General Brewing Tips

You may think the temperature in your room is well within the desired range for your brew; however, be careful where you place your carboy in that room. I was reading a comment from a brewer on the internet in which he stated he used to keep his carboys in room next to the wall. Little did he know that cold air was coming through the wall via an electrical outlet. The brew was 10° cooler than the room. An easy way to keep a check of the temperature of your brew is with a stick-on thermometer. It is a plastic adhesive strip, which is stuck on the outside of the fermenter. It gives the temperature reading the instant it touches the side of the fermenter. It is inexpensive and easy to read.

Freeze any left-over wine in ice cube trays and add to dishes.

The wine you cook with is also a good choice to serve with a dish since the same flavours are in both.

Replace the water in your airlock every month or so, this keeps the water fresh and up to the proper level.

Reuse the bags that concentrate comes. I use them for ice bags in my cooler in the summertime. Fill them 1/2 to 3/4 full with water and freeze.

Perhaps good record keeping seems too simple to mention. However, if you turn out your best batch of beer ever and can’t remember how you made it. You will be unable to repeat your success.

Beside being decorative, shrink capsules are an important part of your winemaking, as it protects the corks from unwanted pests such as spider mites, fruit flies, etc and still allows your wine to breathe.

When using your hydrometer make sure you give it a spin as you are putting it in your liquid. This prevents the CO2 bubbles from building up on the base of your hydrometer giving you a more accurate reading.