Eggs are a traditional tool for clearing and tempering wine in particular. One among the variety of traditional tools available. Eggs are perhaps the least objectionable with others including blood products, gelatin and more.
If you have ready acc…
Eggs are a traditional tool for clearing and tempering wine in particular. One among the variety of traditional tools available. Eggs are perhaps the least objectionable with others including blood products, gelatin and more.
If you have ready access to a supply of cheap or free eggs than this is a viable and effective method. It is especially applicable to red wine production. Red wine has a higher concentration of the best target compounds.
It works on the basic principle of creating an artificial weight around the parts you want to remove and forcing these to the bottom of your vessel. They remain at the bottom as an inert mass.
Preparation is simple. The steps are:
1. 1 egg with the yolk and white separated.
2. Combine egg white with 10-25g of water and ½ teaspoon of table salt.
3. Mix gently until combined.
4. Add at a rate of of between 0.1 and 1.0 mL per 1L of brew.
5. Leave for up to 4 weeks and than siphon the two components.
You will see that in this video the first brew was siphoned into a new bottle to remove the sediment. This is mixed with the egg white solution. This will be left for several weeks. You can see an example prepared three weeks ago that has successfully been clarified. This removed the yeast and unfermented sugars. This was a simple combination of excess sugar, yeast and nutrient in 1L batches. In a wine fermentation the effect would be greater as the egg will better bind with the tannin and phenols.
Relevant links:
Wiki: tannins
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tannin
Wiki: phenols in wine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenolic_content_in_wine
Wiki: protein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein
