Return of the Foam

Manitude · Oct 14, 2012

I put a couple of 1g batches on last weekend. One was a strawberry ribena wine and the other some strange apple/pear/pomegranate wine/cider thing. Despite being made at the same time there's some strange differences in the foam on the top. The apple/pear one went down after a couple of days like I'm used to. But the strawberry wine stayed longer, then started to go away before coming back. As of now its on it's second or third return. There is more sugar in the wine (about 500g) I think, I only added a little bit (less than 250g) into the cider just to give it a bit more kick...but I wouldn't expect there to be that much difference. EDIT: Forgot to mention that they're both made from a roughly equal amount of the same yeast.

So I'm just wondering if that is normal and why it might happen, given that they're being stored in the same place and generally not being moved around.

oldbloke · Oct 15, 2012

Strawberries sometimes need pectolase. One strawb wine I did was Ok without, but another tried to turn into jam. This may be what's causing your unusual foam.
Strawb wine is really nice though. Big favourite here.

Manitude · Oct 15, 2012

I see. I have a tub of pectolase already. Is it too late to add it now, given that I've had this batch on the go for quite a while already?

Moley · Oct 15, 2012

Pectolase can't do any harm and if you add it later in a fermentation you just double the quantity, 1 tsp to the gallon at the beginning, 2 tsps to the gallon later on.

Oldbloke: I think you might have missed something though, this is strawberry Ribena, not fresh strawberries.

I suspect the foam is just due to temperature fluctuations, cooling down at night and warming up in the daytime, so the yeasties wake up and get going again.

Manitude · Oct 15, 2012

Moley said:
Pectolase can't do any harm and if you add it later in a fermentation you just double the quantity, 1 tsp to the gallon at the beginning, 2 tsps to the gallon later on.

Oldbloke: I think you might have missed something though, this is strawberry Ribena, not fresh strawberries.

I suspect the foam is just due to temperature fluctuations, cooling down at night and warming up in the daytime, so the yeasties wake up and get going again.

OK. I should have enough left in the tub to add a couple of teaspoons.
I tried some tonight and it wasn't great. Pretty sharp and very yeasty. I think it needs to be left for more time to mature, and then campden tablets or finings later on to get rid of the yeasty flavour. It was very hazy too, so I can definitely see the need for pectolase.
Cheers.

It was better than my apple/pear/pomegranate creation though. That was bitter and pretty unpleasant, I did add tea for tannins so that may have something to do with it. Couldn't even finish half a wine glass of it. More time required for that one too, I reckon.