Topic: Kit-Winemaking
Yeast Trials With Wine Kits
Just because your wine kit comes with a certain yeast, that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with other options.
Unoaked Wine Kits
Not using oak on wine is a time-honored tradition for many varietals and styles, and often for good reason. There are few things as disconcerting and deeply weird as a heavily oaked
Oak Chip Recommendations For Chardonnay
First, make sure that the portion left over, i.e. the portion you are not bottling now and will be adding more oak to, will be stored in a completely full (or “topped
Metatartaric Acid In Wine Kit
Your question about metatartaric acid is a good one and one that brings to mind similar confusion and questions many of us have when faced with a litany of fining agents (and
Young Wine Kits: Wine Kits
Back in the April-May 2002 issue of WineMaker I wrote an article about picking the right wine kit. The McGuffin of the article was the idea that there was a right
Quick Drinking Wine Kits
In this article I’ll be discussing “vinfanticide,” which is wines to drink on bottling day (or before). And in the next issue I’ll cover super-early drinking wines (under three months of age).
Rhône in a Box: Wine Kits
A good winemaker understands not only his or her grapes and where and how they are grown, but also his or her techniques of elaboration and the greater context of the wine
Enjoying Dessert Wine Kits
Drinking Port To my palate, Port is toothsome — it somehow seems to satisfy and delight all on its own. Back when I smoked a pipe (and nothing looks dopier than someone
Can I Reduce Tannins in a Wine Kit Without Aging?
It seems to me like your Carmenère is a candidate for one of the “Wine Wizard’s” cheapest, easiest and most favorite ways to improve a tannic wine; egg white fining! What could
Topping Up With Gas, Freezing Kit Juice: Wine Wizard
Argon gas My carboys are 6 1⁄4 gallons (24 L). I am making mostly heavy reds and want to bulk age in glass carboys for up to twelve months before bottling. I
Sparkling Wine From Kits
Ahh, glorious Champagne: our companion at celebrations and important events, it christens our ships, welcomes our New Year, and gently helps the caviar and oysters along the path to culinary nirvana. Sparkling
Maintaining Fermentation Temperatures
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
Understanding the Different Sizes of Wine Kits
“Quantity has a quality all of its own.” -R K Ratch Someone once said, “good things come in small packages.” I’m pretty sure this was a shopkeeper who sold very small consumer
Big Kits
“Quantity has a quality all of its own.” -R K Ratch Someone once said, “good things come in small packages.” I’m pretty sure this was a shopkeeper who sold very small consumer
Degassing Wine Kits with a Vacuum Pump
What could vacuums have to do with wine kits? While there have been times when a wet/dry vacuum would have been very helpful in my wine cellar, there is a specific benefit
Alternate Degassing for Wine Kits
What could vacuums have to do with wine kits? While there have been times when a wet/dry vacuum would have been very helpful in my wine cellar, there is a specific benefit
Amarone-Style Wine Kits
Most wine drinkers who have been exposed to Amarone probably consider it to be another one of Italy’s signature wine styles — perhaps the most brutally powerful and distinctively flavorful, but one
Making Port-Style Wine Kits
“Port is not for the very young, the vain and the active. It is the comfort of age and the companion of the scholar and the philosopher.” – Evelyn Waugh Drinking Port can
How Kit Manufacturers Choose Yeast
Wine yeast — or Saccharomyces, which is Latin for ‘sugar-fungus’ — converts sugar into alcohol. While alcoholic fermentation is the most important aspect of winemaking, yeast does more than just bubble out
Aging Your Kit Wines
Discussions of wine aging range well into the past, from the biblical story of Luke and putting new wine into old skins, to the ancient Roman interest in Falernian wine, which could
7 Great Wine Kit Tips
Ah, the wine kit — is there any invention of mankind that has contributed more happiness and pleasure than the simple box of delicious juice, clarifiers, stabilizers and thoughtful, well-written instructions? Well,
7 Great Kit Winemaking Tips
Seven important tips to remember when making your next wine from a kit.
Making Sparkling Wine from Kits
Has this ever happened to you? You bottle what seems to be your next, greatest batch of wine, carefully set it aside to age for as long as you can possibly stand
Wine Kit First Aid
You: a happy winemaking citizen, going about your lawful fermentation business, enjoying the marvellous convenience and quality that the wine-kit industry has provided you. Your kit wine: usually a tractable and pleasant
Picking the Right Wine Kit
The modern wine kit, with its gleaming plastic bag in a jazzy-looking box, didn’t start out as a miracle of modern technology. Arguably, the first wine kits were actually used in ancient