Cleaning grape wine?

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

outdoorjenn

Junior
Joined
Aug 6, 2010
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Hi,

My family grows tons of fruit so my brother and I have decided at different times to try making wine. I have a batch of white grape wine going now, but my question has to do with a batch of purple grape wine my brother made five summers ago. It looks and smells great, but everyone is scared to drink it (sissy I know). Is there a way to sanitize the wine?

It is about 2.5 gallons and is currently all in one large bottle.
 
Do have a recipe or steps that you he did when making this wine? What he added in it?

Did he sulfite it?
Did he santize the equipment before use?
etc, etc
 
While bulk aging - was it bulk aged on the lees?

Did you add sulfites in every 3-4 months of bulk age?
 
It has been left on the lees. He did not add any additional tablets. Now that probably means it's turned to vinegar? :slp
 
Take a good wiff of it - you will tell if it is vinegar.

I would rack off the lees and and add 1/16 tsp of sulfite - or 1 tablet per gallon - let it sit for a week and test.
 
Thanks for the advice! It smells like really good like wine (I may have drooled a bit). I'll add the sulfates and let you know how it turn out.
 
Sounds good - you can also wait and see what some of the other individuals say - as they are very experienced and will provide some good information as well.
 
A taste won't hurt. The sulfites were a good idea. Rack off the lees into a clean container every couple of weeks until clear and sample it.
 
If it looks like wine, smell it.
If it smells like wine, taste it.
If it tastes like wine, drink.
If you cop a buzz, it is wine.
Brad
 
Good info above, crush up 3 campden tablets and dissolve them in just a little bit of water or wine extracted from that batch and put that in the vessel youll be racking your wine in to. Once you have that wine racked over to a clean sanitised vessel you can age it more in there if you wosh as long as there is little headspace or bottle it then.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top