Fermenters Forum

Starting With A Wine Making Liqueur

To make a wine making liqueur take the chopped strawberries and put them into a primary fermenter such as a food grade pail or stone crock. Then add just enough water to barely cover the strawberries. Add to this the Sodium Bisulfite, Acid Blend and Wine Tannin as called for in the above home wine making recipes.

Do NOT add the Yeast Nutrient, Sugar or Yeast at this time.

And here is the important part: add the Pectic Enzyme as directed on the package it came in, based on the total batch size. In other words if 1/4 tsp. per gallon of Pectic Enzyme is called for and you are making five gallons, add 1-1/4 tsp. even though your wine making liqueur may currently only be around 2 gallons. This will allow the fruit’s pectin to be broken down faster than normal.

Let the mixture stand covered with a light towel for 24 hours. You can give it a stir from time to time. What you will notice during this period is that the wine making liqueur will change from a thick, pasty mixture to a thinner, “syrupy” mixture and will have a more candied appearance.

Also during this period, the Sodium Bisulfite that was added is sterilizing the wine making liqueur.

The Home Wine Making Fermentation

After waiting 24 hours, it’s time to dilute the wine making liqueur with water to 5 gallons. Stir in the sugar called for until completely dissolved, then add the Yeast Nutrient and Wine Yeast as called for in the above home wine making recipes.

Keep covered with a towel and allow to ferment. On or around the 7th day of a normal wine making fermentation you will notice the activity starting to decrease. The Specific Gravity reading will usually be between 1.025 and 1.035 on a wine making hydrometer. It is at this point in the wine making process that you are ready to rack (siphon) your must into a carboy leaving as much of the pulp and other sediment behind.

Joel, somewhere I have the exact temperature at which enological pectic enzyme becomes 100% ineffective, but unless I were extremely lucky I could search through books all night before finding it and I'm not going to do that. All I recall is that it is slightly over 100 degrees F and believe it is about 80% effective at 80 degrees and completely effective below 65 degrees. The 80% at 80 degrees correlation just jumps to mind and I have always used it.

So, my guess is that the original enzyme was cooked.

The other issue you raised was adding pectic enzyme to a fermenting must. That is generally thought not to be a good practice. Once yeast are pitched, you shouldn't add anything except fermentables or possibly nutrients until fermentation is done or very close to being done (for example, an s.g. around 1.010) -- no pectic enzyme, no acids, no fining agents.

It is unlikely you'll have a problem, but if your yeast just quit prematurely it might be because they really don't like their environment chemically changed. But if fermenting vigorously, it is unlikely they will be affected. Still, in the future be patient and let your must cool to room temperature before adding enzymes of any kind (there are many enzymes identified for enological purposes).