Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Eating and Drinking => Homebrew => Topic started by: pepsi100 on September 02, 2014, 10:51
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I have a problem trying to clear my gooseberry wine
It just wont clear, I have used various finings, even tried a filter a couple of times
Anyone else had this problem ?
Its stil in the demijohn with the trap, I have used 2 campden tablets and given it a good shake to clear the gas, there is no more fermentation going on
Why wont it clear ?
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It could be a pectin haze. Did you add pectolase?
Is it this years wine? If so time will help. I haven't made a gooseberry wine for years but I seem to remember it took a long time to mature.
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No, what is pectolase ?
It was made with just gooseberries and sugar, yeast
It kicked off really well, so much in fact I had to split it into 2 demi johns
Once it had settled down after a week I put them into the one demi john, it was very active for 6-7 weeks
I shook it every weeks to just keep it going
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I'm following this, as I'm having the same problem with my rhubarb wine. Haven't resorted to a filter yet (although I did add some finings) and am just leaving it sitting for now.
Will it be too late to add some pectolase now crh75?
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Mine has been sitting for 3-4 weeks now, still cloudy
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My gooseberry is still bubbling. Are you sure yours has stopped fermenting. You probably are a few weeks ahead of me here in Hull.
Pectin in fruit is good for Jam, it helps set it. In wine pectin can cause the wine to be hazy or cloudy. Pectolase is used to break down the pectin before brewng. Gooseberries have a high pectin content.
You could leave it to settle a bit more.
You can buy wine finings Wilkos do a two step pack which has worked well for me.
Usually a bit of haze doesn't affect the taste.
My Rhubarb was still a bit hazy after fermentation. Finings cleared that.
BP
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I have used the Wilko finings twice now, got one in there now
I guess pectolase is too late now ?
Mine was brewing for 6-7 weeks
I dont really want keep putting finings in it
I might just bottle it and leave them for a few months while I am away
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It is not too late to add pectolase.
Let us know if this does the trick, it may take a few weeks to work.
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Another thought...
As you are adding the pectolase late you will need more (possibly twice as much) than if you had added it before the yeast.
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Okay, I'll give it a try with this pectolase, got nothing to lose, plenty of time to see if it works
How much pectolase per Demi John ?
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I leave my fruit wines, once racked into a fresh demijohn for a year in the airing cupboard. Never use finings and it comes out lovely.
Gooseberry is a sweet wine,so next time I am going to mix with apple wine
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I dont have an airing cupboard
I bottle mine, leave a year, maybe more (I have a wine that is over 20 years old, a red, looks pretty good
I havent tried this gooseberry wine yet, I would like it to clear before I have a taster of it
I wonder if this will turn out to be a sweet wine :mellow:
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If you have a hydrometer then just make sure it has ceased doing everything.
I would then filter it again, likely just for the hell of it, then add a pectic enzyme and leave this for a week, possibly more. That should, hopefully, break down pectin in the wine. The problem is that alcohol and the enzyme as not good partners, so the enzyme action may be slowed.
It should be clearer after this.
Possibly then filter again, and then add fining agents to remove as much as possible.
Then I suppose a final filter. May seem a lot of filtering but it would seem best to catch in the pad as much as possible from the previous action.
Time and lowish temperatures also seem to eventually do the job.
When making a fruit wine it is generally advisable to throw in a teaspoon of pectic enzyme at the start to break down the pectin.
Also avoid cooking the fruits for wine making this extracts more pectin, some recipes suggest this mainly to kill off other yeasts etc in the friuit. Pouring boiling water over the fruits does the same.
By the time you try all the options you could end up affecting the flavour.
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I have now added this pectolase, I put in 3 teaspoons, the recommeded was 2, gave it a good shake, now it up to time to take its course
I used about 3 pounds of gooseberries, and I heated them up enough to soften the fruit, but not boiling, added a kilo of sugar, let it cool for a while, added water and the yeast (it was just enough water to top up the demi john) added a crushed campden tablet
Put the trap on, and a couple of hours later, divided them into 2 demi johns, it was just bubbling so much
Now we wait and see what happens :)
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Keep me posted Pepsi. :) As an aside, I put my rhubarb in the freezer for a while, and it certainly helped break it down a bit. Still haven't gotten around to starting on the gooseberries yet... ::)
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I put this pectolase in at 1-2 pm today, its now just gone 8 pm, and you just wouldnt believe how clear it has gone, there is a bit of fluffy stuff at the bottom of the demi-joohn
I could decant this tomorrow, run it through a filter, then bottle it
It is quite dry, so I am not sure whether to sweeten it half of them (was going to use sucrose)
I was a bit dubiousth this pect, but now I am just amazed how fast the haze cleared
If anyone has any suggestion about sweetning it and with what and how much per bottle, please let me know
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Brilliant news pepsi. :) My rhubarb seems to be clearing (finally) but doesn't taste of much. :( May have to have a think on additives...
I used Splenda to sweeten my ginger beer, and it worked well with no bitter aftertaste. I'd go for sweetening the whole lot at once, but gradually, until it's at the required sweetness.
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The reason I was thinking of sweetning half and half was the wife likes a sweeter wine, I like a dry wine
I was thinking of truvia, but that even has an after taste in my coffee :(
Tomorrow, when I filter it, I'll have a taster, and see if it does need sweetening
I havent had a taste of it yet, so no idea what it will taste of or like
It seems the longer I leave it the clearer its getting, so I might leave it until the afternoon, evening, it will have a full 24 hours to clear (but if it carries on like this I may not even have to filter it)
So I have to thank crh75 for suggesting the pectolase after it had finished ;) I had never given any thought to using it
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Glad it worked.
As for sweetening, I never have but if someone wanted a sweeter wine I would sweeten it when opening the bottle. Either a small amount of sugar syrup or even a dash of lemonade!
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I had a taster of it, the gooseberry flavour I was expecting seems to have disappeared, its like a satuerne now, a bit insiped, but nice chilled, but I reckon it might improve with a few weeks/months in the rack
I was a bit disappointed with it, I was really expecting a 'gooseberry' flavour :(
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Mine is gooseberry, the best yet is peapod which smells of peapods but tastes fab.
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Gooseberries do not have a strong flavour to carry through, and the fermenting process reduces this.
If you wanted to help the flavour you would be advised to have made wine with say half the gooseberries allow this to ferment to about 1.010 then add the remaining gooseberries for the end of the fermenting.
This allows more of the gooseberry flavour to survive, also the yeast variety is relevant. Bit late now but it is an aspect worth thinking about on later mixes.
I made a pineapple by this idea, I fermented the initial with 1 pineapple then chopped up a second one towards the end of the ferment. The results is a wine that has a taste of pineapple and smells of pineapple. Pleased with how it has come out.
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I never thought of that Annie, thanks for the tip. :)
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Thanks Annie, that does seem the right way to go to keep the gooseberry smell and taste
I can get pineapples easy enough, have you got any recipe for it ?
(type of yeast ? How many pineapples for a 5 liter demi john0, legth of time brewing ?)
Thanks ;)
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My pineapple recipe was a bit weird, 2 bits that I threw in were simply because they were hanging around, I'll leave them in but as striked out text:
Pineapple:
More of a hybrid: Need 2 pineapples.
1 pineapple chopped,
Half mango (had ½ spare)
2 banana's for body.
1 litre white grape juice,
1 litre white grape drink with apple and pear (hanging round doing nothing)
Teaspoon nutrient.
Water for 5 litre (sorry made a weird amount of 7)
Sugar for 1.100
Yeast Gervin Var D used.
1 teaspoon Pectalose.
As normal ferment for the lot above.
Ferment to 1.020, bit less if you can hold off.
For 5 litre ignore the white grape drink with apple and pear and use bit less water.
At 1.020 pour through a sieve to remove main bits, return to fernentation bucket.
Chop and add the 2nd pineapple to the fermentation (bucket).
Leave for 3 days.
Sieve again and pour into DJ’s (have a half size one – hence 7 litre.)
Ferment to completion, should make about 13%.
As said the mango was sat doing nothing and the grape juice drink was better fermented then having to drink it. However the small bit of apple and pear present did no harm, it was also low in actual fruit juice content, most things marked "drink" are it seems.
You could add a couple of kiwi's, a peach/nectarine or whatever if wanted. or as in my case whatever falls to hand.
The idea follows a Bill/Bob Smith who has a book of late addition wines (title is something else), his tend to be water, juice, nutrient, sugar, yeast all fermented (no fruit) then when the mix gets to 1.010 he adds the fruit aspect. I just prefer to do it sort of half and half - half at the start, half at the end.
Just found the gooseberry one I made, that was choatic. Wrong yeast and seems I added sugar in at least 2 lots. All gooseberries for that were added towards the end.
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I'm going to givethis a try, but I have a mango in the fridge, so I'll lob that in
Not so sure about the bananas though
Got a couple of apples
So I reckon its a case of mash it all up, put in a demi john, add water, yeast and let it do its 'thing'
Never heard of that yeast though,I just use wine yeast or champagne yeat
I dont have a hygometer, I just let it bubble until it stops, so that will be a bit of hit or miss
I'll add a pound of sugar to kick it off, then add the other pound
Then I guess I would add the other pinapple when it al stops bubbling, leave it a month or so, then chuck in the finings (I have been told egg shells work, but never tried that)
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I don't worry about a wine clearing or not - for me, it's only aesthetics.
If it tastes great, I'll forgive a little (or - indeed - a lot) of clouding. The best cider I had was murky as anything and my wines taste no different either cloudy or not.
fwiw, I don't use campden tablets and my goosegog wine loses its colour.
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I agree about the cider, best cider I drank came in a gallon container, was sold out of a kitchen window in Devon
Ah, they were the days :)