Pectolase, also sold as pectic enzyme, is an enzyme that breaks down pectin, the natural setting agent in fruit that makes jam thicken. In winemaking it does two useful things: it releases more juice and flavour from crushed fruit, and it stops the finished wine setting into a permanent, stubborn haze that no amount of patience will clear. Every sachet of it in our Hedgerow Wine Making Kit is there for that reason, and fruit wines need it in a way that grape wines largely do not. Here is what it does, when it goes in, and what happens if you forget.
What is pectin, and why does it matter in wine?
Pectin is a long-chain carbohydrate found in the cell walls of fruit. It is the reason jam sets, the reason apple jelly holds its shape, and the reason a stewed plum turns thick rather than watery. In a jam pan it is a gift. In a demijohn it is a nuisance.
The trouble is that pectin holds water in a gel and traps fine particles in suspension. A wine with pectin still in it looks cloudy in a way that never resolves. It is not yeast, it is not sediment, and it will not drop out if you leave it another month. You can rack it, fine it and wait until spring, and it will still be hazy, because the haze is structural.
What does pectolase actually do?
It cuts those long pectin chains into short fragments that no longer form a gel. Three things follow.
- More juice. Pectin is part of what holds fruit cells together, so breaking it down releases juice that would otherwise stay locked in the pulp. On a fiddly harvest, that is a real gain.
- More flavour and colour. Much of what you want out of a blackberry or an elderberry sits in the skin and the flesh, and easier extraction means a fuller wine.
- A wine that can clear. With the pectin gone, fine particles are free to settle, and the finings in the kit can do their job of dragging the rest down with them.
It does not ferment anything, it does not affect the alcohol, and it does not change how sweet the wine finishes. It is purely a texture and clarity job.
When does pectolase go into the batch?
Early, with the crushed fruit, before or alongside the yeast, and always as the recipe book directs. The point is to give it time to work on the whole fruit during the first fermentation, which is the stage where crushed fruit sits in the liquid for about three days before you strain it off.
Two practical warnings. Enzymes are proteins, and heat destroys them, so never add pectolase to a hot liquid. If your recipe has you pouring boiling water over fruit, let the must cool to something comfortably warm before the sachet goes anywhere near it. And do not double the dose in the hope of a clearer wine, because more enzyme than the recipe calls for buys you nothing.
Which fruits need it most?
All of them benefit, but some are far worse offenders than others. Apples, plums, damsons, currants and quinces are high in pectin, which is exactly why they make such good jam and jelly. If you are making a country wine from any of those, pectolase is the difference between a bright glass and a permanently murky one.
Berries such as blackberries and elderberries are more moderate, and elderflower, being a flower rather than a fruit, brings very little pectin at all. Even so, the recipe table in the kit uses the same approach across the range, and there is no advantage in trying to guess which batch can do without.
This is also why grape winemaking talks about pectin far less. Wine grapes are comparatively low in pectin and their juice is designed by centuries of selection to behave. Country wine is made from whatever the hedge and the garden produce, and that fruit was never bred with a demijohn in mind.
How do you know a haze is pectin?
There is a classic home test. Take a small sample of the wine, add a few times its volume of methylated spirits, stir and leave it a few minutes. If stringy clots or a jelly-like blob form, pectin is your culprit. If it stays an even cloud, the haze is something else, most likely yeast still in suspension or fine fruit solids that simply need more time and another racking.
The frustrating news is that pectolase works far better before and during fermentation than afterwards. Adding it to a finished wine can help a little, given weeks, but it is a rescue rather than a cure. Getting it in at the start is the whole trick.
Is it vegan, and what else is in the box?
Pectolase is produced by fermentation rather than from anything animal derived. The other clearing agent in the kit, the finings, is a very fine bentonite clay with nothing animal derived in it either, so the clearing side of a hedgerow wine suits a vegan kitchen. Traditional wine finings are not always so straightforward, which is why the question comes up at all.
Alongside the pectolase, the kit contains wine yeast, yeast nutrient, finings, citric acid, a stabiliser tablet and a steriliser (sodium metabisulphite), plus the recipe table. You add the fruit, sugar and water, a five litre food grade bucket with a lid for the first fermentation, a five litre demijohn or second bucket with an airlock for the second, a siphon and bottles. The allergen line is contains sulphur dioxide and sulphites. Every ingredient is listed on the pack, and if you have an allergy question, email hello@sandyleaffarm.com before ordering. Wine kits are for adults aged 18 and over.
Pectolase FAQs
Is pectolase the same as pectic enzyme?
Yes. Pectolase, pectic enzyme and pectinase are all names for the same kind of enzyme preparation that breaks down pectin. Recipes use the terms interchangeably.
Can I make fruit wine without pectolase?
You can, and it will still ferment, but you are far more likely to end up with a wine that never clears properly and a lower yield of juice from the same fruit. It is a small ingredient with a large effect.
Will pectolase clear a wine that is already hazy?
Sometimes, slowly, if the haze really is pectin. It works much better added to crushed fruit at the start than stirred into a finished wine, so treat late dosing as a rescue attempt rather than the plan.
Does pectolase change the taste of the wine?
Not directly. Any difference you notice comes from better extraction, so the wine often tastes fuller and more fruity simply because more of the fruit made it into the glass.
How much wine does one batch make?
A batch made with our hedgerow wine kit is one gallon, about four and a half litres, which is six standard bottles. It is ready to drink eight to twelve weeks after you start.
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