Grampa asked that I track down a recipe for chokecherry wine. He used to make it in his younger years but had forgotten the proportions and asked me to find a recipe.
Eventually I found this recipe, which is pretty close to what grampa remembers. But before finding that recipe I foundseveralother recipes that call for things like pectic enzyme, Campden tablets, yeast nutrien, and acid blend.
Never mind specific gravity.
I’ve had a lot of homemade wine of the four-ingredient variety (those little old church ladies could make a mean dandelion wine for communion, ya know ;)) and always liked it. What’s the purpose of all this other stuff? Why do nearly all the recipes I’ve come across think Campden tablets and pectic enzyme is necessary?
Campden is potassium metabisulfite. Sodium metabisulfite is sometimes used also, and was an earlier formulation of the “campden” tablet. The idea is to kill off all the random microorganisms besides the controlled yeast you want to introduce, and to prevent oxidation. Without it, you just hope that nothing much grows besides your yeast.
To be somewhat clearer about that, you may be instructed to add campden to the must some hours before fermentation, to kill off random microorganisms before introducing your own yeast, and will probably be instructed to add it afterwards to prevent undesireable bacteria from growing in the final product, and prevent oxidation. Either way, it is a sterilizing agent.
This is the stuff that causes most bottles of wine you buy to be labelled with the warning “contains sulphites”. Some people are sensitive to them.
It is sodium/and or potassium metabisulphite (or some other sulfur compound)
Commercial wineries will occasionally have batches that start ferment too fast (creating various undesireable effects in the wine) To slow it down, these compounds are dumped into the fermenting tank in small quantities to kill off part of the yeast colony to put things back in check. The amounts used for sterilization are tiny compared to this.
Of course this has negative effects as well and these batches usually end up being bottled as discounted/lower grade products.
Depending on what they are making the same effect is sometimes achieved by injecting pure alcohol into the tanks which also kills off some yeast. IIRC this is the expensive route or is more likely used in applications like brandy making where it is going to be distilled later anyway, so excessive alcohol content is less of an issue.
(Per my ex-Christian Brothers winery/brandy distillery employee boss)
That stuff is all pretty common, and they all have benefits. None of them though, are required to make a decent wine.
Campden has pretty much been covered. It’s a sterilizer and is also often used later in the process to stop fermentation completely if you want sweeter wine. If you pasteurize your fruit/juice, and sanitize your stuff properly, it isn’t required. If you don’t pasteurize the fruit/juice though, using it is to your advantage as it will kill off any wild yeasts and/or bacteria. Once you add your water, it is diluted enough that your yeast won’t be affected unless you add more later on.
Pectic enzyme is used to prevent the juice from turning into jelly, and isn’t required if you don’t heat the fruit/juice beyond pasteurization.
Yeast nutrient is just that. It’s food for the yeast and very good stuff. It is not required, but I highly recommend it, especially if you started with Campden. Helps the yeast really take off and multiply faster than without the nutrient, and there really isn’t a downside to it.
Acid blend is something you can add if you want a more acidic wine. I use it in mead to give it a cleaner taste, bring out the flavors more and also a bit more depth. Not required, but it can often help turn a good wine into a REALLY good wine. Depends on your water, the fruit/juice, etc. Think of it as a condiment to balance the wine.