Pectic Enzymes and Adding Fruit

I just read that adding PE's will clear the cider juice, this is interesting to me as most of my cider is murky in colour. How much should I add and at which stage? Also, will it affect the taste?

Also, I read people are adding fruit to the juice. I thought of adding some strawberries, when are they added? Are they added whole? At which stage and how much PE should I add?

Thanks for any advice!

Iz

Hi, I found this out on the web that explains it pretty well. Somtimes I use Pectic enzyme and somtimes I don't.

Snip**
""If you want to learn how to make wine, one of the first things you should do is learn about all of the different additives and chemicals that are used to make homemade wine. Pectic Enzyme is one of the most misunderstood additives.

This article will explain What is pecitic enzyme, why do I need it and how it works.

Let's back up a little and talk about grape jelly. MMMM! Everyone loves grape jelly and jam on a hot buttered biscuit. It always has a gooey, almost jello like consistency.

Did you ever wonder where that jello consistency comes from? Well, in jello, it comes from gelatin. But it fruit jams and jellies, a lot of the consistency comes from something called pectin.

Pectin is produced commercially as a white to light brown powder, extracted from citrus fruits, and is used in food as a gelling agent particularly in jams and jellies.

If you want to make your own wine out of grapes, peaches, strawberries or any other kind of fruit - you have to have a way of dealing with the naturally occuring pectin. The reason is that pectin can cause solids in your wine to clump together in a colliodal suspension and you'll end up with cloudy wine that won't clear no matter how long you leave it sitting in the secondary.

How to deal with it? Use something that EATS pectin! Pectic Enzyme loves to eat pectin.

The way to use pectic enzyme when making your own wine at home is to add about a 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of fruit juice before you start fermenting the juice.

While the fermentation is going on, the pectic enzyme will also be eating and dissolving the pectin. This will make your wine clear a lot faster and keep it from having suspended solids.""
Snip**

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Make-Wine---Pectic-Enzyme---What-is-It?&id=1971544

Good luck!

Superb! Thanks for that. A couple of things I noted were that a) I also make jam and actually need some pectins for that (irony!). And b) I just used pectin enzymes to break down some pulp I had left over (managed to get an additional 4L juice from it). I fermented this juice and noticed last night that it had gone from the initial brown sludge (very very murky!) to clearer than any other batch I have on the go.

So, the penny finally drops!

Yeah it depends on how you get your juice. If you're crushing and pressing on your own, you can add the enzyme to the pulp well in advance to pressing and it will give you greater yield and clearer juice in the end. If you do this, it's best to add crushed and dissolved campden to the pulp as well so that bacteria doesn't start to grow during the mastication process. Wait 24 hours or so then press the pulp and you're good to go!

If you're getting it already pressed, just add it before the yeast.

PE packaging will tell you how much to add. Always look at the packaging, because it means you don't have to remember, go posting the question, etc. It is right there right when you need it.

Terry Geary's book says to add it 12-24 hours after the campden tablets, and wait another 12-24 hours before pitching the yeast. Stuff doesn't work all the well after there is yeast working.

When I use it, it clears up beautifully. Take a look at my profile pic.