How important is temperature when adding pectic enzyme?

Question

I added pectic enzyme when the must of my rhubarb wine was too warm after I misread the directions in the book where I found the recipe. I didn't notice until after the next day when I had already pitched the yeast. Will the pectic enzyme still help the wine clear? Should I re add it again at some other point?wine

Answer 1

I'm making plum wine right now and was wondering about this. While this may not be an official "answer" here, I have read that you can pretty much add pectic enzyme at any point in the process, but it's supposedly best to add it in the beginning. Pectic enzyme effectively un-does the work pectin does in your wine-- pectin wants to make it into a gel, but you want a clear wine in the end. Pectic enzyme works to shorten the molecular chains that pectin forms in your must and wine-- while most fruit doesn't have enough pectin to make a gel on its own, those chains cause haze later.

My experience making wine tells me that if you're aging your wine in oak or in a carboy with oak chips for at least a few months, you can add the enzyme powder whenever you want and it'll do its work over time, similar to the way malolactic bacteria work on your wine once its in oak to covert malic acid into lactic. I'm pitching yeast tonight after a day long fruit rest and don't have any pectic enzyme on-hand, so I'm going to add it midway through fermentation and will report back on how it goes.

Answer 2

It is best added when the must is at room temperature, you don't say what temp it was added so to be on the safe side I would add another dose. A double dose won't harm the resulting wine.