Flash light

[rob]

Did someone post a thread not long ago about how clear should wine be before bottling and one of the response was the flash light test. If you shine the light thru the carboy and you see the rays it is not clear. I tried this on all my carboys and only one passed the test. I think there may be something to this, the light is hitting floating particles in the wine!

 

[ffemt128]

Did someone post a thread not long ago about how clear should wine be before bottling and one of the response was the flash light test. If you shine the light thru the carboy and you see the rays it is not clear. I tried this on all my carboys and only one passed the test. I think there may be something to this, the light is hitting floating particles in the wine!

I do that all the time. I have a LED light with a red dot laser that I use. It works great on the red wines with the laser. If I can get the beam to go through the carboy and see on the other side, it's pretty darn clear.

My fredonia from September the beam still only penetrates about 1 1/2". Going to be a long time clearing this one I think.

 

[Wade E]

I'm still on the ropes if it actually works on all reds. I've had a few over the years that didn't work after a year of bulk aging and even after filtering. One was a kit and 1 was from grapes and both were eventually bottled this way and never dropped anything in the bottles. The 1 from grapes was a Petite Syrah and the kit was Barolo.

 

[dralarms]

I'm not sure I understand how this works. Anyone care to explain it to this old country boy?

 

[dralarms]

I just used the laser on my raspberry white grape, the beam goes all the way through the wine but did not penetrate the other side of the carboy, is that normal?

 

[TedLarsen]

The key to this is not what happens to the light after passing through the wine (although if it doesn't make it through, you're not clear!), but rather if you can see the beam itself as it passes through the wine.

Perfectly clear wine (a difficult but achievable goal) will not reflect any light off any suspended particles, and you will not see the beam itself >at all< as it passes through the wine.

 

[kevinlfifer]

When doubt, wait a month

 

[winemaker_3352]

Stand in front of the carboy - place the light beam going thru the side - left to right or vice versa.

Looking through the front - if you see a beam of light passing thru the wine - it is not yet clear.

If you do not see the beam of light - it is crystal clear...

 

[rob]

The beam reflexes off the suspended particles in the wine! I have 5 month old wine and the beam shows up quite a bit! I also have a pee that shows no beam, it's a very interesting test