Help My Wine Making! Episode 12 Scott “The Wine Making Guy” The Resolution Keepers Wine Making Contest, How to Easily Remove Labels from Wine Bottles and Do Wine Kits Have Expiry Dates?

Click here to sign up for the Resolutions Keepers Wine Making Contest!

See you next week where we’ll be discussing a great way to test your wines at various stages throughout the aging process …

Have a great week!

Help My Wine Making! Episode 11 Scott “The Wine Making Guy” Holiday Recap, Two Upcoming Wine Making Contests, My Free Upcoming iPhone App, and Getting Un-Stuck (Part II)

See you next week where we’ll be discussing if wine kits have “best before dates” …

Have a great week!

Help My Wine Making! Episode 10 – Different Ways to Use Old T-Shirts to Make Wine, A Nifty Free Website For Wine Making Calculations and Getting Un-Stuck (Part I)

Here’s that link to the free wine calculation website:

• http://wineadds.com/

See you next week where we’ll have Part II of what makes a wine “stuck”!

Have a great week!

Help My Wine Making! Episode 9 – Rocky Mountain Update, What Kind of Primary Do You Have and Why Keeping Eye on the Temperature In Your Wine is Important

See you next week where we’ll be discussing what makes a wine “stuck”!

Have a great week!

Help My Wine Making! Episode 8 – Follow Up Trick To Our Carboy Discussion From Episode 7, The “Wine Flu” and Why Acid Is Considered The “Backbone” of Your Wine

Help My Wine Making Episode #8

Resources Mentioned In This Podcast:

• [amazon-product text="The Wine Makers Answer Book (Answer Book (Storey))" type="text"]1580176569[/amazon-product]
• How to Adjust the Level of Acidity in Your Wine (Free PDF Download)

See you next week where we’ll be discussing why keeping an on the temperature of your wine must is important!

Have a great week!

Help My Wine Making! Episode 7 – A Quick Idea for All You Grape Wine Folks, The Dangers of Using A Plastic Water Bottle as A Carboy & A Wine Storage Alternative From “Down Under”

Help My Wine Making Episode #7

Resources mentioned in the show:

Crusher & Destemmer:

• E.C. Kraus

Using A Water Bottle As A Carboy:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Recycling_Code
• http://www.better-bottle.com/technical.html
• http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/ice-mountain-water-jugs-better-bottles-56936/
• http://www.drinksplanet.com/5-gallon-water-bottles-as-carboy-3223110.html
• Google “Using a water bottle as a carboy”

Flex-Tank Wine Storage:

• http://www.flextank.com.au/

See you next week where we’ll be discussing why acid is considered the backbone of your wine!

Have a great week!

Help My Wine Making! Episode 6 – Why You Should Go To The First Crush Wine Making Experience, Why You Should Document Your Wine Making, What To Document and Easy Ways To Keep Track of Your Homemade Wine Batches

Help My Wine Making Episode #6

Resources mentioned in the show:

First Crush Wine Making Experience

Wine Making Logs:

• The Wine Making Guy’s Homemade Wine Log
• Winemaker Magazine Wine Log

See you next week where we’ll be discussing the dangers of using plastic water bottles as carboys!

Have a great week!

Help My Wine Making! Episode 5 – A Unique “Add-On” For Your Kitchen, Can You Add Too Much Fruit Too Your Wine, Two Easy Ways To “Gussy Up” Your Wine Bottles

Help My Wine Making Episode #5

Resources mentioned in the show:

MyOwnLabels.com

• www.MyOwnLabels.com

Stoney Creek Wine Press

• www.StoneyCreekWinePress.com

StickyBusiness.com

• www.StickyBusiness.com

4th & Vine

• www.4th-vine.com

Classic Studio

• www.classicstudiolabels.com

Winexpert Labels

• www.winexpert.com/labels/selection

See you next week where we’ll be discussing different ways to keep track of your batches of homemade wine as you make them!

Have a great week!

Help My Wine Making – Episode 2 – A Tasty Spanish Wine To Try, A Cool Wine Application For Your iPhone and The Dangers of Bulk Aging Your Wine

Help My Wine Making Episode #2

Resources mentioned in the show:

Guelbenzu Evo 2005

Wine Pad 2 (iPhone application)

See you next week where we’ll be discussing if magnets can improve the taste of wine and a nifty trick from “The Pirate” to help you put labels on your wine bottles!

Have a great week!

Follow Up Warning To Increasing The Alcohol Level In Your Wine

I received a very insightful reponse to my most recent post on increasing the alcohol level in your wine, which I thought I should share with you all as there is a “darker side” to it that you should be aware of!

Mark writes:

“I have a couple comments on your blog post.  First of all, you should add a caution statement about adding sugar into fermenting wine.  It needs to be added very slowly.  The first time I did this, I dumped about 4 lbs of sugar into my 6 gallon primary while it was still actively fermenting.  WOW what a mess.  It foamed up like crazy and overflowed the primary bucket and went all over the floor.  Lesson learned. 
 
The next point is that I have found that adding extra sugar at the beginning has much the same affect if all you want is about 15% alcohol.  If you start with a brix of about 30-32 I usually end up with at least 15% alcohol without having to add sugar a second time.
 
Lastly, there may be a consideration on the type of yeast you use.  Some yeasts will burn themselves out and drown in the alcohol when it gets up around 13-14%.  I have not experimented much with this but I do know that Cote des Blancs has a good tolorance for higher alcohol content.
 
As far as the taste is concerned, you may find that the final RS needs to be higher in the bottled wine if the alcohol content is higher to achieve the same taste as you’d have with a lower alcohol content.  That has been my experience anyway.
 
I hope this information helps.

- Mark”

Thanks Mark – certainly worth mentioning to everyone!

- Scott “The Wine Making Guy”

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