Chapter 14. Some Wine Making Tips

Here are given a few wine making tips in form of frequently asked questions which might be helpful for beginners.

Q. I have been making wines for a number of years and upon your recommendation have recently graduated to using wine yeasts. I find these a little more expensive to use and have hit upon the idea of taking a little of one lot of fermenting wine to 'start off' another batch instead of using a freshly started 'starter bottle'.

This new batch is fermenting well on the yeast taken from the near-finished lot. But I am now worried in case I have been rather an ass instead of a clever dick. Do you think everything will be O.K. ?

A. Quite O.K. I often do this myself, but only once. By this I mean that if I take yeast from one lot to ferment another that is as far as I go. I do not take a little of this second lot to start a third. My reason for this is that I like to bear in mind that all cultivated plant life (wine yeast being cultivated plant life) is subject to reversion to its wild state.

Mind you, I am not suggesting that reversion would of necessity take place, but it could if this practice were carried too far. Though there would be no harm in taking two lots of yeast from the one wine already fermenting to start two separate batches. The danger would come in taking yeast from one to the next, and then to the third and fourth and so on.

Q. When using bakers' yeast, as I have been doing for years, I find that when sampling a fermenting 'must' after fourteen days' fermentation I get a good idea of the kind of wine I can expect when fermentation has ceased altogether, and at this time I have found that most of the sugar has been used up and the wine, while still over-sweet, is not unbearably so. But now that I am using wine yeast, I find that after fourteen days' fermentation the wine is always sweeter than when I used bakers' yeast. This puzzles me, and I am wondering if the yeast is working as well as it should be. I must add, though, that the completely finished wines that I have so far made with wine yeast are better than those I have made with bakers' yeast. Any wine making tips would be of great help.

A. The point you are overlooking here is that when using bakers' yeast you usually add about an ounce. But when using wine yeast you are using very little yeast to start with.

Obviously, and because alcohol is the result of yeast reproduction, more alcohol is made in less time and therefore more sugar used up in less time when more yeast is used at the start.

The little bit of yeast you add either in tablet form or as a yeast culture cannot hope to produce so much alcohol in as little time as the quite large amount of bakers' yeast. But given time for reproduction to go on until millions of generations have lived and died in the course of producing the alcohol we want, the result will be the same.

It occurs to me that you might be in a hurry to get fermentation over in quick time, and you might like to try an experiment. But do not blame me if this is not one hundred per cent successful though I can find no reason for it not being just that.

Now, we know that bakers' yeast will produce about fourteen per cent of alcohol by volume in quite a short time. We also know that wine yeast makes about seventeen to eighteen per cent of alcohol by volume. Why not use bakers' yeast to get that initial fourteen per cent in a short time and, as fermentation nears completion, add your wine yeast to make that extra three or four per cent? In this way you should get eighteen per cent in far less time.

I must repeat that this is only a suggestion, and I shall be trying this idea out for myself later on; until then I cannot promise one hundred per cent success.

Q. I am using a nutrient that causes a lot of frothing at the time of adding it. Sometimes this froths over the tops of the jars and, when it subsides, a lot of this froth smothers the inside of the top quarter of the jar. I don't want to change my nutrient because it has proved itself a good one. Would you say it might be a good idea to add the total amount in three separate lots ? One lot when the 'must' is first prepared, the second when I add the first lot of sugar and the third lot when I add the second lot of sugar; this stage is, of course, the final stage. And does it matter if I leave that unsightly froth clinging to the inside of the jar until I next transfer to another jar or, in the final stage, would any harm come in leaving the froth where it is until all fermentation has ceased ?

A. Let me deal with the last part of your query first. The froth that is bothering you is part nutrient, part yeast. Ignore its presence. Carry on as if it were not there at all though I will admit that it does look unsightly. It is no bother to clean out of the jar when it becomes empty and it does no harm while remaining in the fermenting wine.

Some of this may break away and come over when the wine is being transferred to another jar, but it will settle in the form of lees later on and will be left behind at racking time.

As for adding the nutrient in stages, this is a good idea if you are using a gallon jar for making a gallon of wine. If you have jars that hold a good deal more than one gallon and make only a gallon at a time in them, all the nutrient may be added at once.

Bear in mind that when you know and understand the rules of successful wine-making, any idea of your own provided it does not go against the rules will work out all right.

Q. I was about to set about transferring my fermenting wine to another jar in order to add more sugar-water, this being after fourteen days' fermentation; but I found the ferment so vigorous that I felt it best to leave it for another week. This meant that the ferment was still very vigorous when the next lot of sugar was due to be added, so I left this second addition for a further week also. Your instructions seem emphatic about fermentation times and I am now worrying in case I should have adhered strictly to your rules.

A. Stop worrying. It is the common-sense approach such as yours that turns out good wines and good wine-makers. My directions are nothing more, really, that a general plan of action to be followed under ordinary circumstances. Those following them-will make good wines, but it does not mean that they have to stick to everything I tell them. As I have written elsewhere, learn the simple rules and success follows naturally. When you know and understand the rules, you know how many you may break safely and how you may alter recipes and directions according to your own wishes and circumstances.

Q. All the following incidents occurred in a single week and I am puzzled as to what has happened and what I ought to do.

Firstly, when fitting the lock to a jar of wine that was rather warm the lock began working in reverse. But later on I found that this was working normally. Then, later still, I found that while the wine was fermenting, the water in the lock remained level. Then, later still, the water was pushed up on the wrong side of the lock as if a bubble was going to pass through in the wrong direction e.g. into the jar.

A. All very puzzling to the beginner, but all very natural. I have these little tricks played on myself sometimes and this is what has happened in your case.

Firstly, the lock would work in reverse if the wine happened to be on the very warm side when put into the jar because this would drive out the air or most of it so that when the wine cooled, air was drawn back into the jar. This is evident because the lock began to work properly later on when the proper amount of air had been drawn in and when gas from the ferment had begun to create pressure. It is for this reason, and because a rapid drop in temperature will sometimes slow down fermentation and cause the same thing to happen, that it is best to put a little of the sterilizing solution into the lock instead of water. Air passing into the jar through the metabisulphite solution is purified instantly.

Secondly, the water in the lock remained level because you must have had a leak in the wax or in the bung or somewhere allowing the gas to escape. If you had twisted the jar so that more than normal bubbles rose you would have found that the lock would begin to work and then stop and the water return to normal in a matter of minutes. This would be caused by a lot of gas pressure not being able to escape from a tiny escape hole so that the lock had to work for a little while. But when the excess gas had escaped and the vigorousness of the ferment caused by twisting the jar had died down, the water would return to normal owing to the leak. Run a warm poker or some other tool round the wax joins, but before you do so make sure the bung is pushed in as tightly as it should be.

The fact that later on the water was pushed up on the wrong side of the lock was most likely owing to a rapid drop in temperature. You did not say whether later still you found the lock to be working again normally, so I presume that you did.

Clearly, from these questions and answers, it will be evident that the beginner should use glass jars in preference to stone ones so that they can see whether the wine is working or not and then judge whether the lock is behaving itself or not.

Q. As I broke the plastic seal on a bottle of last year's elderberry wine, the cork shot through the open skylight of the outhouse and half the wine followed it in one almighty gush. I opened the last six bottles of the same batch and the corks flew but not so badly. The wine fizzed up to the tops of the bottles but did not overflow.

Deciding it best to put the lot into a gallon jar and to fit a lock, I now find that this is working quite fast.

Do you think the wine will be all right and did I do the right thing in putting it under a lock? Further, what could have caused this bottle to ferment, obviously not bacteria because the wine tastes really nice except for the unwanted effervescence ?

A. Your elderberry wine has probably suffered the same fate as some other wines that ferment into the winter months where extra warmth during this time is not provided. What has happened is that as fermentation neared completion an especially cold night brought the temperature down and fermentation ceased a little prematurely.

This means that not enough alcohol was made. If enough alcohol had been made, any yeast left in the wine would have been dead yeast because the amount of alcohol would have killed it. Clearly the wine has been prevented from fermenting owing to cold, but now that the weather has turned warm the yeast has become active and is going all out to produce all the alcohol that it can.

Leave as it is at present and regard it for all intents and purposes as a new batch of wine. Let it ferment right out and when it has cleared again, bottle it as before.

Q. The old methods of making wines that I have been following always advised boiling the fruit. I admit that I rarely had a clear wine to drink, but I did like the flavour of stewed fruit that was given to the wine.

The wines made with the recipes and directions that you sent me over a year ago are lovely wines, brilliantly clear, and everybody likes them more than I do but only because I prefer that stewed fruit flavor in my wines. Can you tell me how to get this and at the same time get a clear wine? I understand that boiling the fruit is the cause of cloudy wines.

A. You are quite right in assuming that boiling fruits is the cause of cloudy wine. If you want that stewed fruit flavour and a clear wine, you will have to alter the whole process of making wine, but this is quite a simple matter. Any of the recipes I sent you (and for that matter, any fresh fruit wine recipe in this book) may be adapted to give the flavor required.

The method is as follows.

Having crushed the fruit and having added the first lot of water and the Campden tablet, leave the mixture to soak for twenty-four hours. Then squeeze as much as you can and strain the fruit through fine muslin, wringing out all the juice you can get. Then put this juice through a jelly-bag or flannel so that every particle of pectin-bearing fruit is strained out. This may take a long time, but put where it will not be in the way and let it drain without squeezing. Then, when you have all the juice that will run, it may be boiled for a few minutes (say not more than five minutes) to get the flavor you are after. The first lot of sugar would be added to this hot juice and the process thereafter would be the same as given in the methods on pages 38-40, merely adding the sugar and water in stages either in two stages or in one, as suits you best.

Q. Not being a patient person and one who is always in the greatest rush when doing anything, I wonder if I may make my wine in two stages instead of the three you advise in various magazines. The wines I have made by following these methods are top rate, but it is just that I have so little time to put to the hobby.

A. If you are, as you say you are, rushed for time, you may do as you wish and add the sugar and water in two stages instead of three. As I have already mentioned, it is common-sense approaches that make good wine makers. My directions are for the very best results, but there is nothing to prevent you altering them slightly to suit your personal circumstances.

Q. On opening a gallon jar of my wine, the lot fizzed up as if it were working vigorously. The deposit in the jar rose up, clouding the wine. This has stopped now and the wine is beginning to clear again. The jar is being left plugged with cotton wool as I am afraid to cork it in case something is wrong. Incidentally, I sampled a drop of this and it is really delightful. Would you please tell me what has happened.

A. Clearly what happened in your case is that you thought fermentation had ceased altogether and bunged down the jar. But a little fermentation went on unnoticed so that you did, in effect, produce by accident a semi-champagne. It is a wonder the bung didn't blow out of the jar.

All you need do now is to leave the wine bunged tightly until the deposit has settled again and then bottle. This will not happen again because the compressed carbon-dioxide gas that caused the effervescence has escaped.

Q. When I put my wine into a jar all the yeast, rose to the top, and because I used two half-gallon jars instead of a gallon jar, the yeast clings to the neck pf the bottle and will not sink. Can I do anything about this?

A. Best to leave things as they are for the present. This has been caused through disturbing a vigorous ferment and as soon as this dies down the yeast will settle and no harm will have been done. The same thing happens sometimes with small particles of undissolved isinglass and if you meet this trouble while jars are full, insert a funnel, pour in a little wine or sugar-water and overflow the solids out of the jar.

I hope all the above wine making tips help.

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