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E. C. Kraus covers issues and topics of general interest to the home winemaker. You may pass this newsletter on to friends and others, as long as it is used in its entirety. Distribution of this newsletter in partial form is prohibited. _____________________________ ogists have found evidence of wine being purposely made as far back as 12,000 years ago. Wine was very present in early Egypt, almost being an industry of its own as early as 2,000 B.C. Yet, yeast was not discovered until the 1850's when French scientist Louis Pasteur suggested that wine fermentation was the
result of a living organism. successfully made wine
while being completely oblivious to its existence?
completely true. Bad batches of wine where made quite often as well. Wines that developed mold; wines that remained cloudy and visually unappealing; wines that eventually turned to vinegar - they were all part of the mix of what was made along side the good batches of wine that kept man's interest in the drink for so long.
the trees and plants; it floats in the air. We breath it everyday. And it is this natural yeast that also lands on fruit and provides for a natural fermentation when we crush the fruit and expose its sugars and nutrients to the yeast.
is that yeast is not the only thing that is everywhere. Vinegar bacteria, mold spores and many other types of little "nasties" are on the fruit as well, waiting to spoil the fun - pun intended.
capable of taking over the fruit more so than these other competing organisms. It is also capable of actually destroying any remnant numbers of these other organisms once it has taken hold of the fruit. But, quite often yeast will let us down and allow these other cultures to take over the fruit and cause it to become something other than wine.
current times, since Louis Pasteur's discoveries, we have developed a better understanding of what takes place during a fermentation. We understand that natural yeast is a "package deal". We now know how to isolate a strain of yeast, preserve it and package it.
simply put the juice through a sterilization process, killing all the wild molds and bacteria (wild yeast included) and then simply add a fresh strain of packaged yeast back to it, allowing the winemaker to start with a clean slate and a big advantage.
Campden Tablets to the juice - one tablet per gallon. Let the juice stand uncovered for 24 hours and then the juice is ready for yeast to be added.
When the tablets are crushed up and dissolved into a fruit juice, they release sulfur gases into the wine which does the sterilizing. Over a short period of time the gases slowly dissipate into the air, usually within 24 hours, making it safe to add your fresh package of wine yeast. For more information about the Campden Tablets we offer go to: - Part II, Taking
Advantage Of Technology. are available to us as winemaker's are much more suited for making wine than what you will find floating in the wild. Like any other living organism, yeast can be bred to respond more favorably to a given situation. There are yeasts that have been bred specifically to make beer; yeasts bred specifically to rise bread and so on.
produce the maximum amount of alcohol they can from the fruit, but also to produce alcohol with good flavor qualities. And to take this a step further, different wine yeasts have been bred for different types of wines. For example, there are wine yeasts, such as our "Red Pasteur" yeast from Red Star, that are very well suited for heavier red wines. And, there are wine yeasts such as our "Lavlin ICV D-47", that are very well suited for light, fruity white wines, and so on.
can be very troublesome when trying to clean and prepare your bottles for your next batch of wine. Long soakings in soapy water have little effect on these scaly areas and
scrubbing can turn into a real chore. Bottle Brush. The Mechanical Bottle Brush has stainless steel bristles that swirl around, up and down in the bottle when the bush's spiraled handle is pumped. effort on your part. And, the scrubbing is done with hard stainless steel wire bristles, something that dried deposits have a hard time standing up to. For more information about the Mechanical Bottle Brush go to:
fermentation. Taken from
the Latin word "mustus" meaning new. handled properly. All the bottles, even new ones, need to be sterilized, drained and cleanly stored until you can actually get the wine into the bottle. Each five gallon batch requires 25 fifth size bottles, and if your doing 15 or 20 gallons, then the number of bottles you are dealing with can start to become a
little overwhelming. preparation, leaving you with more time to enjoy the more fun side of making wine. We feel these item are to often overlooked, especially when you consider how much
time they can save you. sulfite solution up into your wine bottle. You just push the bottle upside- down over the Sulphatizer's nozzle and a blast of sulfur solution splatters up inside the wine bottle. This action causes the sulfur gases in the solution to release within
the bottle, sanitizing the entire inside. solution into the wine bottle, keep the bottle upside-down and the gases will linger inside while
the bottle is draining and drying. Tree is a column that stands about 4 feet tall and has 90 short pegs that stick out in all directions and are pointed slightly upwards. You just simply hang the bottles upside-down over the pegs while they are waiting to be filled. between uses or after washings. It efficiently holds up to 90 bottles in a very small area. Its wide base also doubles as a water collection tray so no mess can run out onto
the floor.
very time consuming task. Not only are the number of berries required to make a batch of wine quite high, the amount of stems that are involve is just as bad. Here's a
little trick that might help to save you a little time. and all. Put them all in a plastic trash bag or similar and freeze for at least 2 days. Once the elderberry clusters have been frozen, inflate the trash bag with air, tie off its opening. Then violently shake or beat the bag against the ground. This will break most of the elderberries lose from the stems. Once this has been done sufficiently, clip a bottom corner of the bag and the elderberries
will come rolling out. berries in the process.
But, it is well worth the time that you will save. Sodium Bisulfite instead. Sodium Bisulfite has the same active ingred- ients as Campden Tablets, but comes in a much easier to manage granulated form. that measures out one Campden Tablets worth of Sodium Bisulfite at a time. For more information on these products go to:
listed on our web site:
"How
To Get Started Making Wine"
"Home
Wine Making Recipe Page"
"The
Seven Easy Steps To Making Wine"
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