How Hot?? Too hot??

[Ozark Wolverine]

When I make my fruit wines (I'm a noob) trying to up my game now that I am retired) I heat about 3 or 4 gallons of water up to about 140 degrees F to dissolve my sugar in . . then I pour this right into the primary with my bagged fruit, then add all ingredients except the yeast, which I add 12 to 24hrs later. I have had some tell me that this is too hot for some of the ingredients and may harm the fruit pectins . . .

Thoughts?

 

[ChuckD]

First I’ve heard this, but I’m fairly new to wine making. I generally pour the hot sugar water over the fruit as many recipes suggest. I wait a short while for it to cool before adding the other ingredients. I’m often pouring over frozen fruit so it cools really quick.

ETA. I usually dissolve the sugar in a gallon of water or so for a large batch. So I guess I’m not adding that much hot water.

 

[winemaker81]

A lot of fruit recipes call for warm or even hot water poured over the fruit to help with extraction of color and flavor from the fruit.

The heat doesn't harm the pectin, but it does cause it to set. Fruit pectin gels around the boiling point of water (I've read different figures), and 140 F is not close to that.

However, I've had pectin haze in fruit wine where there was no heating, so I'm not positive what the correlation is between heat and pectin haze in wine. I add pectic enzyme to fruit wines prior to fermentation as a preventative measure, and because the enzyme supposedly helps break down cell structure.

Freezing and defrosting the fruit also breaks down cell structure and is widely recommended on this forum.

 

[oppyland]

I made a batch of pear wine a couple years ago using a recipe that called for simmering the pears to extract the juice and flavor. I'm not sure I would use that particular recipe again simply because it was an extra step that didn't seem to improve the final product, but heating definitely didn't hurt anything.

I think you're fine with 140* water.

 

[Ozark Wolverine]

Thanks everyone for all the great replies. A lot of knowledge on this forum with great people willing to share. Thanks again!!