Natural Fining For White and Rosé Wines
MEMBERS ONLYWell, an old-timer winemaker I used to work with would say, “The most natural fining agent for any wine is time.” What he meant was that with time, solids fall out, proteins eventually coagulate and fall to the bottom of the aging vessel and tartrates reach an equilibrium so they aren’t in excess and big
Fermenting & Degassing Wine Kits
FREEIn this article I’m going to go into detail on the reasons behind two of the four most confusing concepts in kit winemaking: 1) Temperature, and why higher is better, and 2)
Bulk Wine Aging
MEMBERS ONLYThere is more to cellaring bulk wine than meets the eye. Home winemakers heave a sigh of relief when the last of the harvest processing is done, but the job is not over. The wine is put away in carboys, demijohns, tanks, or barrels and we hope it stays safe through the winter and spring.
Drought Strategies for Grape Growing
MEMBERS ONLYHere is one truism of farming: Being prepared is always preferable to trying to fix an unexpected problem. Understanding the water needs of a grapevine is an important step to using as much supplemental irrigation in your small vineyard as needed, but not an amount that is either wasteful or actually reduces the quality of
Native American Grape Varietals
MEMBERS ONLYBotanists tell us that grapes are members of the genus Vitis, and the well-known European grape varieties are members of the species vinifera. (In case you’ve forgotten, a species is one rung lower in the botanical classification system than a genus.) When the Europeans first came to the New World, they found grapes growing in great profusion
Rosé Techniques Roundtable
MEMBERS ONLYAsking a winemaker if they make rosé should be like asking a winemaker if they drink beer. The two beverages, pink wine and a tasty lager, belong in any cellar and in any winemaker’s glass. Why? Quite simply, rosé (and beer) is easy to make, quick to bottle, quick to market (or mouth) and delicious
Making Varietal Honey Mead
MEMBERS ONLYHoney is a complex mixture of sugars, flavors from the pollen as well as trace enzymes, minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. The majority of the honey found in grocery stores is Wildflower honey, which is a blend of different honeys made with the goal of producing honey that is consistent in flavor and color. This
Bottling Your Wine
MEMBERS ONLYAs renowned French wine scientist Emile Peynaud wrote, “Bottling is a very stressful operation for a wine and the enological problems it causes are numerous: Considerable oxygen uptake, keeping out microorganisms and particles in suspension by filtering, constant struggle to prevent any contamination of yeasts by the apparatus itself, cleanliness of the glass, efficiency of
Albariño/Alvarinho: The wine of Galicia
MEMBERS ONLYAlbariño/Alvarinho is the grape of the Spanish region of Galacia, and it’s catching on in the States too.
Fermentation Troubles
MEMBERS ONLYHi Lauren, great question. There are so many steps along the way where a fermentation can get into trouble, or “go pear shaped” as my interns from New Zealand used to say. We could almost do a walk through from start to finish, or even picking to dryness and say well, it could go south
Tomato, Jalapeño, Dandelion Wines: Tips from the Pros
MEMBERS ONLYLooking to try something new? You can make unique and wonderful wines from plants found in your garden or even growing wild in your backyard. Winemaker and Owner of TSJ Wine Blenders in Roseville, Michigan. Tom began as a home winemaker about 1990 utilizing grapes from his father’s small farm. Compliments on their wines led
A Century of Wine: Dry Finish
FREEOne of my first memories as a child was following my maternal great-grandmother, Maggie, around in her orchard and vineyard in western Pennsylvania. It was fascinating for me as a 6 year
Expire Dates
MEMBERS ONLYOf course the best thing you can do is check expiration dates on packages, boxes and vials. If you buy bulk loose powders (like tartaric acid in baggies from a larger sack) from your home winemaking or homebrewing supply store, be sure to ask the store owners when they opened the larger batches from which