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I was asked the other day how I clean my wine making equipment so I thought this would be a good topic for my “question of the week” as I’m sure there are others curious as well. So here’s what I do to keep the germs off my winemaking gear:

I call it the “Double Whammy”!

Step 1 - Pink Solution (Sani Brew)

It’s comes as chlorinated pink powder that you dissolve 3.5 g per litre of cold water (5 tsp. per gal). Soak stained equipment up to 48 hours. Rinse thoroughly with hot water. Because it’s a chlorine product you want to be careful with stainless steel equipment and you’ll also want to make sure you rinse really well. I like soaking my wine and beer bottles in it for several days to clean all the “gunge” out of them, especially if they’re used. It’s also great for removing stains from your equipment (especially your primary).

Step 2 - MetaBisulphite spray down.

This is a good sanitizer as well but doesn’t clean like in step one hence why I do both.  I use a spray bottle like the one below as it really helps get you good coverage.  The nice thing about the MetaBisulphite solution is that it is reusable for up to a month.  Note that it has a strong sulphur smell so use it in a well ventilated area so you don’t irritate your lungs.  I typically rinse my equipment after using it but some people just let their equipment drip dry as it won’t be a bad thing if it gets into your wine as it will help prevent oxidization.

Anyhoo, that’s basically what I do to clean my equipment.

Oh … one thing you might want to do is go to your hardware store and invest in a short garden hose that you can attach to a tap as this’ll help you clean your primary and secondary.  I was able to pick one up that was about 6 feet long with one end open and the other with the tap connector. I’ve used it for years and it makes things really easy. Make sure that you clean this out first (i.e. in step 1) so that you clean out any bugs that might be lurking in it as well.

If you’re interested in some more details on how to clean your equipment here are two good resources for you:

• http://www.clickabrew.com/cn-0903.html (scroll down the page and look for “Cleaning & Sanitising your Winemaking Equipment”
• http://www.eckraus.com/Cleaners_-and-_Sanitizers.html (an online store where you can buy some of the sanitizers)
• http://www.grapestompers.com/sanitation.asp (lot’s of great detail here)

If you have any interesting cleaning methods please share below!

- Scott

Peter, one of my loyal wine making participants from the UK sent me this message today about getting a recipe for apple cider and I thought it would make for a great “Question of the Week”. Enjoy!

Hi Scott

Hows are things? You dont happen to have a easy recipe for cider?

I have aquired about 30 to 40 pound of apples but not sure of the best way to make a gallon of cider or more if i can, out of the apples.

Hope to here from you soon,

Good health

Peter

I tracked down this recipe online for him that sounded tasty:

APPLE CIDER

Makes 1 Gallon — for larger quantities, multiply everything except the yeast, which is sufficient up to 5 gallons.

14-16 lbs Apples (or 1 gallon of juice)
1/2 cup Dextrose
1/2 tsp Pectic Enzyme
1/2 tsp Andovin Super Nutrient
1 Campden Tablet (crushed)
1 pkg Lalvin EC-1118 Wine Yeast

Cut apples into smaller pieces, which will help in juice extraction. Crush, press, and add juice to primary fermenter with all ingredients except wine yeast. Cover primary.

Pressing: if a fruit press is not available, add fruit to a nylon straining bag. Strain out juice, and when finished, tie the bag up & add it to the primary fermenter as well.

After 24 hours, strain the juice from the pulp, & discard straining bag. Add yeast.

Rack to secondary carboy after SG drops below 1.010. Rack again when fermentation is complete (SG below 0.999), or in 3 weeks — whichever is later.

Fining & Stablilizing: If you are NOT going to sparkle your cider, you should add 1/2 tsp of Potassium Sorbate per gallon to stabilize the yeast. After this is done, you’ll be able to sweeten your cider to your liking. A clarifier may also be added.

Racking: Any further racking should be done with the addition of 1 (crushed) Campden tablet per gallon.

Sparkling Cider: When ready to bottle, add 1/4 cup dissolved table sugar PER GALLON to an empty pail. Syphon the cider into the pail, give a quick stir, and bottle into beer bottles (or pop bottles, or Champagne bottles), and cap accordingly.

Allow to sit 4 weeks before sampling. Age in a cool, dark place.

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The original can be found at: http://www.homecraft.on.ca/recipes/applecider.htm

I should also mention that there is also an Apple Cider recipe in The Winemaker’s Recipe HandbooK as well. It is recipe number #4 on page 3.

If you end up making the recipe please let me know how it turns out!

- Scott

Here’s a question I received the other day that I found very interesting and am interested to hear how you would respond:

Hoping you can help me. I’ve been making grape juice for quite some time and have used your regular mason jars to store the juice and poured directly in the jar while hot then sealed with the jar lid.

I would like to store the juice in some type of wine bottle using cork or bartop finish. My question is, will I have an issue pouring hot grape juice in the wine bottle then use the cork or bartop finish to seal it. Usually when I pour the grape juice in the mason jar I’ll hear the pop sound of the lid then I know the bottle is sealed and can be preserved.

I hope I’ve made sense.

Thanks,

M.

My understanding is that carboys and wine bottles aren’t tempered and therefore not heat resistant. This means that the glass can potentially crack or shatter (and hurt anyone close by) when hot water is added to them.

I’ve also mentioned in earlier posts that you can now buy clear plastic carboys (see my “Winemaking Designer Carboys” post) and these you definitely need to be careful that you don’t add boiling water to them to clean them out.

Here’s proof from one of my readers:

So what do you think? Would you add hot water/juice to your wine bottles or carboy?

I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are so please leave a comment!

- Scott “The Wine Making Guy”

I received the following email this week from J.V.:

Scott,

I recently bottled my wine after 28 days of secondary fermentation. The wine was clear of sediment and had a good underlining taste, however it was very gassy. Can you tell what I did wrong? Or should it be like this?

Thanks - JV

Here’s my response:

Hey Jason,

Good question. If you find that your wine is very gassy then my question to you is what you did to degas your wine after the secondary fermentation was finished and you moved to the clarifying and stabilizing stage. This is typically when you and a clearing agent and sorbate to kill the fermentation. This is also when you should be stirring for several minutes to get all of the carbon dioxide out of your wine must. You can either use a spoon or a “Fizzex”, which is a tool you attach to your drill. It looks like this.

One step I also use is introducing a vacuum in the carboy and sucking out the CO2 that way. I have found that it works really well and really smooths out your wine.

I also did a video on this method that is worth checking out:

At this point if you find that your wine is too gassy (and you’re not enjoying it) then you might considering dumping it all out and degassing it, let it sit then re-bottle. Ultimately you need to let it go flat in the same way you would if you left a bottle of pop/soda over night and let all of the CO2 escape.

Make sense?

- Scott

If you have some advice for J.V. feel free to include it in your comments below!