Question about Fruit Wine Ingredients

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loumik

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I have been looking for a fruit wine recipe to try and have found a couple that I may take a shot at. I see a number of recipes using Old Orchard bottled and frozen concentrates and a question occurs to me. If these juices have already been pasturized and no real fruit is used, do you really need to use campden tablets or k-meta? And if you are using only juice why would you need to use pectic enzyme?
The answers to these questions may seem obvious to some of you but I don't see the reasoning. If the juice is pasturized there shouldn't be any wild yeasts or bacteria in it. And if there is no real fruit or solids, what is the pectic enzyme going to extract juice from?


LOUMIK:a1
 
You are correct. No need for either for the reasons you stated.
 
I know from experience that you may have a pectic haze in your wine from juice/concentrate if you do not use pectic enzyme. Also, the enzyme breaks down the juice at a molecular level that will help your yeast process juice to wine.

Pasteurization is just the heating and cooling of food and should destroy all microbial growth in the product. K-meta is probably not necessary in this case. Still, I would use it because over the period of time you let your pectic enzyme do its work your must will be exposed to whatever microbes are in the environment. There is no harm in using sulfites in the proper amounts.
 
I've done both sulfite and not with frozen juices. I tend to lean to no sulfite prior to fermentation but in reality when all is said and done you need to make up that amount before bottling. Recommended amount is 30ppm per litre at the time of bottling.
 
Loumik

Thanks everyone for the inputs. I hadn't thought of pectic haze, therefore pectic enzyme would probably be the safest way to go. My questioning of the need for k-meta was only during fermentation. I knew it would be necessary prior to ageing or bottleing.

Thanks again,
LOUMIK:gn
 
Is your water sterile? Is everything that is going to touch your wine cleaned of all possible things that could spoil your wine? If you are a beginning winemaker I would really suggest you use your KMeta just to be safe. Is it going to hurt if you add some pectinase if you dont need it, no, but if you do and you dont your next post on the list will be "how to I clear up this haze in my wine" :) I put KMeta and pectinase in everything just to be sure and then I dont have to correct a problem a couple of months down the line or dump anything down the drain.

Crackedcork
 
Wise advise above. I dont use kmeta in my fruit juice wnes only because I usually dont add any water to them.
 

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