# Are there ways to stabilize wine without chemicals



## Zoey (Jun 16, 2020)

Are there ways to stabilize wine without chemicals


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## G259 (Jun 16, 2020)

In a perfect situation, that removes ALL yeast from the wine, I would say yes. However, this is not an easy task, and chemicals are an easier method. I have not heard of another solution, perhaps freezing and thawing? I'm not sure about that though.

How did the ancients do it? I'm sure it was without sorbate, and it worked for a long time, but probably more 'hit or miss'.


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## Chuck E (Jun 16, 2020)

Zoey said:


> Are there ways to stabilize wine without chemicals



I have heard that the ancients burned sulphur inside their barrels. That may have had a residual effect of leaving sulphur by-products in the wine. This could stabilize the yeast. Alcohol and time settling does the rest.


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## sour_grapes (Jun 16, 2020)

Depending on your definition of "chemical," you can stabilize wine by adding large amounts of C2H5OH.


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## salcoco (Jun 16, 2020)

you can clear a wine using egg shells and possibly gelatin. In the old days I believe they even used blood. for back sweeten wine a form of pasteurization may work to kill all of the yeast before adding sugar. I would Google this procedure I believe it has to be done slowly and at a low temp.


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## Zoey (Jun 16, 2020)

Thanks for your insight. Most people think the only way is to use campden or other chemicals but there has to be other ways


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## BernardSmith (Jun 16, 2020)

Zoey said:


> Thanks for your insight. Most people think the only way is to use campden or other chemicals but there has to be other ways



What other ways do you hear? Pasteurization? Is that another word for cooking the wine? I guess if you are using fifth or sixth rate ingredients then pasteurization may not have any detrimental impact on the flavor. But if you are using first class ingredients then cooking the wine is going to change that wine from being something worthwhile to something worth a great deal less.


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## PandemoniumWines (Jun 16, 2020)

I mean, water is a chemical.


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## Zoey (Jun 16, 2020)

PandemoniumWines said:


> I mean, water is a chemical.


Sure


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## BernardSmith (Jun 16, 2020)

PandemoniumWines said:


> I mean, water is a chemical.


But only when you call water H2O. Otherwise water is "natural". When you refer to water as H2O then it is not natural and anything not "natural" is un-natural and only natural things are good for us - think, lead, arsenic, ricin.


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## Zoey (Jun 16, 2020)

BernardSmith said:


> But only when you call water H2O. Otherwise water is "natural". When you refer to water as H2O then it is not natural and anything not "natural" is un-natural and only natural things are good for us - think, lead, arsenic, ricin.


Are there ways to stabilize wine without using chemicals


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## BernardSmith (Jun 16, 2020)

There are but you would need sterile filters to trap the yeast and while you can buy such a system even as a home wine maker your wine needs to be absolutely particle-free if you are not to clog the filters. Does filtering with such tight filters (small enough to trap 100 percent of the yeast cells so that would be less than 5 microns) trap color and flavor molecules? That I don't know but then I use K-meta and K-sorbate to stabilize my wines IF I want to back sweeten them..

But there is no law that says that a home wine maker cannot sweeten a wine in exactly the same way you sweeten your coffee or tea if you prefer a sweet drink. Don't chemically stabilize. Simply pour a glass of wine and add sugar before you drink it. BINGO! No need to add any chemicals. And if you prefer to sweeten a wine with honey but one guest prefers table sugar or agave and your partner or spouse prefers the wine to be brut dry , no problem. You can all drink the wine as sweet and as sweetened to your preference.


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## G259 (Jun 16, 2020)

BernardSmith said:


> But only when you call water H2O. Otherwise water is "natural". When you refer to water as H2O then it is not natural and anything not "natural" is un-natural and only natural things are good for us - think, lead, arsenic, ricin.



So . . . if I pour a glass of water from my Brita pitcher, it's 'natural', but if I pour a glass of H2O from the same pitcher, it's not 'natural'. Who knew!

Semantics, they are identical, only "the names are changed to protect the innocent".


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## G259 (Jun 16, 2020)

BernardSmith said:


> Simply pour a glass of wine and add sugar before you drink it.



Good post, I do this when back-sweetening, to get a general idea of how much sugar I want to add.


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## Johnd (Jun 17, 2020)

But remember, if you bottle your wines without the benefit of any sulfite, it won’t last long, so plan to drink it. It’s a fine plan for sweet fruit wines. If you plan to ever make nice red wines that need years of aging to reach their potential, sulfite becomes more of a necessity.


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## CDrew (Jun 17, 2020)

Zoey said:


> .....but there has to be other ways



What makes you think that? 

It all depends how much you want to wreck the flavor of the wine. You could heat it enough to kill the bacteria and yeast, but you'd also cook the wine. THink about the cooked flavor of grape jelly or jam. Not something you'd want in your wine glass.

In a way, SO2 is a natural component of wine. During fermentation, the yeast make some of their own. We just step in and add a bit more to increase the aging potential.

Plus, the Sulfite/SO2 added also serves as an antioxidant, and if you've ever had wine that is badly oxidized, you'd know why that's a good thing.

So the sulfite additions are the best compromise, of flavor preservation, antioxidant properties, and antibacterial protection that currently exists, and exists at a threshold below where you can taste it. I'm sure other chemicals would work, but they don't taste very good. You might be able to seal the wine up and then expose to gamma radiation. That might sterilize it, but not sure how many people want to buy radiated wine.


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## sour_grapes (Jun 17, 2020)

sour_grapes said:


> Depending on your definition of "chemical," you can stabilize wine by adding large amounts of C2H5OH.





Zoey said:


> Are there ways to stabilize wine without using chemicals



I was somewhat serious. Port-style wines are biologically stable, because the alcohol content is too high to allow almost any microbial spoilage. (C2H5OH is ethanol.)


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## Rice_Guy (Jun 17, 2020)

As a first answer I should ask what do you mean by “stabilize”? We have risk factors which we deal with when we create a shelf stable food product.


Zoey said:


> Are there ways to stabilize wine without using chemicals?


* the first risk is health, with 10% alcohol we have low risk
* our second risk is chemical degradation/ oxidation of a fermented wine. We can reduce this risk by excluding air from all transfers, filtering, leaky gaskets, leaky corks, bottle operations, and even cork. A 5 gallon setup has a higher risk of introducing several ppm oxygen than a 10,000 gallon factory setup. . . In the practical world home scale has metabisulphite (a chemical), vacuum (see all in one), and flooding with gas (nitrogen or argon or carbon dioxide). . . ie you WILL decrease shelf life if you do not use metabisulphite, ,,,, it is a shelf life choice, and it won’t kill you.
NOTE! Ethyl alcohol is a reduced chemical which will scavenge oxygen from the system producing acetaldehyde, ,,,, with a more balanced oxidation potential,,,, and burn at the back of the throat as you drink ,,, and a low flavor detection level as 100ppm.
* microbiological stabilization is part of the fermtation process, we remove sugar ie it will not ferment. . . don’t back sweeten and you have stabilized. However a majority of US customers like a sweet wine, so we accept the risk factor. For about $120 we can filter our wine to remove microbes. From a practical point on a 5 gallon that works out to $24/ gallon, or on a 10,000 gallon thats 1.2 cents, an obvious plant expense,,,, most of us opt for a chemical called sorbate and then add sugar, based on cost.
HOWVER,,, time at room temp will also starve yeast,,, age everything a year. However reducing temperature increases the time, therefore freezing will keep yeast alive close to forever,,,, and heat speeds up death so a week in a 40C garage should do it. ,,,, I age everything 9 months in the basement 20C or else add sorbate, the risk is refermentation/ exploding bottles.
* another stabilization is gunk, this is cosmetic and won’t kill your customer, ,,, tell the customer it is organic therefore better with stuff on the bottom of the bottle.
* final stabilization, oxidativative reactions from light, or radiation,,,,,, store in the dark, or stainless tanks and keep away from x-rays at the dental office, and away from gamma ray system that irradiates salmonella. We can’t reverse “age” like degradation.


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## winemaker81 (Jun 22, 2020)

@Zoey, summarizing all the comments, you have 5 choices to stabilize wine, e.g., backsweetening a wine while preventing a renewed fermentation:

1) Sterile filter the wine. I know of commercial wineries that do that, although there is a fair amount of doubt on this forum if a home winemaker can realistically do it. For this to work. all yeast must be removed from the wine. If you try this, do it with a small batch, e.g., 1 gallon / 5 bottles, and see what happens in 6 months of storage. Keep an eye on the wine, as if the fermentation renews, it's gonna push corks out. If you are observing every day or so, you will (hopefully) notice before you lose your wine.

2) Heat the wine hot enough to kill the yeast. As many have noted, this will have a negative impact on your wine. It will not be the same afterward.

3) Fortify the wine -- add enough alcohol to bump the ABV beyond what your yeast can survived. Given sufficient sugar, yeast will produce enough alcohol to poison its own environment. Use a low potency yeast (like some mead yeasts) to have a lower threshold, else your wines will be in the 18%+ range.

4) Age the wine at least a year, then sweeten to taste. [I have not heard of this one, so I have no experience either directly or indirectly.]

5) This is the one you're avoiding -- ferment the wine dry, add sorbate & sulfite, and sweeten to taste.


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