Something Important About Making Wine From Grapes
When I was a neophyte in home winemaking, I was a total wreck.
It took me about 5 batches to come up with the perfect wine that I can be proud to label as my own.
I just wish that there was someone who talked to me about racking as I was starting out.
Racking is very important in making wine from grapes and should not be taken for granted.
Racking wine, I believe is misunderstood mostly of new home winemakers.
There are a lot of misinterpretations by newbies that instead of doing good, it does harm to the wine.
For example, people think that racking means bottling the wine, still others would see this as air-tight sealing the fermentation container.
Both of these misinterpretations and others will greatly influence the quality of your wine- or its lack of.
So what is racking? Why is it important in making wine from grapes? To explain simply, racking means siphoning the wine from one container to the next, making sure the sediments are left behind.
In fact, the rationale behind racking is leaving the sediments behind, which is very important.
You should remember that sediments are dead yeast.
It is the bulk of dead yeast that lies in the bottom of the container.
If yeast is not controlled, the sweet flavor you would expect from your wine should be forgotten and you should ready yourself for a disappointment of bitter tasting, even metallic tasting wine.
One should perform racking 2 to 4 times in the winemaking process.
However, do not over rack.
Do not be fooled by the romance of the more the better in racking wine.
Unnecessary disruption in making wine means over oxidation and that means ruining the over all flavor.
In siphoning your wine, you can of course start the siphon the old fashioned way, but I would not recommend that or else you might just get a taste of the unfinished product.
There is an alternative to this like the Automatic Siphon.
Also, there are ready to use siphoning kits that should make racking a more pleasant experience for you.
If you want to be an expert in making wine from grapes, learn everything you can about racking.
It was a bad enough experience for me not having learned everything I can about the subject when I should have.
I would not want you to be discouraged just because no one told you about this very important step in winemaking.
Now that you know, go ahead, make yourself proud.
It took me about 5 batches to come up with the perfect wine that I can be proud to label as my own.
I just wish that there was someone who talked to me about racking as I was starting out.
Racking is very important in making wine from grapes and should not be taken for granted.
Racking wine, I believe is misunderstood mostly of new home winemakers.
There are a lot of misinterpretations by newbies that instead of doing good, it does harm to the wine.
For example, people think that racking means bottling the wine, still others would see this as air-tight sealing the fermentation container.
Both of these misinterpretations and others will greatly influence the quality of your wine- or its lack of.
So what is racking? Why is it important in making wine from grapes? To explain simply, racking means siphoning the wine from one container to the next, making sure the sediments are left behind.
In fact, the rationale behind racking is leaving the sediments behind, which is very important.
You should remember that sediments are dead yeast.
It is the bulk of dead yeast that lies in the bottom of the container.
If yeast is not controlled, the sweet flavor you would expect from your wine should be forgotten and you should ready yourself for a disappointment of bitter tasting, even metallic tasting wine.
One should perform racking 2 to 4 times in the winemaking process.
However, do not over rack.
Do not be fooled by the romance of the more the better in racking wine.
Unnecessary disruption in making wine means over oxidation and that means ruining the over all flavor.
In siphoning your wine, you can of course start the siphon the old fashioned way, but I would not recommend that or else you might just get a taste of the unfinished product.
There is an alternative to this like the Automatic Siphon.
Also, there are ready to use siphoning kits that should make racking a more pleasant experience for you.
If you want to be an expert in making wine from grapes, learn everything you can about racking.
It was a bad enough experience for me not having learned everything I can about the subject when I should have.
I would not want you to be discouraged just because no one told you about this very important step in winemaking.
Now that you know, go ahead, make yourself proud.