What is Isinglass June 30, 2022

What's up peeps. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer weather. I came across something that I found curious while playing the Elder Scrolls Online MMO. I've done a prior post based on something that I came across in the game: What is an Oenophile September 25, 2021 and this one is in the same vein.

The game has crafting missions ranging from making armor, jewelry, potions and for the sake of this post provisions (food and drink.) One such recipe is for a Clarified Syrah Wine:

Looking at the recipe ingredients I see that Isinglass is needed to make the in-game wine. Obviously the product making is simplified for the game but the listing for the ingredient Isinglass left me thinking: what is Isinglass and what is it used for.

I found a couple of sources concerning what Isinglass is, what its used for and the origin of its name.  First the what. Known as "fish glue", Isinglass is made from the membranes of swim bladders of such fish as sturgeon, cod and hake. Next is the what is it used for.

In brewing and vinification, Isinglass is used as a filter. According to the article Isinglass; or, The Many Miracles of Fish Glue by Matthew Wills from the JStor Daily website dated August 23, 2020 

"It has been used for centuries as a fining, or clarifying agent, in alcoholic beverages. Finings remove particles like the yeast used in fermentation. Today, there are other ways of doing this, but isinglass is still being used by some producers of beer, wine, and hard cider."

In terms of its use with beer, the article The Oxford Companion to Beer definition of finings 
from the Craft Beer and Brewing website states:

"Finings are processing aids added to unfiltered beer to remove yeast and protein haze. During fermentation yeast cells and beer proteins largely derived from the malt form a colloidal suspension that appears as a haze. A colloidal suspension forms when very small, charged particles are suspended in a liquid. An electrostatic charge, known as a zeta potential, repels one particle from the next and serves to impede the settlement of the solid particles from the liquid phase.

In unclarified beer, yeast cell walls carry a negative charge. Isinglass and gelatin solutions are proteins that carry a positive charge. When added to newly fermented beer, the charged finings interact with the yeast and neutralize the zeta potential present on the cell wall. This eliminates the repulsive forces and sticks the yeast cells together to form a larger particle called a floc. These larger particles settle considerably faster than they would otherwise, as dictated by Stokes’ law."

Many times an Isinglass is used right before the filtration of a beer.

In terms of wine, I refer to the article What is fining in wine? Ask Decanter by Chris Mercer from Decanter.com dated May 31, 2019:

"It is part of the clarification and stabilisation process and involves adding a substance to the wine that will flush out certain elements that may cause a wine to look hazy or affect its aroma, colour or bitterness.

Fining removes ‘colloids’, which are molecules that include tannins, phenolics and polysaccharides.

The fining agent binds to the unwanted particles in the wine, which means they become sizeable enough to be filtered out."

Ok then. Vinters that produce natural wines do not use any kind of filtering agent made from fish or otherwise. Now on to the origins of the name.

According to both sources, the word Isinglass comes from the Dutch and German word word huizenblaas, which translates to sturgeon (huizen) bladder (blaas). The substance has been used throughout the centuries as not only a filter, but as a preservative, medicinal uses such as bandages, as a restorative agent in paintings and even in cement.

In today's climate of veganism and vegetarianism, Isinglass has been replaced by other methods to filter out beer and wine. Who would have thought that playing an MMORPG could be so informative?

Any thoughts on the use of Isinglass in beer and wine production? Drop me your thoughts in the comments box.

I'll keep grinding and crafting both in and out of the game. Hasta the next post.

Until Then May You Have Some Happy, Safe and Responsible Drinking, 

SiscoVanilla 

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For Further Reading:

- What is Isinglass and how is it related to Caviar? by Dana C. Leavitt from the Caviar Star website dated January 2, 2018 https://caviarstar.com/blog/isinglass-what-is-it-and-how-is-it-related-to-caviar/