Posts Tagged ‘fruit wine’

For me, learning about how to make wine just never stops. I can remember years ago, making my first wine from a kit and being amazed at the simplicity of home winemaking. Since those first days, I’ve gone on to make many different fruit wines, meads, and yes – the odd time I have made beer as well. My preference remains wine although a cold home brew is nice on a hot sunny summer day.

Today, I was browsing through Daniel Pambianchi’s book, Techniques in Home Winemaking, (my review of the book is here) when I came across a note I had made in it about bentonite. Daniel writes in his book:

“Bentonite inactivates enzymes, and specifically, it should not be used concurrently with lysozyme.”
~ Page 261

Up to this point in time, I’ve never used bentonite in any of the fruit wines I’ve made, but there could be a time when I will. This information was good to know because when you make wines from fruit that are high in pectin, you need to add pectic enzyme to the juice. As those who make jams and jellies will know, pectin is a gelling agent. It’s also present in fruit and when making wine, can cause a haze. Pectic enzyme therefore is used to breakdown pectin. It works quickly but often, a winemaker will add bentonite to the juice before beginning the fermentation process at about the same time pectic enzyme is added. So now we know that we should add the pectic enzyme first and wait a couple of days before the bentonite addition.

P.S. If you want to learn how to make wine other than simply from store bought wine kits, I highly recommend you get Daniel Pambianchi’s book.

I have seldom had a stuck fermentation. When it happens, it can be a bit annoying, to say the least. I’ve written a few times about my “Mystery” Wine that I’m not exactly sure what the fruit berries are. The other day, I mentioned that the fermentation was sluggish, so I added some yeast nutrient. That seemed to get things going for a day or so, but the past two days have shown no movement on the specific gravity scale.

So I have a stuck fermentation. I don’t know why. It’s not from unsanitary equipment. I know that for sure. It’s not because of any temperature extremes. Other wines I have fermenting right beside it in the same room, and that room is about 70 F. The only concern I have about it is the PH is at the low end of the scale – 3.1 – but that should have nothing to do with the fermentation.

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the packet of yeast I used was just not up to the job. I had some fresh packets (always, always, always have fresh packets of Lalvin EC-1118 yeast on hand!) of yeast, so I have reinoculated it, and we’ll see what happens. Before reinoculating, I did rehydrate the yeast first for a couple of hours and hopefully get a head start and get this thing going again.

More on this one in a couple of days. Ah, the joys of home winemaking!