Tannin in Winemaking

[devilbiker]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and have a question that no doubt you can all answer. I've already got some Strawberry Ribena and so I was thinking of making wine with it. I've seen loads of other posts here about it and noticed that some recipes call for Tea for the Tannin and others don't mention it. I was wondering what it did for the wine and do you actually need it?

Devilbiker

 

[Cononthebarber]

I may be wrong and I'm sure someone will correct me but I think the tannin adds a bit of bitterness to the flavour to give it more complexity...otherwise it can taste very tart or a bit flat (not as in bubbles) tasting if you know what I mean?

You can add tannin by either brewing a very strong cuppa with two bags steeped for at least 10 mins, or you can buy tannin in powder form from your LHBS...

 

[devilbiker]

ok - I get the idea now. Can you actually taste tea though or just an added "something"?

 

[Moley]

Tannins occur naturally on the skins of grapes and many other fruits. They are also on or in leaves, notably tea and oak. You can make wine from oak leaves, and I believe they are or were also used for tanning leather, and that's where the name came from.

A little will make your wines more interesting and give them a slight bitterness or astringency. A lot will make your wines very harsh and leave you with a furry tongue, or coat your teeth. Not enough and your wines may be dull or insipid..

If making wines from juices or cordials, add some powdered tannin or strong tea. If making wine from grapes or other fruits where the skins are included in the must for some period of time, particularly with things like elderberries or blackberries, don't add extra tannins.

 

[devilbiker]

OK - Cheers for that I understand better now.

 

[Cononthebarber]

What Moley said :)

It won't taste of tea, it will just add and extra vah-vah-voom to your wine making it taste that much better :thumb:

 

[oldbloke]

Even my Earl Grey Tea wine didn't really taste of tea.
Well, OK, a bit. But you had to think about it.

 

[devilbiker]

Well - I followed Kirton's recipe and put it in the Demijohns last night where it did the very occasional bubble.

Woke up this morning to find it had gone crazy! This afternoon it was trying to crawl out of the airlock so I had to quickly sterilise another demijohn and transfer some over to stop it from taking over the kitchen.

From reading other posts I thought I was going to have trouble getting it going but it's bubbling so much this morning it was like a bottle of pop when you try to open it!

Any ideas why I got such a reaction?

 

[Moley]

Where are you and what's the temperature like?

Our room temperatures are hovering around 20°C, and fermentation produces a bit more of its own heat once it gets going, so my own active brews are getting a wriggle on.

 

[devilbiker]

Checked the temp in the kitchen last night - 25 deg C, this morning 24 deg C. May explain the hyperactive yeast! Still streaming bubbles all the way through the liquid like a bottle of pop when first opened.

Just glad there's a logical explanation apart from me having found some new kind of mutant yeast!

 

[texteditor]

Even my Earl Grey Tea wine didn't really taste of tea.
Well, OK, a bit. But you had to think about it.

Earl Grey Tea doesn’t taste of tea anyway!
texteditor.

 

[oldstout]

Even my Earl Grey Tea wine didn't really taste of tea.
Well, OK, a bit. But you had to think about it.

Earl Grey Tea doesn’t taste of tea anyway!
texteditor.

It's always been my first brew of the day.....



Until I read oldblokes post about making wine from it :hmm: :hmm: :hmm:

:lol: :lol: :lol:


:

 

[GREBO75]

as well as affecting the taste, having tannin in your wine also greatly improves it's stability, it'll keep much longer with the tannin than it would if there was none there.