Wikipedia has a bit of an article on it, here. If you want to avoid the pasteurization process, Campden tablets are cheap, readily available additives found at brew supply stores. Avoiding bringing the juice to a boil, and the use of pectinase (an enzyme that breaks down pectins) are both ways to prevent pectin from impacting your wine.Īfter pasteurization, your fruit juice must cool down to at MOST 100 degrees F before adding your yeast - too hot, and the yeast will just die
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A desirable attribute in some cases, in wine - not so much. Pectins are present in fruits, and is what causes jams and jellies to. The only real downside to pasteurization is that - when done incorrectly - it can cause fruit pectins to set, causing a cloudy wine. To pasteurize, fruit juice is heated to a high enough temperature to kill the yeast and bacteria that may be present. The 2 main ways of preparing your fruit juice for wine making are pasteurization or the use of a Campden tablet: An airlock is used to prevent additional bacteria and yeast - present in the air - from contaminating the wine as it ferments.įruit / fruit juice should be treated before you start your wine. Also be sure to re-sanitize anything that has come into contact with anything not sanitized (and is therefore potentially contaminated). Make sure that all of your equipment (fermenting buckets, car boys, spoons, measuring tools, etc) are sanitized before use, following the instructions / recommendations on your choice of sanitizer. Wild yeast, when present on fresh fruits, can tamper with not only the flavor of your finished wine (for better or worse!), it can interact negatively with the yeast you’ve chosen to use. For more information, click here to see a great yeast chart at Wine Maker Magazine’s site, here.īacteria is not your friend when it comes to wine making - just a small amount of bacterial contamination can take a great wine, and turn it into vinegar. It’s all about what you want out of it.īecause wine recipes tend to specify the yeast that should be used, and because there are a ton of resources online for the differences between the yeast varieties, I’m not going to get into a bunch of yeast discussion here. As attaining the highest ABV is not the goal, using a less robust yeast strain can result in a sweeter, smoother wine. What you choose to work with can have a big impact on your final product.įor instance, a yeast strain that is better able to tolerate alcohol in their environment can take the fermentation process further than a more sensitive yeast strain, resulting in a finished product with a higher alcohol content by volume (ABV). Basically, they’ll work better in different conditions - different temperatures, alcohol content, etc. There are many varieties of brewing yeast available, which are all suited to different applications. Yum! Read on for more information about the brewing process. The wine is then bottled, and aged (if desired). When fermentation is complete, the wine is left to clarify as the last of the yeast settle to the bottom of the fermenter. Throughout the fermentation process, the wine is removed from the layer of fruit & dead yeast sediment on the bottom, being transferred to a clean fermenting jug (carboy) every few months. Yum!Īs the yeast die, they settle on the bottom of the fermenting vessel. As the alcohol content in the solution goes up, the yeast cells are less able to tolerate their living environment, and they die off.Ī 6 gallon batch of our mango wine, on day 1. The yeast reproduce and stay suspended in the wine as it ferments. The yeast digests the sugars, and alcohol is the byproduct - this is fermentation. You start with fermentable sugars in a liquid, introduce yeast, and let it do its thing.
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You can age them with wood chips, you can carbonate, you can use special ingredients to help clarify your wine.Īt its heart, however, wine making starts with a very simple concept. On the other, you can extract the juice from fresh fruits, combine them in many ways, add herbs or spices to add flavor. On one end of the spectrum, you can take some fruit concentrate, add water and yeast, and let it do its thing. The nice thing about wine making is that it can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. After that, I can start plying you with yummy wine recipes to try! So now that you know why wine making is a great hobby, and know about the equipment you need to get started, all that's really left to address is the actual brewing process. Wine Making at Home, Part III : The Brewing Process