Writer: Alison Crowe

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

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

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.

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

I can guarantee the contents of the bottles are completely useless for any winemaking application. It’s almost unheard of for a wine, let alone much more-perishable grape juice, to survive in any

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

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.

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

I’m not a fan of the pH and TA kits available out there either. pH test strips are pointless as they don’t spit out an actual number and the TA test kits

A little fizzy I have had rosé and white wines with very low levels of CO2. They are not sparkling wines, nor as fizzy as a Vinho Verde. The wineries must inject

Bravo for you for doing bench trials! If you’ve read my columns over the years you know that doing bench trials, that is, testing a wine treatment on a small scale (“on

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