Bryan's Wine & Beer Making Site
fine wines since 1981 ...
This type of blog post is a technical paper regarding wine or beer making.
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...
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...
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...
updated 07/30/2024 A new member on WMT asked about container size, e.g., how big should the primary fermenter be? Overflow This question is a great one — if a primary is too full, a...
updated 07/27/2024 Inexperienced winemakers (and sometimes experienced winemakers) may get a refermentation in the bottle, producing a light spritz or pushing out the cork. This post addresses what is safe and what is not...
updated 07/27/2024 What is sorbate? Potassium sorbate is used in conjunction with potassium metabisulfite (K-meta) to “stabilize” wine, to prevent a renewed fermentation after backsweetening a wine. In laymen’s terms, sorbate + K-meta act...
updated 06/25/2024 This post is inspired by yet another question on WineMakingTalk, asking about how much sugar to buy to chaptalize 50 gallons of cider. Sugar is currently on sale and the questioner knows...
updated 08/13/2024 A common question among home winemakers: How does one blend wines? I mean beyond the basics of pouring varying amounts of wines 1 through X into a beaker. How is the decision...
updated 05/24/2024 Recently a friend posted on WineMakingTalk — he wants to make a wine to lay down for twenty-one years, in honor of his new grandson. He makes kit wines, and asked for...
updated 05/22/2024 A common question from new winemakers is about oxygen exposure. It’s commonly believed that even brief exposure to air ruins a wine. I was once asked, “My wine was exposed to air...
