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Did you know that you can easily calculate the alcohol content of your beer or wine if you know your specific gravity (S.G.) readings at the beginning and end of the beer/wine making process?

To calculate the approximate value of the alcohol content in your beer/wine use the following formula:

Approximate Alcohol Content (%) =

Starting S.G.- Ending S.G.

0.0074

For example:

Starting SG = 1.090
Ending SG = 0.995

% Alcohol = 1.090 - 0.995 = 12.84

0.0074

> You can therefore say that the approximate alcohol content of this batch of wine is 12.84%

Note: This method assumes that difference in specific gravity is solely due to the conversion of sugar into alcohol

Did you know that sulphite is not strong enough to kill bacteria and therefore is of no use in beermaking?

I typically make wine and therefore use a metabisulphite solution to clean my equipment and to date have had no issues with my batches. I should point out though that I’m pretty fussy about keeping my equipment clean, especially when storing it between batches!

I was surprised to read in the cleaning instructions that came with the Brew House beer kit from RJ Spagnols that sulphites shouldn’t be used to clean beer making equipment as they can’t kill bacteria, which will alter the taste of the beer and also opens up the possibility that you’ll get sick from your beer - not good!

I have to say though that I was quite impressed with the cleaning instructions that they included with the kit as they give four cleaning options: Trisodium Phosphate (aka T.S.P. - i.e. the stuff you clean your walls with before you paint them), Diversol (aka Sani-Brew - i.e. the pink solution commonly used in beer/wine making), Bleach (i.e. aka the stuff you use to whiten your shirts) and Iodophor (aka Iodine).

My personal preference is Sani-Brew as it has bleach in it (so I know it’s a good disinfectant) and works well when removing stains from your equipment (especially for your primary - great when you are brewing several different types of wines/beers out of the same container).

Here’s a the page on RJ Spagnol’s website that goes into greater detail about cleaning your equipment as well as the differences between four types of cleansers that they recommend. Definitely worth checking out (even if to serve as a refresher):

www.RJSjspagnols.com/resource_view.asp?HandoutID=44

I realize that cleaning your equipment is one of the least favourite jobs when making beer or wine but consider this interesting thought from RJ Spagnols:

“If you get tired of scrubbing and sanitizing, remember: lapses in sanitation are responsible for 90% of all homebrewing failures. You can avoid them.”

- Scott “The Wine Making Guy”

Ever had difficulty opening one of those wine kit bags?

This video will show you a tool that will make this finger nail breaking task so much easier!

I spend much of my time degassing my wine, however, one of my readers asked me today how she can add carbonation to her wine so that she can make a sparkling wine.

Here are some quick suggestions that I gave her:

1) Champagne and beer are actually carbonated in the bottle (for champagne it is called “methode champenoise”) so if you wanted to go the natural route so you could add corn sugar to your wine must just before you bottle your wine. This will restart the fermentation thereby naturally carbonating your wine/beer. I make beer in addition to wine and this definitely works.

For example, for a 23 litre batch of beer I would prepare a “primer syrup” by dissolving 3/4 cup of dextrose (corn sugar) in 2 cups of boiling water. Pour the syrup into a primary then rack the beer/wine must into the primary then gently stir the mixture together. You can then rack the must into your bottles and allow 2 weeks carbonation from there. If you want more carbonation add more sugar, add less sugar for less “bubbly”.

2) You can also use a carbonation system such as the Tap-A-Draft that carbonates your wine/beer in the container by adding pressurized CO2 similar to a beer kegging system. I’ve actually seen this one in one of our local wine supply stores and it’s pretty slick. Basically it adds a tap with two carbonation “taps” where you insert a small CO2 cannister (or one CO2 and one Nitrogen cannister if you’d like to have finer bubbles for say a stout style beer). Instead of a metal keg you get an oversized slender plastic bottle (similar to a two litre pop/soda bottle) They are sized to fit nicely in your fridge so that you can easily “tap your keg” and get a drink, while keeping the whole system cold. Typically takes about 5 days from the time you fill your bottle and add the carbonation tap to fully carbonate your beer/wine or wine cooler.

It’s a cool system but isn’t cheap. Expect to spend $50+ on the tap and then another $20+ per bottle.

You can go to http://www.sturmanbg.com/products/beverage_dispenser.asp to learn more.

If you have a different sneaky trick to carbonate your wine, beer or wine cooler please do let me know!

Scott “The WineMaking Guy”

P.S. Here’s an interesting article from WineMaker Magazine that goes into greater detail on how to make sparkling wine that is worth reading if you’re interested in learning more:

www.winemakermag.com/departments/288.html

Well I certainly thought so until I received an interesting email from one of my readers the other day, which asked if you had to add ingredients (such as yeast, bentonite and a clearing agent) to a pail of juice like you do with a typical wine kit.

The reason why he was asking was that he has made several batches of wine using pails of juice, which turned out really well (was nice and clear plus had great “legs) and he didn’t have to add anything to it. He did note though that he left the lid slightly ajar during the primary stage so that leads me to believe that the fermentation was caused by natural yeast in the air (which, incidentally was how monks invented wine in the first place).

I asked him to make another batch using a juice pail and add the extra ingredients to see what kind of difference that will make. I’m curious what the results will be!

Have you had any experience with making wine the “natural” way? If so, I’d love to hear from you on how it turned out!

- Scott

Here’s the vacuum pump you’ll want if you’d like to give this a try:

http://www.fermentationtrap.com/cb6346.html

You’ll also want to get a size 10 bugger with a hole drilled in the middle.

My father spent this past week with my family and I wanted to show him some of the interesting wine making projects we were doing. He has a PhD in bio-chemistry so I thought he’d be intrigued by the process and I wasn’t disappointed!

He asked me a very intriguing question: is there a big difference between potassium metabisulphite and sodium metabisulphite as chemically they are quite similar. Why would you use one over the other?

I remember reading somewhere that you wouldn’t want to use sodium metabisulphite as a stabilizer in your wine because it adds sodium to it and potentially could could change the taste of your wine. Potassium metabisulphite is therefore the preferred item to use.

I also discussed this with the owner of one of our local wine making supply stores and confirmed that potassium metabisulphite is definitely the way to go and that the only use of sodium metabisulphite in your wine making should be as a sterilizer for your wine making equipment.

This was further confirmed in Alison Crowe’s “The Wine Maker’s Answer Book” on page 107, where she states:

“Most home winemakers use potassium metabisulphite, available in either powdered or solid (Campden tablets) form, to add sulfur dioxide. There’s also a sodium form of sulfite (which isn’t recommended for use in wine) as well as a self-dissolving effervescent potassium metabisulphite tablet. I recommend using the powdered form.”

> By the way, if you are looking for a good book that covers all of the intricate details about wine making then I highly recommend you purchase Alison Crowe’s “The Wine Maker’s Answer Book”. It is available for purchase via Amazon.com.

Interested in learning more about both sulphites? Here are some good descriptions on Wikipedia:

Potassium metabisulphite - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_metabisulphite

Sodium metabisulphite - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_metabisulfite

If you are interested in finding out how to properly calculate the amount of sulphite needed for your wine go to Winemaker Magazine’s “Sulphite Calculator”, which is available by going to:

http://www.winemakermag.com/sulfitecalculator/index.html

Would be interested to here what your thoughts and experiences are with using these sulphites!

Natural stoppers are renewable resource: WWF

Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service

Published: Monday, October 22

OTTAWA - The average person probably won’t know what it is when they take a sip of their favourite wine.

In fact, many wouldn’t even notice the mouldy taste, sometimes compared to dirty socks, in their glass. But for wine-tasting experts, who could detect it in concentrations as low as one or two parts per trillion, a small sip would leave a bad taste in their mouths.
“It’s not really a safety issue. It’s not a health issue. It’s a quality issue and it’s costing the industry millions and millions of dollars,” said Dr. George Soleas, a chemist who has spent more than a decade in the Canadian wine industry.

Poor-quality natural corks are the source of the problem, according to industry experts, who blame the faulty stoppers for tainting wine with trichloroanisole (TCA) and ruining some of the best bottles on the market. A recent American industry estimate pegged losses at up to $250 million a year.

But environmentalists are mounting a campaign to defend the natural cork, arguing the alternative solutions have dirty environmental footprints.

“It’s very simple,” said Chantal Menard, a spokeswoman for the World Wildlife Fund in Europe.

“If you use cork, you use a renewable resource, which is not the case for aluminum used in screw caps, and it’s also not the case for oil or petrol, which is used for making synthetic stoppers.”

Natural cork is harvested from the cork oak tree, which grows mainly in European and North African countries such as Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Harvesters strip the bark of a mature tree that is at least 25 years old. When done properly, there is no need to cut down trees and the bark grows back in about a decade.

Soleas, also the vice-president of quality assurance at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, concedes that high-quality natural cork is still the best option for wine drinkers who want to store their bottles for a few years. The synthetic and screw caps block oxygen from entering the bottle and allowing the wine to age.
But since most customers consume their wine within a year, he said the Ontario liquor board favours the alternative stoppers to eliminate the risk of TCA tainting and its impact on sales.

Soleas defended the use of alternative closures, noting synthetic stoppers and aluminum screw caps can be recycled.

A peer-reviewed study in 2002 by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario tested 2,400 wines and found that 32 per cent of bottles with a low-grade composite cork closure were tainted with TCA. Six per cent of bottles with high-quality natural corks were found to be tainted, while none of the bottles with synthetic closures or screw caps were.

“Although you don’t often get customer returns, because the majority of the customers don’t know what the smell is, they just don’t like the wine and they’ll never buy it again,” Soleas said.

The tainting problem from natural corks has caused a major shift for wine-makers over the past few years, according to Stephane Rein, a wine industry consultant in France.

While 95 per cent of wine bottles had natural corks in 2001, five years later more than a quarter of bottles used alternative closures, Rein said — about 19 per cent used synthetic cork closures and 7.5 per cent used screw caps.

“It’s a very dynamic market and there’s a lot of controversy,” said Rein.

But he praised the WWF campaign as ” an excellent initiative. … It asks people to be conscious of the whole chain of production. They should know that when they buy cork, it won’t have an impact on the forest.”

The industry is starting to address the rapid rise of alternative closures and their impact on the environment, said Chris Thomson, the national sales manager in Canada for Cork Supply USA Inc.

“Of the three, natural cork is the most preferential in terms of doing the least amount of harm,” said Thomson, whose company produces and distributes a variety of natural and alternative closures.

© The Edmonton Journal 2007