Clearing - To clear or not to clear

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wineforfun

Still Trying To Make The Perfect Wine and Now Tryi
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I wanted to ask all you more experienced wine makers if you always use a clearing agent, ie: Sparkloid, etc. or do you let your wine clear on its own?

I used Sparkloid on my Dragon Blood, per instructions, and it worked wonderful. I currently have some cran/rasp in a secondary and have racked twice, but not used any clearing. The recipe came from the book in my wine equipment I bought, and doesn't mention to clear it. It said to let it clear on its own. So that made me wonder what the pros and cons were of using a clearing agent or to just let it clear on its own. I assume some of the pros are a quicker clear which means a quicker wine. Not sure of any of the cons. Thanks for any help understanding this.
 
My standard clearing agent is time.

The problem is that different clearing agents act on different aspects of cloudiness. Some take out negatively charged proteins, some neutral proteins and some positive proteins. Some work on other haze problems. It can be a bit complicated. But in my experience nearly all wines clear just fine without them given enough time. So patience is the key. You may want to read up on which fining agents act on what type of problems.
 
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Guys,

I agree, but have to say that clearing agents are not always needed. My technique is to simply age in bulk for two years, cool down the wine to 45 degrees, then filter. It work wonders and you do not have the headache of adding something into the wine.

johnT.
 

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