May your     wines
fall bright!

This is our
e-Book,
also available on CD

Table of Contents

Title Page
Catalog at Fall Bright
Home on Keuka Lake
Index-Sitemap
Welcome

About the Authors

Basic Winemaking
Getting Started

AddingSugarChart

Adding
Sugar Math
Airlocks
Juice to Wine
Grapes to Wine
BATF

Bottle Fillers -Wands

Bottling

Bungs

Cleaning

Containers

Corks

Corkers

Fining and Clearing

Hydrometer Test

Hydrometer +5 to –5

Malolactic Culture

pH

Siphon

Spigot

Yeast: 
Lalvin

Red Star

Starter

Recommendations

Steve Shanker's Winemaking Site

ACID REDUCTION 
and ADDITION

Acid Testing TA
Acidex

Calcium Carbonate

Cold Stabilizing

Potassium Bicarbonate
Potassium Sorbate
Sodium Hydroxide
Tartaric Acid Chart

Water and Blending

CONVERSIONS
Metric Equil
.

FILTRATION
Buon Vino Mini Jet

Instructions-Mini

Cleaning-Mini
Bypass pumping

Buon Vino SuperJet

Instructions-Super

Mark III

Vinamat-type 

OAK
Barrel Treatment

Oak Chips
and Oak Mor

PROBLEMS
Fining
Hydrogen Sulfide:
Copper Sulfate
Bocksin
Stuck Fermentation    
Vinegar

SPECIALTY WINES
Blending

Bottling Sweet
 
Fruit Wines
Late Harvest Vignoles
and Riesling

Sherry
Sparkling Wine

TEST
Acid Testing

Clinitest

Clinitest-Poison

NaOH Chart
Testing  NaOH

Residual Sugar

S02 Sulfite Test
Titrets

Vinometer Alcohol

Vines, Nurseries, 
Vineyard Supplies
 
Partial list for sure!

BREWING
Basic Brewing

Beginner Mashing

HOP TOXICITY
Hop Toxicity Medical

Index-Sitemap

Online shopping at  

www.fallbright.com 

May Your Wines 
Fall Bright!

 

 

Vinegar
Fall Bright, The Winemakers Shoppe

 

Oh Goodness!  My wine is vinegar.  What happened?

  1. Contamination of some sort.  Either your containers were contaminated or the room.  Vinegar is made by acetobacter which is a bacteria.
  2. The sulfur level was non existent or too low.  Metabisulfite is an antibacterial agent!  The Romans knew that way back when. 
  3. There was an air space on top of the wine for too long.  
  4. Did you top your wine up with water?  This lowers the acid and alcohol. and could leave you with a good environment for vinegar. 
  5. Bung knocked off or poorly sealed.
  6. Dry airlock.
  7. pH was too high and the acid too low.
  8. Fruit fly invasion?  They carry contamination for vinegar. 

 

OK, so now what?  Why not just finish it as a vinegar?  Once it is vinegar, there is no saving it as a wine.  

If the sugar level was originally high enough to produce a full 12-15% alcohol wine, cut the wine-vinegar with 1 part of water (non-chlorinated) to 2 parts of wine.  You may add a vinegar mother if you feel you need it.  Place it in a really warm area of 90 degrees F for another 2-3 months.  When your vinegar is ready to use, rack off, pasteurize at 120 degrees F (stove top) and cool.  Bottle in clear or decorative bottles when you are ready.  The mother from your working jug may be used for another batch.  

You can make fruit vinegars using your wine-vinegar as a base by adding about equal parts of fruit (red raspberries, peach, apricot, etc), peeled if necessary, lightly mashed or chopped to the vinegar with 2 tablespoons of sugar or honey.  Cook in a double boiler (not aluminum nor cooper) for 10 minutes.  Store for 2-3 weeks, strain and filter if necessary.  Herbal vinegars can be hastened along by heating also.  For hot treatment of herbal vinegar, bruise or crush the herbs, strain out after 2-3 weeks, replacing with fresh sprigs for appearance, seal, label and gift.

Pick up a couple of books on vinegar, including the garden way Making and Using Flavored Vinegars.  Cider: Sweet and Hard has a nice section on Vinegar.