Bryan's Wine & Beer Making Site
fine wines since 1981 ...
This type of blog post is a technical paper regarding wine or beer making.
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
