After 25 plus years of beer brewing, just started my first batch of a mango wine using canned mango pulp. 2.5 weeks into primary and looking like we have hit FG so I need to rack off the leftover pulp and lees. The recipe I followed from the beer forum says to rack after 2-3 weeks but where the pulp is sitting at this stage, I am gonna lose at least a gallon of wine, maybe more. So my question is, why in wine making can’t u “cold crash” as we do in beer brewing to drop out all the floaties? I just recently finished a 10 gallon batch of a cold Ipa that had a half pound of pellet hops dumped directly into the fermenter, after the soak period was done, I dropped the temp to 35 and in 4-5 days, crystal clear beer, why wont this work on my mango wine?
Long time beer brewer, First wine
- Thread starter Dordelli
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What is the SG? After 2.5 weeks, if it's below 1.000, it's probably done fermenting.
You can cold stabilize at any time after fermentation is complete. Note that cold stabilization in winemaking is typically geared towards precipitating excess tartaric acid as tartrate crystals; this does help clear the wine, but the focus is on acid. If your wine has good acid levels, this action could precipitate too much acid and make the wine flabby.
Also, fruit won't necessarily settle out. I'd use a fine straining bag to separate out the coarse fruit. Anything remaining should settle out within a few days.
Also note that there are two types of sediment: gross lees (fruit solids) and fine lees (yeast hulls). Gross lees supposedly drops within 24 to 72 hours after fermentation completes, and it's a good idea to remove it within a couple of weeks. Fine lees can take months to drop, and does not need to be removed prior to bottling. Search on "sur lie" and "battonage" for info regarding how fine lees is stirred back into suspension to improve the wine.
Most of what you know about beer making does not apply directly, or in some cases at all, to winemaking. In my sig is the link for the MoreWine! manuals. Download the red and white wine manuals and skim them. There's way too much information to digest in one sitting. Skim them a few times to understand the flow and the timeframes. This will make your efforts much easier.
What is the SG? After 2.5 weeks, if it's below 1.000, it's probably done fermenting.
You can cold stabilize at any time after fermentation is complete. Note that cold stabilization in winemaking is typically geared towards precipitating excess tartaric acid as tartrate crystals; this does help clear the wine, but the focus is on acid. If your wine has good acid levels, this action could precipitate too much acid and make the wine flabby.
Also, fruit won't necessarily settle out. I'd use a fine straining bag to separate out the coarse fruit. Anything remaining should settle out within a few days.
Also note that there are two types of sediment: gross lees (fruit solids) and fine lees (yeast hulls). Gross lees supposedly drops within 24 to 72 hours after fermentation completes, and it's a good idea to remove it within a couple of weeks. Fine lees can take months to drop, and does not need to be removed prior to bottling. Search on "sur lie" and "battonage" for info regarding how fine lees is stirred back into suspension to improve the wine.
Most of what you know about beer making does not apply directly, or in some cases at all, to winemaking. In my sig is the link for the MoreWine! manuals. Download the red and white wine manuals and skim them. There's way too much information to digest in one sitting. Skim them a few times to understand the flow and the timeframes. This will make your efforts much easier.
Thx for the detailed response, figured there must have been a valid reason that the cold crash wasn’t a good idea. I will go ahead and rack it over, I do have a stainless 300 micron hop filter, so I may rack thru that screen to avoid racking over the pulp. Was concerned about oxygen at this point but it does not seem that oxygen is as critical post ferm as it is in beer.
During fermentation and while the wine is heavily outgassing, O2 is not a problem. Starting a few weeks after fermentation ends, O2 is the wine's worst enemy.
I add 1/4 tsp K-meta (potassium metabisulfite) for 19-23 liters of wine at each racking, post-fermentation, and at bottling time. K-meta is an anti-oxidant and preservative -- it binds with contaminants, including O2, rendering them harmless.
I add 1/4 tsp K-meta (potassium metabisulfite) for 19-23 liters of wine at each racking, post-fermentation, and at bottling time. K-meta is an anti-oxidant and preservative -- it binds with contaminants, including O2, rendering them harmless.
Settling is first of all a function of the weight of the particle. As applied to beer some of the weight actually is floatation/ lift from CO2 produced. When you are chilling beer you are changing the trapped gas and letting particles settle.
Settling is also a function of electrical charge. This will not go away when chilling. Many food systems have gums/ mucilage that will attract the water in the food. If there is fruit pectin the normal treatment is to add a dose or five doses of pectase (pectin cleaving enzyme) which breaks the molecule so that it does not attract water. ,,,, I would try a three X per gallon treatment with pectase. Enzyme treatment can take weeks.
Settling is a function of weight. Bentonite (clay of volcanic origin) is used on many kits. It will attract positive charges and is effective on many kit wines. The reaction is fast so settling can be seen in a few days. I would try a normal dose of bentonite.
In contrast beer will not have pectin and highly charged molecules, therefore this family called fining agents isn’t used, and the types of clarifiers in beer would be different.
Almost forgot, ,,,, Welcome to Wine Making Talk.
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Welcome! Same journey of brewing to also making some wine. It’s been very fun to see the differences.
Welcome to WMT!
