Wine Making Additives: What Each One Does and How Much to Use

Fruit wine recipes call for a handful of small additions alongside the fruit, sugar and yeast: yeast nutrient, pectic enzyme, tannin, acid blend, Campden tablets and, at the end, potassium sorbate. Each one solves a specific problem. Grapes come with most of what wine needs; other fruit usually does not, which is why Clemson Cooperative Extension notes that fruit wines are made by adding extra ingredients to reach a balanced wine.

This guide explains what each additive does, when it goes in and the usual dose per gallon, taken from extension recipes and the product labels.

Wine Additives at a Glance

Doses vary by brand and recipe, so check the label on the product you buy. A tablespoon of acid blend where the recipe says a teaspoon is a mistake you will taste.

Yeast Nutrient

North Dakota State University Extension’s Getting Started With Home Winemaking calls yeast nutrient an energizer for the yeast that promotes a rapid start to fermentation. It is a food-grade version of urea and diammonium phosphate. Fruit musts are often short of the nitrogen yeast needs, and NDSU warns that a lack of nutrient can stress the yeast and give the wine a rotten egg smell. Its fruit wine recipes use 1 teaspoon per gallon, which matches the rate printed on the Fermax nutrient listing.

Do not overdo it. Purdue University’s enology fact sheet on film yeasts cautions that excess nutrient left over after fermentation becomes food for spoilage organisms.

Pectic Enzyme

Fruit is held together by pectin, and pectin left in the wine causes a stubborn haze. NDSU Extension explains that pectic enzyme breaks pectin down and prevents this pectic haze. The Home Brew Ohio pectic enzyme listing adds that it makes crushing and pressing fruit more efficient, can help extract tannin from red grape skins, and should not be added together with bentonite, which cancels its effect.

NDSU’s fruit wine recipes, such as its apple and strawberry wines, use 1/2 teaspoon per gallon, added with the fruit before the yeast. It matters most for high-pectin fruit like apples, plums, peaches and berries; see our fruit wine recipes.

Wine Tannin

Tannin gives wine its astringency, the dry, slightly puckery feel of a red. NDSU Extension adds that tannin contributes complexity, can reduce browning of the must and helps preserve the wine. Its apple wine recipe uses 1/4 teaspoon per gallon, but it notes that some fruits already have enough natural tannin, so check the recipe before adding more. Grape tannin is most useful in white and light fruit wines; the North Mountain Supply tannin listing suggests it for whites that have not seen oak and for dull reds.

Acid Blend

Acid gives wine its bite. NDSU Extension explains that acid prevents a flat or flabby wine, and that most wine sits at a pH of 3.3 to 3.7, which also helps keep microorganisms in check. Acid blend is a mix of malic, tartaric and citric acid; the North Mountain Supply blend is 50% malic, 40% citric and 10% tartaric, and its label says 1 teaspoon per gallon raises acidity by 0.1%.

How much to add depends on the fruit. NDSU’s apple wine uses 2 1/4 teaspoons per gallon, while acidic fruit like cranberries or rhubarb may need none. NDSU’s advice for beginners is to follow the recipe and start testing acidity and pH as your skills grow.

Campden Tablets

Campden tablets supply sulfite, which holds back wild yeast and bacteria before fermentation and protects the wine from oxidation later. The usual rate is one crushed tablet per gallon, 24 hours before adding the yeast and again at alternate rackings. Our full guide to Campden tablets covers doses, timing and the difference between tablets and powder, and the sulfite calculator works out larger batches.

Potassium Sorbate

Potassium sorbate, often sold as wine stabilizer, stops yeast from multiplying. NDSU Extension says to use it whenever a wine has residual sugar after fermentation or you plan to sweeten it before bottling, and warns that skipping it can make bottles explode if fermentation restarts. Northern Brewer’s potassium sorbate listing gives 1/2 teaspoon per gallon once fermentation is complete and the wine has cleared, and recommends using it with potassium metabisulfite.

The sulfite matters. Both NDSU and the AWRI warn that lactic acid bacteria can turn sorbate into a geranium-like smell if sulfite levels are low. Sorbate also cannot stop an active fermentation; it only keeps a finished one from starting again. Our guide on how to backsweeten wine shows the full sequence.

Sugar and Chaptalization

Sugar is an additive too. Adding it to juice or must to raise the alcohol is called chaptalization. WineMaker magazine gives the rule of thumb of about 10 grams of sugar per liter for each degree Brix, and says 22° Brix leads to a wine of around 12% alcohol. Our sugar calculator does the math, and our guide on making homemade wine stronger covers how far you can push it.

Clearing Agents

Bentonite, a type of clay, is the fining agent NDSU Extension lists among the standard winemaking aids, often added while the must is prepared. Other fining agents and when to use them are covered in our guide on how to clear wine. Remember the pectic enzyme rule: do not add it together with bentonite.