Making great wine is not an easy thing to do. If it was, everyone would do it themselves! But despite the difficulty, wine making is a rewarding process that results in wine with personalized flavors that bring out the best qualities of the ingredients used to make it. We at Bremer know that wine making isn’t for the faint of heart, which is why we provide commercial wine making ingredients like sugar and other food-grade chemicals to help you make the best wine possible.
How Do Food-Grade Chemicals Affect the Flavor Profile of Wine?
“Food-grade” materials are safe ingredients or chemicals for human consumption. More specifically, food-grade chemicals are additives that are safe to use and consume, and they meet strict purity standards. Food-grade chemicals are widely used in bulk wine making for preservation, flavoring, or to adjust texture or mouthfeel.
Food-grade chemicals can affect the flavor profile of wine in many ways. Acids can be added to adjust tartness, sourness, or freshness, and some acids might add specific fruity flavors. Tannins, found organically in grape skins and seeds, contribute to the drying sensation in the mouth that’s common in red wines. Sulfites can preserve flavors and prevent oxidation.
Which Food-Grade Chemicals are Best to Use for Wine?
There are many food-grade chemicals that are great choices for wine making. One example is sodium benzoate, which prevents spoilage and unintended changes in texture and pH balance. Commonly added in small amounts, this can be a useful additive to sweet and sparkling wines that benefit from a longer shelf life and finely tuned texture and acidity. Tartaric acid, organically found in grapes, can also be used in wine production, as it preserves flavor while enhancing sour notes naturally present in some wines and other beverages. Malic acid can impart a green apple-like flavor when added in small amounts. Other food-grade chemicals like citric acid can be used to add or adjust smooth, tart, and sour flavors in wine.
Why Use Food-Grade Chemicals in Wine?
Food-grade chemicals are popular among Bremer’s wine making customers because they add an unmistakable boost in flavor, allow for pinpoint texture adjustments, and have vital acidification and/or preservation properties. Food-grade chemicals like ascorbic acid are also critical for preventing oxidation, an effect that can make wine taste flat. If too much oxidation occurs, your wine may start to taste like vinegar.
In summary, food-grade chemicals allow for consistency in wine making. Anyone who’s ever made wine knows that there are a million factors that can affect the final product. These variations are difficult to predict and even harder to mask without the use of food-grade chemicals. If you want to ensure that every batch of wine comes out tasting exactly as it should every single time, try using food-grade chemicals.
Why Choose Bremer for Food-Grade Chemicals?
Choosing Bremer for your food-grade chemicals means your customers get to enjoy wine made from premium ingredients, carefully preserved with safe wine additives, and guaranteed to taste exactly as you intend, every time. Bremer has a long history of supplying bulk sugars and food-grade chemicals to wineries. Our Michigan-harvested beet sugar is already one of our best-selling ingredients to wineries across the country. Our food-grade chemicals are probably used in some of your favorite Michigan wines, too. For information on the industries we support, products we offer, or our distribution methods, contact us – we’d love to help you.