A lot of sediment in cherry wine

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bruincem

Junior
Joined
Jan 16, 2015
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
This is my first attempt at wine making. After 5 days in the primary fermenter the SG was 1.000. I racked the wine to the secondary fermenter, but there is a very large amount of sediment and it has a white line along the top. Is this normal and if not are there steps I can take to correct the problem?

IMG_0378.jpg

IMG_0380.jpg
 
The white line on top is your fine lees (dead yeast sediment), not much to worry about. But you do need to rack soon because you have too much gross sediment (fruit matter, which is your thicker layer beneath the white line) that may spoil your wine if left for long.

Since you are making a 1 gallon batch (correct me, if I am wrong), it would be wasteful to just rack it off the sediment the way it is. One way of maximizing the yield when racking is to rack as much as you can off the top without disturbing the sediment and transfer the rest into a regular wine bottle. Because it is much taller than it is wider, you will be able to gather more wine from the top once the sediment settles.

A simpler solution, however, would be to wait a few more days and see if the sediment packs tighter, as looking at your pictures, it seems quite loose to me.

Did you, by any chance, use some type of gauze, mesh bag, or cheese cloth when transferring from the primary? If not, you might want to try one now, the finer the better.

Lastly, if you find that there is too much empty head space in the jug/carboy after you rack, I suggest you transfer the wine to smaller containers (e.g. magnum bottles, or regular bottles) for further development/ageing.
 
Last edited:
Thank you!

Thank you very much! I will try your suggestions. I didn't use any gauze but will try that as well. Thanks again!
 
My muscadine did the same thing. I'm think it's from when I squeezed the must bag too much.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top