What You Need to Know
Finings are substances that are usually added at or near the completion of the processing of making wine, beer, and various nonalcoholic juice beverages. They are used to remove compounds, either to improve clarity or adjust flavor or aroma. The removed compounds may be sulfides, proteins, polyphenols, benzenoids, or copper ions. Unless they form a stable sediment in the final container, the spent finings are usually discarded from the beverage along with the target compounds that they capture.
Steps
- 1.
Clarified Consommé (French cuisine): Egg white fining creates crystal clear broth
- 2.
Nigori Sake Filtration (Japanese tradition): Partial fining maintains characteristic cloudiness
- 3.
Traditional Mead Clarification (Nordic countries): Bentonite removes yeast haze while preserving honey notes