Pectolase/plum wine

[gordonmull]

Hi folks

I started a DJ of plum wine at the beginning of Feb and it fermented out fine. At the same time I did a side ferment for topup in a 250ml PET bottle. By the time the main ferment had finished the side ferment looked clear (and it also tased pretty damn good. Kept having to try to stop myself nicking samples!)

I'm 4 months on and the DJ still hasn't cleared. Looking back in my notes, it appears the only heat I used was to dissolve the sugar in a pint and a half of water and this was added to the mixture of pulp and cold water. 1 tsp pectolase was added and the mixture left for 24 hours prior to pitching yeast.

The wine is fully degassed.

I've now added a further 1tsp of pectolase, yesterday.

My questions are, if it is pectin haze that's giving me clearing problems, how long will this stuff take to work? Should I see results in a couple of days, weeks or months? Reckon 1tsp at the begninng and the extra one now was enough? Am I totally barking up the wrong tree?

[goldseal]

Pectolase might work - give it a few days.

I have heard of problems with cloudiness with plum wine can be alleviated up front by washing the whole plums in soda crystals (sodium carbonate).

Obviously it's a bit late for that in your situation, but it may explain the problem.

More info here:

http://www.winesathome.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3695

[gordonmull]

Just a quick update and further questions.

The brew has cleared a bit more since I added the pectolase. It was previously about the same cloudiness for months prior to that. Is it worth chucking another tsp in? Does pectolase affect flavour? Or am just flogging a dead horse with this one? If so I'll bottle and drink it clouds or no. I could do with the DJ anyway since bramble season is upon us.

[gordonmull]

Oh, and sorry, I just realised I didn't reply to you Goldseal. Thanks for the advice, I'll give that a try the next time I make a plum wine.

[lockwood1956]

Is it worth chucking another tsp in? Does pectolase affect flavour?

yes...chuck another tsp in

and No it wont affect flavour


you can test for the presence of pectin.....take approx 10ml of the wine, and drop in some methylated spirits, shake the life out of it, and if it goes stringy (or snot like) pectin is present in some quantity

I have had to dose plum wines with 4tsp per gallon to get it to clear (i dont make plum wine any more...its not worth the hassle, in my opinion)

hope that helps
regards
Bob

[gordonmull]

Meths..hmmm.

Where the blazes do you get meths these days? Used to get it in the local ironmongers (for filling up my spirit burner on my chemistry set when I was a nipper) but you don't see so many of those around anymore. Honestly I wouldn't know where to look. B&Q, Homebase or the like? Where did you find yours?

If it's not going to affect flavour I'll go with another two tsp. I've got plenty anyway. I'll see how it goes.

If this tastes as nice as the side ferment if I can get it clear, hassle or no I'll repeat.

Once again, thanks for the advice.

[fatbloke]

Meths..hmmm.

Where the blazes do you get meths these days? Used to get it in the local ironmongers (for filling up my spirit burner on my chemistry set when I was a nipper) but you don't see so many of those around anymore. Honestly I wouldn't know where to look. B&Q, Homebase or the like? Where did you find yours?

If it's not going to affect flavour I'll go with another two tsp. I've got plenty anyway. I'll see how it goes.

If this tastes as nice as the side ferment if I can get it clear, hassle or no I'll repeat.

Once again, thanks for the advice.

Gordon, I can't find the link I wanted to quote at the moment, but if you dug through Luc Volders blog (Bob's met him I believe - and you just have to scroll down his blog posts for the English translation.....unless you're fluent in Dutch of course), but Luc did some nice posts a couple of years ago explaining what he'd found with plum wines.

It seems that one of the issues is to do with getting them clear - which can be a total PITA. This seems to be connected not only with pectin, but also with the natural waxy coat on the skins. His answer was to deal with the waxy coating first, by putting the whole fruit into a solution of "soda ash" (sodium carbonate) first (you'd have to locate it in his blog for the actual method). Then you continue to process the fruit as normal i.e. de-stone, pectolase, fermenting, etc etc.

It's my opinion, that with "country" wines, they benefit from being medium/semi-sweet as a minimum. We're not culturally oriented to accept anything other than grape wines, being as dry wines and it's hard for us to get used to non-grape fruit flavours lacking the presence of the sugars as they'd have been converted to alcohol i.e. country wines need a certain amount of sweetness as we're unfamiliar with the taste of the fruit without the sweetness/sugars - hence why, with dry country wines, a lot of people just taste them and say "bleargh"!

Whereas, we, along with many other places, have experienced dry wines (grape type) for many millennia and are familiar with it's taste (and enjoy it - well I don't mind heavier dry reds at any rate).

Whether any of that's helpful, or even makes sense, I don't know.

regards

jtfb

[lockwood1956]

Gordon, I can't find the link I wanted to quote at the moment, but if you dug through Luc Volders blog (Bob's met him I believe -

yes Martina and i met he and Els (his lady) at Brouwland, and drank some of Lucs lovely Plum wine. Luc does a great deal of experimenting, and his blog is always worth a read. He visits here regularly too.

Meths?

I got mine from the paint department of focus (now closed) but im sure B&Q will have some

regards
Bob

[lockwood1956]

here you go

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9253610&fh_location=//catalog01/en_GB/categories%3C{9372013}/categories%3C{9372033}/categories%3C{9502022}/specificationsProductType=cleaners

[gordonmull]

Thanks, I'll check out Luc's blog. I'm still very much in the experimental stage so it should be interesting reading. Cheers for the meths link too.

[Leon]

Talking of Plum wine, I keep coming accross in the literature a term called vinosity, which I've already queeried in another thread, but I'm still not sure what it is. My book recommends raisins ar sultanas, there was no mention of this in Lucs Blog. Should I worry about this or not?

[Lisa Cairno]

its just a descriptive word for distinctive body, color, and taste of wine.
Lisa xx
Im learning by the day
xxx

[lockwood1956]

vinosity = wine-like

At one time (and even now for some people) wine was only considered wine if it was made from grapes. What we make was called fruit wine or hedgerow wine....

It's all wine to me, but adding sultanas, raisins grape concentrate or grape juice, makes it more like grape wine, or vinous.

ope that helps
regards
bob

[Leon]

I see,

Thank you Master, I think the Force is growing within me.

[gordonmull]

Right, This stuff's doing my nut in.

Three weeks ago I figured that I'd thrown enough pectolase at it to melt a whole jar of jam so i went to B&Q, got some meths, followed as per Bob's instructions. No reaction.

OK. Suspended solids, not pectin.

I hit it with bentonite. Three weeks later it is still cloudier than it was before I put the bentonite in.

Bob - I'm starting to agree. No matter how nice it tastes, it's just not worth this much grief.

So...any ideas out there? At this rate I'm starting to think about giving up, bottling to screwcaps and putting it in the cupboard next to #1 for flagrant getting pissed on instead of corking, placing on the rack and waiting.