Bryan's Wine & Beer Musings Blog

Basic Kit Making Process 2

Basic Kit Making Process

NOTE: This post is in beta, and is being reviewed for accuracy and completeness. updated 02/22/2025 The internet is wonderful, because there is so much information freely available. Simultaneously, the internet is horrible because...

Making A Second Run Wine 0

Making A Second Run Wine

updated 02/22/2025 After pressing a wine, about 20% of the original grape weight is “pomace”, the solids which will include skin, seeds, pulp, and stems. This is typically discarded, and may be composted. The...

Potassium Metabisulfite in Winemaking 0

Potassium Metabisulfite in Winemaking

updated 02/17/2025 Periodically newcomers to WineMakingTalk who state they: Want to make wine “naturally” Don’t want to use “chemicals” Don’t want to use “sulfite” There’s a lot of folks proselytizing ideas regarding back to...

Degassing Wine 0

Degassing Wine

updated 10/10/2024 Is degassing necessary, and if so, how does one do it? To Degas, or not Degas, that is the Question! This is a highly important question — is it necessary to degas...

Wine 2025 – Update #01 0

Wine 2025 – Update #01

19 January 2025 Yes, I’m already thinking about the wine we’ll make in October. Per usual, anything I say in this post may – or may not – resemble what is actually purchased in...

Chromatography Test for Malic Acid 0

Chromatography Test for Malic Acid

updated 01/20/2025 In October I tried something new to me – inoculating with MaloLactic Bacteria (MLB) to induce MaloLactic Fermentation (MLF). The MLB eats harsher malic acid and emits milder lactic acid. The only...

2023 Port 1

2023 Port

December 2024 Overall, the 2021 Port was a successful effort, so we decided to try it again. This time we used the 2023 Sangiovese, which is 2 juice buckets fermented with the pomace of...

Homogenizing a Must 0

Homogenizing a Must

updated 01/17/2025 This post is in response to yet another common question among new winemakers: Why does my SG change from day 1 to day 2 with no fermentation? This has been asked by...

Handling Hydrogen Sulfide in Wine 0

Handling Hydrogen Sulfide in Wine

updated 12/22/2024 Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) is a major fault in wine, and is typically caused by yeast being stressed due to lack of nutrients. It is one of the few things in winemaking that...

2024 Vidal 1

2024 Vidal

October 2024 Today I met the owners of Glade Spring Vineyard to get the Vidal, which is already crushed. This is the last wine of the year. Ingredients Fruit 130 lbs Vidal Maceration Enzyme...