Brand New to Wine Making

[Mark McD]

@Mark McD
Understanding maceration enzymes is an extensive exercise, which I am not sufficiently versed to describe. I reviewed numerous enzymes and found one I like and I use it.

While maceration is new to me, I understand what is going on (kind of) I use enzymes in my beers to make more starches available as sugars. It gives me lower carbs & higher ABV. From a quick read it seems maceration does a similar thing for colours, flavours etc.

 

[winemaker81]

While maceration is new to me, I understand what is going on (kind of) I use enzymes in my beers to make more starches available as sugars. It gives me lower carbs & higher ABV. From a quick read it seems maceration does a similar thing for colours, flavours etc.

We're straying into more advanced territory. I would not normally go here (yet) with a beginner, as the amount of information is overwhelming. However, your beer making experience has given you an appreciation for the concepts, even if things don't directly translate.

There are numerous enzymes, the most common is pectic enzyme. I add this to all non-grape wines to ensure that fruit pectin does not produce a haze. It has the beneficial side effect of breaking the fruit structure down for better extraction from the fruit. Most grapes are low in pectin, so it's not as commonly used for grape wines.

Beyond that? Go to a site like Scott Labs and start reading the descriptions. The sheer mass of information is overwhelming. Understanding what each does and how different products differ will take effort. Note that unless you're working with grapes or with kits + skin packs, the maceration enzymes are probably not useful.

That said, keep it simple for your first few batches.

The FWK instructions have been mentioned as best in the market, and I agree. The full and checklist versions are available for download:

https://indd.adobe.com/view/6f646554-4d8c-4d2b-a253-02f3b1360b3f

https://labelpeelersinc.com/FWK/Forte-Instructions-Abbreviated.pdf

The links are hard to see -- I emailed LabelPeelers and suggested they change the color so links stand out.

 

[BPL]

To describe it delicately, in all wines the color survives passage the full length of the alimentary canal

At the end of the day, humans can't taste color.

 

[winemaker81]

At the end of the day, humans can't taste color.

Very true. However, for most, dark wine in the glass looks prettier.

 

[Rice_Guy]

Books can be great sources but many I've seen are a bit difficult for absolute newbs to get their head around -
A number of people on here have been using kegs rather than bottles & a couple mentioned CO2 for purging headspace instead of argon.

well a simple book would be The New Settlement Cook Book circa 1905, A process is like “make grape juice, it will start fermenting, keep the air off it”. This is similar to recipe cards from great grandpa in the 1930s.
You can use a sealed tank, there is a winery here which has patented the process of collecting the CO2 and injecting it into finished wine to create a sparkling wine. The patent doesn’t make the cost of stainless pressure tanks lower so doesn’t have a lot of value. I will differ and say sure you can make wine exactly like beer. BUT ,, What would be the point of boiling the grapes? Grape has a pH near 3.5 so it resists food poisoning bacteria. Beer is above pH 4 so isn’t resistant to food poisoning, beer starts with long starches which yeast can’t consume so again a boiling step helps make the product, where as grape has fermentable sugar already. ,,, The country wine portion of wine making has lots of recipes that take apple which might be 1.055 and add extra sugar from a wort (or honey). ,,, Basically if we have high sugar juice we can ignore all beer processes that are related to RO water quality, ,,, Good grapes ( vintage wines) naturally have pH and flavor and tannin (antioxidant / AKA what hops do) and color so wine processes can be more sloppy than beer recipes are. Good apples (vintage apples) blend from trees to intentionally produce pH etc etc.

Wine is a preservation system where alcohol (percent sugar) and pH favors yeast growth. Wine and beer and hard cider and mead are food preservation systems where finished alcohol reacts with oxygen producing acetaldehyde which is yucky.

Two other references The new Cider Maker’s Handbook; Joulicouer and Mead Maker; Shram. They write about what grapes naturally do which country wines (or beers) have to intentionally build back.