1st White Wine

[Mesa512]

Hey Everyone,

So I will be upfront about it. I am VERY new to making wine. I normally brew beer but have finally decide to branch out into wine making.

I have made a couple of batches of red wine. I don't make it from the grapes, I go to a local store and buy 6 gallons of juice.

I have quite a bit of red and was thinking about doing a white (possible a chardonnay). I was talking to some other wine-makers and they warned me about it being very hard to get clarity with the wine. One guy told me he tried to make a batch of white and when it was all said and done it was very cloudy. It tasted alright but when pouring a glass you would think twice about drinking it.

I haven't started the batch just yet, I was hoping to get more clarification of what this cloudiness is, and how can I avoid it?

Any help would be great!!

Thanks!

 

[REDBOATNY]

Lots of thing can cause cloudiness. I have made alot of whites and they normally clear with time, when they don't use SuperKleer or other fining agent. It's about $2 and works very fast.

 

[closetwine]

Welcome, if you get a chance drop by the introductions. I don't have any experience with juice buckets, however haze can be because he didn't allow it time to clear or possible a pectic haze. Pectic enzyme will help the latter. Times/finings will help the first. Others will chime in here soon.

I say go for it, and if you need help stop in here. There's alot of minds to pick in here and we're all pretty friendly. There's quite a few beer brewer's here too.

 

[sly22guy]

Wines will all clear on there own, just takes months or even a year, odds are is they rushed it. you should never bottle a cloudy wine.

Only Wine ive had trouble clearing is a Skeeter Tea, its not so much a "white" per say more of an Orange color. My whites, apple and reg skeeter pea all cleared nicely. Even my peach from fruit cleared after 6 months. The Tea will get pectic enzime added to it and if that doesn't do it then ill run it through my filter and bottle it, its just a summer time sipper and looks just like tea, just would like it to be crystal clear.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome aboard!!

I do some whites, mostly local varietals, Chardonel, Seyval ,etc.

I have just bottled the seyval, and planning on bottling the chardonel soon.

Both are crystal clear - it has been about 9 months to date since i picked the grapes.

The cleared on their own and then i used a filter to put a polished finish to it.

Haziness/cloudiness can be from protein, pectin, superkleer will not clear these. Pectic enzymes will drop out the pectin haze. and bentonite will drop out the protein haze.

I always add the pectic enzymes in the primary, it aids in the extraction of juice and color in the skins and also aids in the fall out of pectin.

 

[Mesa512]

Thank you very much everyone for the input. I appreciate it!!

 

[winemaker_3352]

That is what the forum is here for.. Ask any and all questions - there is an abundance of knowledge in here.

 

[grapeman]

Out of hundreds if not thousands of gallons of white wines, I have never had one remain cloudy for more than a few months. I have seen some people boil the grapes to get the juice and those are cloudy. I would never cook the juice as that is a sure way to mess it up- other than that they will clear with time. Have patience...................................

 

[Mesa512]

Ok, so my next question is...I would like my wine to be somewhat sweet. I tried a dry chardonnay and was not a fan. What yeast do you recommend?

 

[closetwine]

I recommend leting it go go dry. Stabilize and backsweeten to your tastes.
I don't know what is the fav. yeast for Chardonnay though... I'm a fruit girl.

 

[winemaker_3352]

White kind of white wine are you making?

From grapes or a kit?

Chardonnay will do well with the lalvin D-47 - especially if you are planning on doing an MLF.

If not doing MLF - I would suggest the Red Star Cote Des Blanc.

I would finish to dry - stabilize it - then sweeten to taste.

 

[Mesa512]

so....a couple of you mentioned that I should ferment it dry and then backsweeten to taste. Can someone explain how I would backsweeten a wine?

 

[winemaker_3352]

draw out 2 cups of wine - add a cup of sugar - bring to a boil to dissolve the sugar - let cool to room temperature - stir back into wine.

u can use the winecalc app to determine the exact amount of sugar to add - then you can figure out the amount to extract.