Egg white clearing

I keep running across mentions of using egg whites to clear wine, but not the actual description. Is it just one egg at a time, yoke removed? Is it multiple eggs mixed together a little bit? No one ever mentions potential problems with salmonella, either.

I've never done it, since there are so many good clarifyers for wine, so I looked at Jack Keller's website to see what he has to say about egg whites. (He's my winemaking idol!).

He says: Egg white is an excellent fining agent for removing haze caused by excessive tannin. Separate an egg and gently beat the white in a small amount of the unclarified wine. C.J.J. Berry insists that one must add a pinch of salt to the white before beating it. I will certainly not argue with him. Use half the beaten white per 5-gallon carboy. Simply pour the beaten egg white into the wine and stir well with a long sterilized rod. Refit the airlock and set aside for ten days. The wine should clarify. Rack and bottle it at once.

I tend to go with Sparkeloid for most wines that don't clear on their own. But I have used SuperKleer with good results. More info from Jack Keller's site in on this page: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/finishin.asp (about 1/2 way down the finings start).

Oh, okay. No, I don't think I'll be using that method any time soon because I don't usually have problems due to tannin. Actually, I normally don't have problems when I put in pectic enzyme, but I have this 2.5 month old peach wine that isn't clearing. I've heard peaches can be a bugger, and mine seems no different. I'm not really ready to bottle it, but at the same time, I'm getting a bit twitchy.

Do egg white and gelatin perform similarly? They're both made mainly of protein.

Dave

I've been trying to find out if its possible to reduce the amount of tannin in a wine because I've foraged some Sloes (fruit of the Blackthorn) to make into Sloe wine, but Sloes are known for their mouth drying astringency, so Sloe wine needs a long maturation period before its palatable.
I found this page which talks about using egg white to reduce tannins:-
https://winemakermag.com/wine-wizard/1056-can-i-reduce-tannins-in-a-wine-kit-without-aging

CandleWineProject said:

Oh, okay. No, I don't think I'll be using that method any time soon because I don't usually have problems due to tannin. Actually, I normally don't have problems when I put in pectic enzyme, but I have this 2.5 month old peach wine that isn't clearing. I've heard peaches can be a bugger, and mine seems no different. I'm not really ready to bottle it, but at the same time, I'm getting a bit twitchy.

Click to expand...

I would rack this potion again and wait 1 month if no clearing is present throw in some bentonite, wait a month and rack again.