Orange wine - pectinase or not?

[Chris Mellor]

Hi

I’m wanting to make 10l orange wine from whole fruits. The recipe says to put in zest, peel fruit and remove pith, then mash in a bucket. Add boiling water and leave for 5 days (stirring occasionally).

The recipe doesn’t call for pectinase to help with juice extraction but, I guess more for knowledge and experience, would it help? Would it spoil things further down the line?

Any ideas?

 

[salcoco]

will always help should not hurt

 

[Scooter68]

Surprisingly - if you look at a chart of which fruits have the most pectin in them --- Citrus fruits top the list. The pectin is primarily in the skins so if you aren't using any zest or parts of the skin the amount of pectin present will be much lower. STILL best to use a pectic enzyme additive of some variety.

 

[Chris Mellor]

I’d read that oranges have a lot of pectin and that’s why I wondered...

I will throw some into the mix I think.

but that will be tomorrow now. Bit too late to start juicing and zesting 20 oranges and 4 lemons.

many thanks for the input.

 

[winemanden]

Marmalade makers used to tie the pips( for pectin) in muslin and boil with the fruit to help it set.

 

[Chris Mellor]

Update on this one...

I scrubbed, zested, peeled, pithed and squished the oranges...

I added the enzyme and now it's doing it's job. Smells good and even looks like orange juice so hopefully I'm doing something right.

Whats left to do?

Other than pitch the yeast - I've a sore left thumb from peeling the things.

And - no pips There were very few pips in either of the types of oranges used. And I can't make marmalade as Seville oranges are not yet in season.

 

[Smitty77]

Thinking about making an Orange wine myself. Please keep us updated.

 

[Chris Mellor]

Thinking about making an Orange wine myself. Please keep us updated.

Hi

well. I started with it. 5 days juicing and then pitched it on Sunday. I have a nasty feeling I either put too much sugar in there or my fermenting bucket isn’t quite air tight. Fermentation is really rather slow.

I’ve some information on it here:

http://themellors.org/cooking/

there are a few wine related things. I need to get tags and stuff sorted out.

I will take a sample of the orange tonight and check if it’s progress3d. If not then I’ll remove some (maybe a quarter) and add water and see if that helps with fermentation.

let’s see

 

[Jal5]

Never did an orange wine but did make a kumquat so in the citrus family. That took forever to ferment and got stuck. Required another starter of yeast to really get going. Never did figure why other than the acid I think was high. No acid measurement was taken though.

 

[Scooter68]

Still waiting to finish our last bottle of Loquat wine. It's a "light on the pallette wine made with only 4 1/4 lbs for a 1 gallon batch. It has a very light citrus flavor to begin with. I'd do it again if I could as it was very quick to clear.

 

[Chris Mellor]

Never did an orange wine but did make a kumquat so in the citrus family. That took forever to ferment and got stuck. Required another starter of yeast to really get going. Never did figure why other than the acid I think was high. No acid measurement was taken though.

I guess that Orange and Kumquat are related then...

Its a slow ferment - and yup - I needed to pitch some more yeast in there. I'm thinking acid or too much sugar.

Still need to take a sample and see where we are at.

 

[Chris Mellor]

A little update...

the orange wine in question is still happily bubbling away nearly a month after it started. Quite pleased at that

I haven’t opened the bucket, thinking it’s best to just leave it and learn a little patience.