Wine Alcohol With Missing Starting Gravity: What Can Still Be Measured
Missed your wine's starting gravity? Separate what a final hydrometer, vinometer, ebulliometer or laboratory test can measure, and record your batch inputs.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Winemaking
How wine is made on a small scale: vineyard, harvest, fermentation and cellar work.
How to Degas Wine Before Bottling: Checks and Method Choices
Check fermentation, temperature and sediment before degassing still wine. Compare stirring, waiting and specialist methods, then record the final bottling checks.
How to Cold Stabilize Wine at Home: Treatment and Tests
Match home refrigeration to cold treatment, keep the wine cold through separation, and record the final-blend test before calling it tartrate stable.
Bentonite Before or After Fermentation? Kit Instructions and Final-Blend Trials
A kit sheet, a juice addition, and a final-blend fining are three different bentonite jobs. Record the product, the rehydration, the heat test, and the result.
How to Tell When Malolactic Fermentation Is Complete
When bubbles stop, a malic-acid test separates a stalled malolactic fermentation from a finished one. Record the method, unit, detection limit, and what the result leaves out.
When to Rack Wine After Primary Fermentation
Decide the first rack when primary fermentation is ending and sediment has settled. Separate gross and fine lees, malolactic plans, and air exposure.
When Are Wine Grapes Ready to Pick? A Small-Vineyard Harvest Record
Sample each block in shade and sun, then record sugar, acid, fruit condition, weather, and whether the cellar can take the fruit. No universal pick date.
Home Winemaking for Beginners: Six Steps From Fruit to Bottle
A beginner's route through home winemaking in the US: six steps from fruit to bottle, the equipment and sanitation checklist, the readings to take and what federal law allows.
Wine Fermentation Explained: Stages, Timing, Yeast and How to Tell It Is Done
How wine fermentation works in small batches: the two fermentations, a stage-by-stage timeline, temperature ranges by source, yeast choices and four checks that show it has finished.