I’m new to the wine making and I have noticed that all the recipes have chemicals in them of some type. Is it possible to do the same recipes but leave out all the chemicals? I don’t like it but I do understand you have to put in the campden tablets at the end to stop any fermentation before bottling it up. That’s one of the reason I started trying to make things at home to get a way from all the preservative and chemicals they put in our foods now days.
Yes, it may take longer but yes. I have been know to make wine 100% chemical free from fresh fruit.
Rinse sorted fruit with plain water, add yeast & sugars, rack at 30, 90 days. wait until hydrometer reading do not change for two weeks (has been know to take up to 12 -14 months), bottle. Drink & enjoy.
Which would you say is better to help break down the fruit, kill bacteria and natural yeast freezing or bring the fruit to at least 160 degrees before starting the fermation?
Thanks for answering my questions.
Hi, and welcome to wine making. I think the first thing you need to do is understand why those chemicals are there. Some make the process more reliable, some protect the wine so it can last longer, and some improve the final wine in some way. It is possible to make wine without using any chemicals, but it may suffer from flaws and you will need to drink it quickly (within a few month) before it goes bad. Feel free to ask about any chemical that you are interested in.
For example, campden is not typically used to stop fermentation, but rather to stabilize the wine to protect it from oxygen, bacterial infections, and (in combination with potassium sorbate) prevent if from restarting fermentation if more sugar is added to sweeten before bottling.
How to prepare the fruit depends on what fruit you are using, and what condition it is in. Freezing isn’t a reliable way of sanitizing, though there are other benefits, like breaking down the cell walls that allows better extraction of the juice, flavors and compound you are usually trying to get. Heat sanitizing will in most cases set the pectin in the fruit, leading to hazy wine. This is mostly a cosmetic issue, but it really would make the wine look unappealing. The most commonly used method for keeping microbes at bay that are already on the fruit is to prepare the must (all the ingredients that will be fermented except the yeast) with campden tablets at a rate of 1/2 to 1 tablet per gallon. This will stun and mostly incapacitate most microbes. Then wait 12-24 hours for the sulfite to get partially bound up, and add a large culture of yeast to overwhelm and outcompete any surviving microbes.
Good luck, and read up on everything you can before deciding how you want to proceed.
