Wine Filter Question

[WindyCoastWine]

I have been making wine for about 2 1/2 years now and finally got a filter system last fall. I've used it on serveral batches of wine and it seems to work good on some and not so good on others. It is a chaeaper pressurized system that uses a hand pump pressurized vessel to push the wine through a filter. I bottled a kit wine about 6 weeks ago and it appeared to be clear. Now it is showing signs of small dark flakes. I use fining agents and not sure why my filtered wine isn't any better than my unfiltered. I was thinking about investing in a mini jet filter system which uses 3 filters instead of 1 and wanted to know if anyone has had the same problem with a similar filter. I usually make wine from frest fruit from a family farm and I would have thought that a wine kit filtered would have been crystal clear. Thanks for the help.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!

When you say flakes - it makes me think that you might be seeing wine diamonds. Which is acid dropping out of the wine due to cooler temps.

Did you cold stabilize?

What kind of wine did you make?

 

[WindyCoastWine]

The wine I made was a pomegranate wildberry zifandel. I did not cold stabilize and if anything, the wine may be stored at a little higher temperature than it should. The flakes resemble small black paint chips. The same thing happed with my Muscadine wine, but it was never filtered, so I didn't expect it to be crystal clear.

 

[Wade E]

Okay, your muscadine could have been wine diamonds but I very highly doubt that a mist kit will drop wine diamonds. This very much sounds like wine diamonds though which if it is shocks me.

 

[WindyCoastWine]

I'm not sure if the process would have anything to do with it. This was my first wine kit and I wanted a 12% Alc. wine with good flavor, so I added sugar and only make a 3 gallon batch with the given juice. I used as much flavor pack as needed to get the fruit flavor. Not sure if this could have something to do with the results.

 

[Wade E]

Maybe thats possible then if you only made it into a 3 gallo batch. That would leave it very unbalanced acid wise hence the extra acid dropping out. It makes prefect sense now!

 

[winemaker_3352]

Maybe thats possible then if you only made it into a 3 gallo batch. That would leave it very unbalanced acid wise hence the extra acid dropping out. It makes prefect sense now!

Yup - I agree.

Just decant the wine before serving it - the wine diamonds will not cause any harm to the wine or the people drinking it.

Decanting off the wine diamonds and you are good to go. Next time perform a cold stabilization - or if making a kit - follow the instructions on how much to make - this will ensure it doesn't happen again..