Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and Butler in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry in
1978.
Some fruits already have so much tannin that they should be
diluted in order to make a drinkable wine, whereas others will
require the addition of tannin to help pull proteins out of
solution. I have included a table of common fruits that shows
how much relative tannin they have, divided into low (less
than 3 grams per liter), medium (3-4 grams per liter) and high
(more than 4 grams per liter). If a juice is in the “low”
category, add 3/8 teaspoon of grape tannin per gallon. If a
juice is in the “medium” category, add ¼ teaspoon per gallon.
If it is in the “high” category, you will likely need to dilute
the juice with water or a juice with lower tannin content to
avoid making a wine that is too astringent to be enjoyable. If
you have to dilute the juice anyway because of its acidity
(later in this chapter), consider the diluted juice to be one
category lower for purposes of tannin content.
Your fruits will certainly differ to some degree from those I
used for testing and my testing method used my own home
lab rather than a professional lab, so I recommend that you
mix up your must and add half the tannins specified, and then
take a clean spoon and actually taste the must. If it isn't
giving you any “pucker effect” go ahead and add the rest of
the tannin specified. A must that starts out tasty will likely
turn into a tasty wine!
Low
Tannin
Medium Tannin
High Tannin
Apples,
Bananas,
Blueberries, Blackberries,
Cherries (sweet), Currants,
Apricots,
Blueberries,
