Stabilizers

Brewing beer or wine in the comforts of your home requires basic knowledge about stabilizers. Stabilizers allow you to control the pH of the brewing water used. The quality of the brewing is often overlooked by home brewers but this can significantly affect the solubility of salts, sugar, and proteins. Moreover, it can also affect the enzymatic activity within the beer as well as the hop bitterness.

Most stabilizers can keep the pH level of the brewing water at 5.2. This pH is necessary in optimizing the enzymatic activity of the sugar or malt, clarifying the wort, obtaining hop usage in the boil, and reducing the mineral deposits that may form in the brewing equipment.

Stabilizers also increase the shelf-life of the beer or wine. Stabilizers are used in beer to slow down the development of haze which can affect the quality of the beer. The stabilizing agent works in two ways. It degrades the protein that may cause haziness or it bonds to the proteins thus allowing the beer to last longer in storage. In wine, it prevents re-fermentation thus it can be stored in the cellar for a long time.

Many winemakers prefer to add them to sweet wines because of the possibility of fermentation, but this characteristic does not have too much influence on the beer's flavour.

There are different types of stabilizers that home brewers can use. When using stabilizers, always read and follow the label directions, or your recipe. It is recommended that you do not add more than 1/2 teaspoon to your wine, otherwise it will sweeten it too much.

Here at Ontario Beer Kegs, we have a wide variety of wine stabilizers. You can choose from potassium sorbate, dry pectic enzyme and potassium bicarbonate to name a few. We keep a ready stock of stabilizers so that we can provide the brewing needs of our clients.