Making A Yeast Starter
Posted in enology, winemaking on Aug 14th, 2007
Sometimes your yeast need a boost. Here’s how to make a starter with water, sugar, and nutrient.
Category Archive for 'enology'
Making Wine From Grapes With (Almost) No Equipment
Posted in bonsai vineyard, enology on Aug 6th, 2007
Don’t buy the expensive equipment I buy wine grapes through my local homebrew shop in 100 lb lots, which is enough to make five or six gallons of wine. They take customer orders, arrange to buy the grapes from growers, and provide the use of their equipment. They will do all the work, so I [...]
Cherry Wine Recipe: Sugar and acid
Posted in cherry wine, enology on Jul 31st, 2007
Too much acid, but I don’t dare neutralize it I pressed the cherry wine four weeks ago, and looked in on it yesterday. It’s had time to settle, and the clear wine has a lovely dark color. It tastes tart, though, and when I measured the total acidity (TA) I could see why. It was [...]
I’ve been stirring my oregano wine every day since I used potassium bicarbonate to raise the pH. Yesterday I took some measurements, and I found some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I succeeded in raising the pH to 3.67, and that’s high enough to permit fermentation. The bad news [...]
Oregano Wine Recipe: restarting a stuck fermentation
Posted in enology, herb wine, troubleshooting on Jul 25th, 2007
I tested a sample of my oregano wine yesterday. The specific gravity is 1.053 and the pH is 2.62. These results are virtually unchanged from 7/13/07 when I first noticed the pH crash that stopped the yeast in their tracks. I’ll try to get them going again by neutralizing some of the acid, raising the [...]
I’ve been thinking about the pH drop that brought fermentation to a near halt, and I’ve decided to deacidify with potassium bicarbonate (KHCO3). Most of the information I could find on neutralizing acid has to do with reducing the total acidity (TA); I couldn’t find anything about deliberately raising the pH. That means I have [...]
My oregano wine has been fermenting very slowly, and I suspected a pH problem. I was following a recipe that called for 3 tsp of acid blend. I decided to add only 1 tsp at the beginning, because I was afraid the pH could drop so low that it would inhibit the yeast. The must [...]
I Bought A pH Meter
Posted in enology on Jul 11th, 2007
I’ve used pH papers for a while, but in making red wine from cherries I’ve gone beyond their limits. I can’t read the color very well when I’m measuring dark colored wine, and for the same reason, its tough to do acid titration with an indicator. Since I didn’t have a good way to measure [...]
White Wine From Tomatoes!
Posted in enology, tomato wine, winemaking on Jun 20th, 2007
Different for a reason: Why I’ll make it white When most people think about tomato wine, they – ok, most people don’t think about tomato wine, but if they did they would – think about red wine. It’s the same way with cherry wine, and just as I wrote about white cherry wine a few [...]
White Wine From Cherries?
Posted in bonsai orchard, cherry wine, enology on Jun 17th, 2007
Isn’t cherry wine is supposed to be red? I mentioned white cherry wine in passing here, but most people think of cherry wine as a red. The only commercial cherry wine I’ve tried is a red – crushed, fermented on the skins, then pressed. Every recipe I’ve seen involves either fermenting on the skins or [...]