WineXpert Degassing fail?

So I had two 1 galling WE kits that I made in early May. I met them sit for about 3 weeks before degassing and spend a lot of time using the wine bottle pumps then eventually a homemade whine whip from a plastic ha get. I spent an additional 15m or so with a drill on each one until I thought they were both good the added the k-meta and chitosan. A few days later one has a nice fine layer or lees while the other looks kinda chunky and the chunks float up when I use the wine bottle pump some more.

So that what happens when it's not degassed enough or do different kits fine differently?

Should I degas more and fine again or just degass more?

I think if you degassed for 15 minutes and vacuum pumped you should be fine.
You will need to let it sit 7 to 15 days, or longer undisturbed, to let clear. When you pull a vacuum it will lift the sediment upwards and around the carboy so this is a bad idea if your wanting it to clear. Give it some time, it'll drop out.

Ok, I'll wait it out. It just seems strange to get such completely different reaction between the two wines.

What are the two wines you are making?

Chilean merlot (chunky) and cal cab (clearing nicely). Both are wine expert world vineyard

It's been at 32F and one jar is still looking all chunky at the bottom while the other looks like a nice compact layer of lees.

something is clearly different. What would cause this?

jsbeckton...you are sure in a hurry....time is your friend

I am not really in a hurry, I just want to understand why these two wines are reacting so differently to the same clarifier that was technically added AFTER the manufacturer suggests. (I understand that these are expedited kits)

Surprised I seemed to have created a disaster that no one has ever seen on just my second try! Should it try to add another clarifier or is this a lost batch?

I recommend that you stir the fluffy batch. I've seen something like that when my wine was not sufficiently degassed. The clarifiers tended to clump up, but in my case they floated up. Try stirring them or whipping the wine and see what happens. And of course, with enough time they will clear on their own. But go ahead and stir to break the clumps up and see if it gets back on track.

Are you clearing your wine at 32 degrees??

jsbeckton said:

Surprised I seemed to have created a disaster that no one has ever seen on just my second try! Should it try to add another clarifier or is this a lost batch?

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I don't think it is a DISASTER...may not look like what you think it should like right now...but, you still have to rack off of the lees...so then it'll be oughta sight, outta mind.

Curious to know if you used the same yeast in both batches?

I can't recall, it was whatever yeast came with the kit. What I do remember is that both jugs were showing nice fine compact lees and they only differed after I added and stirred in the chitosan.

jsbeckton said:

Surprised I seemed to have created a disaster that no one has ever seen on just my second try! Should it try to add another clarifier or is this a lost batch?

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Take this for what it's worth - I'm by no means an expert. But...

The one on the left looks like it's choke full of lees (normal looking). The one on the right looks like more "yeasty clumps" (for lack of a better descriptive) made its way from the racking from the primary than should have.

If you're really concerned about it, rack your wines and leave this goop behind.

Give both of them a taste. I'll bet they're just fine.

If you really want to toss and start over, PM me your address and maybe I can come take that Chilean Merlot off yer hands.

After racking they both had about the same layer. This happened after adding the clarifier and mixing it up. So it must be something with the clarification step that is no preventing it from settling into a nice layer again.

jsbeckton said:

After racking they both had about the same layer. This happened after adding the clarifier and mixing it up. So it must be something with the clarification step that is no preventing it from settling into a nice layer again.

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Well, I once had this old cow. She was the sorriest looking thing you ever saw...always thin, wall eyed, and just plain mean...horrible animal, hated that cow. Everybody told me she was sorry and no good and I was crazy to let her eat good grass off the place.

But that sorry old cow threw twins every other year and raised good calves each year. When you got something special, I say hang on to it...it may have a silver lining!

My first advice is to relax and not worry about this "issue". There is absolutely nothing wrong with your wine...the worst thing that could happen is you end up with a bottle less or have to top up more, due to avoiding the fluffy lees during racking. And it's a red wine anyway, so nobody really notices how clear they are anyway.

Clearing agents do nothing more than stick to particles in the wine and drop to the bottom. Depending on the electrical charge of the clearing agent, and the particles they attach to in your wine, and the wine itself (and gassy-ness as others have pointed out) you can have different looking results. No worries.

I was able to carefully rack off of this after cooking the wine down to about 30F for a week.