Topic: Fermentation

When setting out to make wine from grapes, one of the first major decisions is what you will use as a fermentation container. For most winemaking, you will need a primary fermenter

Not every winemaker makes wine with commercially-cultivated yeast strains. In fact, lots of commercial winemakers let their wines ferment with wild yeast from the grapes and in the winery. Here we have

Explore the options for your first fermentation vessel.

Home Winemakers, Let’s Take a Vote: Those of you who put your wines through malolactic fermentation only after the alcoholic fermentation is complete, raise your hands. Now those of you who do

The failure rate of wine made from kits is very low. Looking back at my database for the last 14 years and eliminating the weirder stuff (you simply would not believe how

Over the past few years I have made larger ­­­and larger batches of wine, and as a result the number of carboys I use has really added up. Each year I try

A quick explanation of what malolactic fermentation is, and how/when you may want to do it.

Learn how to stop fermentation before reaching dryness, plus when and why a winemaker may wish to do so.

Ask 5 winemakers and you may get 6 opinions about co-inocculation. But what does the science say?

Hi 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.

Wild or native yeasts, according to a general definition, occur naturally in the air or on surfaces. While the word, ‘wild’ might give the romantic impression that winemaking’s native yeasts come from

There once was a time when MLF only happened spontaneously in winemaking. These days, however, winemakers have more choices when it comes to performing MLF.

Like most everything in winemaking, the glib answer is, “It depends.” The real answer, however, is much more complex and as you intimate, experience can play a large part in fine-tuning your

All home winemakers wish — and strive — for fermentations that go smoothly and completely to the desired finish, usually dry wine. When things go wrong, a frequent problem is a stuck

In the fourth installment of our year-long series about how homemade wine is made using home-grown grapes in Upstate New York, it’s time to check on finished fermentations and prune the grapevines.

Well, I would’ve inoculated right off the bat if I didn’t see anything happening within 24 to 48 hours. Contrary to popular belief, yeast cells that can carry out a complete alcoholic

Many home winemakers are uncertain on whether or not to have their wines go through malolactic fermentation. This is not surprising since there is no “one size fits all” approach to the

Want to preserve the delicate aromas in your white wines? Learn these hot tips for running a cool fermentation.

The dreaded “ring around the carboy” strikes again! Quickie answer – your instincts are correct. I would rack to clean containers and, since you’ve already added SO2, and since I doubt your

Before you set about making any major changes to this wine, make sure that when you taste you are not tasting a sample that has a lot of dissolved carbon dioxide gas

Since you don’t mention whether the 15 ppm is free or total SO2, it’s tough for me to refer specifically to either the instructions or your protocol. However, I routinely add up

Is the salmonella (commonly associated with eggs) a problem to consider when fining with egg whites? Bob McKee Tucker, Georgia Egg whites are an ancient, traditional and natural additive and are sometimes

A dear professor of mine in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at University of California at Davis used to say, while pointing down at his wooden podium, “Technically, you can ferment

When Ray Charles and Betty Carter sang the definitive version of Frank Loesser’s song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” it’s a pretty sure bet that home winemaking was the last thing on their

What’s with the fizz? I bottled an Amarone from juice about six months ago. I have been trying it every couple of months to see how it is coming along. I opened