Wine and Beer Making Terms

Acid Blend: A blend of acids important to wines, usually citric, malic and tartaric acids.

Anti Oxidant Tablets: Anti Oxidant, a term for any chemical used to prevent oxidation in wine, usually at racking time.

Air Lock: A glass or plastic device designed to use water as an insulator to protect the fermentation media from contamination and exposure to fresh air, while at the same time allowing carbon dioxide produced by the yeast to escape the fermentation vessel.

Ascorbic Acid: Ascorbic Acid is a strong anti oxidant and can be used instead of bisulphite at racking time to prevent over-oxidation.

Bentonite: Bentonite is used for clearing hazes from wines.

Body: A tasting term to describe the feel of the wine in the mouth. Wines are usually described as being either full, medium or light bodied.

Campden Tablets: Tablets used in wine making to sterilize equipment and fermentation media. When dissolved, they provide sulphur dioxide in a convenient form. Tablets must be crushed to use.

Carbon Dioxide: The colorless, odorless gas emitted by yeast during fermentation. The purpose of an airlock is to allow the carbon dioxide to escape without allowing oxygen into the fermentation vessel.

Carboy: A large glass or plastic bottle of 2-1/2 gallon capacity or more, with or without handles.

Chitosan: The natural product, Chitosan is derived from Chitin, a polysaccharide found in the exoskeleton of shellfish, such as shrimp or crab. It works as a protein attracting oppositely charged particles to combine and settle to the bottom of the container.

Degassing: The complete removal of residual carbon dioxide gas is very important when making "4 week wine kits". Failure to do this will result in the clarifying agent being held suspended in the must or floating to the surface--meaning your wine won't clear properly. Always ensure metabisulphite has been added to the wine before degassing it to prevent oxidation. Making your wine in a single stage fermenter is not recommended. Stir or shake the carboy vigorously for a minute or two once you add the stabilizing agents-- and do the same three times a day for three days. once the wine appears to have settled out a day or two later--give it another shake or stir to ensure the crud on the side of the carboy is released--and that any possible particles left in suspension fall to the bottom of the carboy.

Dry Wine: is defined as a wine which tastes dry to the palate. A wine is considered dry if it has less than 1% residual sugar on testing with a sugar testing kit.

Dryness: is detected by the lack of sugar on tasting a wine. This should not be confused with astringency, detected by a dryness in the mouth, due to tannin.

Elderberries: Used in making specialty wine and as an additive to grape concentrate wines. Gives rich "plummy" flavour to wines, along with reddish brown colour. Adds tannin to bland wines. Add to wine prior to pitching yeast. Push under fermenting wine every day to keep berries moist. Leave berries behind in fermenter at first racking.

Fermentation: The process of yeast acting upon sugar to produce alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Filtering: involves the removal of suspended particles from a fluid by passing both through a medium composed of a substance with pores large enough to allow the liquid to pass but small enough to entrap the suspended particles. In winemaking, the usual filtration requirements are to remove yeast debris and the larger solids deposited but not to remove the molecules responsible for color, flavor and bouquet.

Fining: Removing suspended solids from a cloudy wine by temperature adjustment, filtering or adding a fining material such as gelatine, isinglass or bentonite.

Glycerin: Contributes "fullness" or "smoothness" when added to a wine. Glycerin also gives the wine "legs", the viscous drips that run down the side of a glass in which wine is swirled. Stir in 3 to 15 ml per litre of wine immediately before bottling.

Hydrometer: An instrument for measuring the specific gravity (abbreviated as s.g.) relative to sugar content of a liquid.   (Using a Hydrometer)

Hydrometer Jar: A tall, narrow, cylindrical vessel used to float a hydrometer in the liquid to be measured.

Must: The combination of basic ingredients, both solid and liquid, from which wine is made.

Nutrient: Food for the yeast, containing nitrogenous matter, yeast-tolerant acid, vitamins and certain minerals.

Pectic Enzyme: Dissolves pectin (long chain protein molecules) that may leave wines cloudy. Can also be used when making fruit wines, both to increase juice yield and help the wine clear properly.

Potassium Sorbate: Inhibits the reproduction of yeast cells. Sorbate does not kill yeast cells but will prevent renewed fermentation when you sweeten a wine before bottling.

Precipitated Chalk: Calcium Carbonate is a chemical substance whose use in wine making is one of the standard methods of reducing acidity. Also known as chalk.

Primary: A crock, bucket, pail or other food safe vessel in which the first, or primary fermentation takes place. Also known as the primary fermentation vessel.

Racking: The process of siphoning the wine off the lees to stabilize it and allow clarification.

Super-Kleer: A 2 stage euro-finings for Wine, Beer, and Super Yeast

Sodium Metabisulphite: Used to sterilize ALL equipment, objects and hands that come in contact with wine. Read the directions carefully on the package before using. Always use Metabisulphite from a properly labeled container or package.

Straining: A means of separating pulp from juice. One most occasions racking will suffice, but a large deposit in a freshly pulped fruit may prove difficult to separate and therefore the use of a sieve or straining bag will be found to be invaluable.

Tannin: The group of phenol-based plant acids which are essential to give "zest" to a wine, especially full bodied red wines.

Thin(ness): A fermenting and tasting term meaning lacking in body. This is usually due to insufficient base fruit in the recipe. Using grape concentrate will help minimize this fault.

Vinometer: An inaccurate piece of equipment for measuring the alcohol content of wine. The accuracy is reasonable for totally dry wines, but for sweet wines it is inaccurate, since it works on the principles of surface tension and capillary action. As a sweet wine has a high surface tension due to the residual sugar, alcohol measurement with a vinometer will give a falsely low reading.

Wine Conditioner: A special blend if invert sugar which has the advantage of a more intense sweet taste than household sugar. Contains a stabilizer to inhibit re-fermentation. Reduces aging time in your wine. Usually 2-4 oz. per gallon.

Yeast Energizer: Provides essential minerals, trace nutrients and vitamins for yeast growth and metabolism during fermentation. Used to help start slow fermentation and to restart stuck ones. Better choice than yeast nutrient which lacks some of the essential compounds needed to get sluggish yeast going.

Yeast Nutrient: Add to fermentation to increase yeast activity. Nitrogen compounds such as diammonium phosphate are vital to yeast metabolism. Should be added at beginning of fermentation, but could also be added towards the end of a slow or stuck fermentation. Ensures quick thorough fermentation.