URGENT bentonite

[Elderbrew1]

About to use bentonite for the first time instructions on bottle say 1 rounded teaspoon per gallon (I'm doing 10 gallons) mixed in Half a cup of water or wine. So I did 6 teaspoons in 3 cups of water. Not really sure I want to add this to my wine! !!!! It looks horrendous! Stressing! !!

 

[z-bob]

That sounds like too much.

It does all settle out; I used it in some Welch's grape juice wine last year. I added it to the primary so the bubbles could keep it stirred up for the first week.

 

[Elderbrew1]

It looks like too much! It looks like grey sewage water! Some one please tell me is safe to add to wine!

 

[MizzouFermentationScience]

Bentonite is a bit tricky to rehydrate properly, it won't do its job unless properly treated. This link provides good instruction: https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/fs/fs-53-w.pdf

As for putting it in wine, sure it looks and smells like rock Jello but don't worry, it settles out fine. I bet 90% of commercial white wines have been fined with bentonite. Please don't add bentonite to the wine if it is red.

 

[Elderbrew1]

It's a white. Why don't you add it to a red?

 

[z-bob]

It looks like too much! It looks like grey sewage water! Some one please tell me is safe to add to wine!

It's supposed to look like that. I'm waiting for the answer about not using it in reds.

 

[ChelisHubby]

It's a white. Why don't you add it to a red?

Hey I would like to know that also. I am just starting out.

 

[Elderbrew1]

So I've decided to wait until tomorrow to add the bentonite! How much bentonite would people recommend to add to 10 gallons of wine? It's looking good and smelling good just cloudy. .. don't want to ruin it at this stage!

 

[MizzouFermentationScience]

In reply to the last couple of posts, prepare for nerd ramble:
Bentonite is used to bind heat liable proteins and prevent haziness in white wine. It is used in commercial production because most of our white wines spend less than 9 months on lees and we cannot guarantee the storage conditions of bottles shipped to grocery stores, restaurants, etc... Bottles can get hot and heat unstable proteins will congeil like egg whites in a frying pan. Depending on variety and time on lees, there is a good chance that a home winemaker never needs to use bentonite. Furthermore, the flaw that bentonite "fixes" is purely aesthic- if you don't mind a little haze settling in a bottle, I wouldn't use it. Lightly pressed white wines often don't need benonite, exceptions being unstable varieties like Pinot Gris and Riesling (among others). Wine made from concentrate may not need bentonite either- I've never made wine from concentrate but I think the heating/evaporation may congeal unstable proteins. Extended aging (~9 months) sur lees will release high molecular weight mannoproteins from yeast cell walls which naturally heat stabilize wine. You don't add bentonite to red wines because the tannins present in the skins and seeds react with heat unstable proteins during primary fermentation and reds become naturally heat stable. The best way to determine how much bentonite to use is testing; in a water bath preferably, a low oven potentially, or by boiling if necessary. To help with filtration and clarification we add 12 grams/ hectoliter (1 lb/ 1000 gallons) regularly and should suffice for most home wines. So 10 gallons is is 1 lb / 100 = .01 lbs = 4.54 grams. Please refer to the previous link for proper hydration technique. Think of benonite as a deck of cards and protein as a poker chip; in between every card, protein can be captured but the deck needs to be opened up (hydrated) first.

The downside of bentonite is the potential addition of hydration water to the wine (usually insignificant but still present), and the "stripping" of flavor and aroma. Plenty of studies show that there is no impact on flavor but every winemaker I've ever talked to thinks there is.

Edit: maximum efficacy of bentonite is about 60 grams/ hL, some people will add more but in my opinion that is already too much. That is equivalent to 23 grams in your batch.

 

[MizzouFermentationScience]

There is also a chance that benonite can induce haziness, unfiltered wines treated with bentonite are often "counter fined" with isinglass. I have no experience with this as any wine I put bento on gets filtered which cleans up any cold haze.

 

[Elderbrew1]

This is clearly a more complicated issue than I thought! As this is my first batch of wine (by the way this batch is elderflower, I'm only really doing foraged fruits) I think I'll bottle it and have a hazy wine! Next year I'll make 2 batches and have one as a sacrificial bentonite batch!

I have hears of using pectin/pectonase?? to reduce haziness?

 

[MizzouFermentationScience]

Pectin is polymerized sugar, pectinase is a collection of enzymes that break those polymer bonds. Pectin does not cause any potential haziness, one would add pectinsase to fruit in order to increase the availability of sugar for fermentation and to improve filterability. Pectinase enzymes (enzymes are proteins) will cause heat haze if the wine gets hot, and wines treated with a lot of pectin needs to be bentonite fined for clarity (if desired).

 

[lukebuz]

Dude, I'd head back to your homebrew store, and pickup 2 packs of SuperKleer KC. $3 each, and they will clear your wine like none other. Plus, I have never noticed any flavor stripping, off tastes, smells, etc from using it. No extra water really needed (just add directly, or mix with wine prior) and to clears is amazingly well! No complaints here!

 

[MizzouFermentationScience]

Dude, I'd head back to your homebrew store, and pickup 2 packs of SuperKleer KC. $3 each, and they will clear your wine like none other. Plus, I have never noticed any flavor stripping, off tastes, smells, etc from using it. No extra water really needed (just add directly, or mix with wine prior) and to clears is amazingly well! No complaints here!

Sparkolloid does not fine heat unstable proteins, it can be used in conjunction with benonite as a counterfining agent (like isinglass I mentioned before). Haze in a young wine has little to do with heat stability- sparkolloid can be use to "polish" the wine if you aren't going to filter. Bentonite specifically fines invisible proteins that would otherwise create haze over time or if the wine gets hot.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Interesting that all kit manufacturers include bentonite in their reds.

Are they wrong?

 

[MizzouFermentationScience]

Maybe for clarification maybe because kits made from extract don't have tannins and can be unstable. Even French-American hybrid red wines self heat stabilize despite the lack of tannins post pressing, the short period on skins provides enough protein precipitation. Perhaps kits are more like rosé than red wine, just a lot of color but no tannin.