Apple Wine and Clearing/Stabilizing/Sweetening question.

[ThousandJulys]

So today I racked my totally dry and fermented gallon of apple wine into the glass fermenter. I call it Garden of Ethan Rich Apple wine because my friend Ethan and I did all the picking at his house. The wine right now is really hazy, obviously, and I know it has a ton of lees and pectin to get out.

I added 1/6 or so of a packet of Super-Kleer, since it's only a gallon. I'm hoping it will clarify it enough that I can just rack it again in a few days once it's settled, and start the finishing process of sweetening, stabilizing and adding glycerine.

My question is why do so many books tell you to wait 4-6 months, etc to do all these steps? It seems to me that I make delicious wines that everyone loves in a much quicker time. I've used gelatin finings mostly, but just got some super-kleer.

I have a blueberry wine that I made that fermented out in 2 weeks and I sweetened and stabilized it and within 3-4 WEEKS I racked and then bottled. It tastes like a delicious merlot with strong blueberry overtones.

So, am I being too speedy?

 

[winemaker_3352]

I would say yes - if you wait about a month and look at your bottle - you will have sediment in it.

I usually wait about 6 months for fruit before bottling - and then about a month before opening.

 

[Wade E]

I have to agree with winemaker 3352, yes wine can be good young but I assure you if left to age it can get MUCH better and yes it will usually drop much more sediment. Im guessing your has been all drunk before sediment had time ti hit the bottom of the bottle. Whats the longest you have let your wine age?

 

[ThousandJulys]

I looked at my blueberry wine that has been aging for 5 months. No sediment. Am I just lucky by using both gelatin finings AND super-kleer?

 

[ThousandJulys]

Oh yeah, is there something wrong with sediment? A bunch of award winning fruit wines, even on the wine label not to mention talking to the head fermentologist, say that the wine "may throw a sediment" or "may throw a deposit." They were all great wines. Mine seem to rival them, if not better. Does super-kleer not super clear?

 

[countrygirl]

a local winery's blackberry and strawberry always has sediment in the bottom, but it still tastes great!

 

[winemaker_3352]

Oh yeah, is there something wrong with sediment? A bunch of award winning fruit wines, even on the wine label not to mention talking to the head fermentologist, say that the wine "may throw a sediment" or "may throw a deposit." They were all great wines. Mine seem to rival them, if not better. Does super-kleer not super clear?

Fruit wines can be troublesome to clear - that is i wait like 6 weeks or so after clearing before i filter and bottle to ensure there is no more sediment falling out.

 

[corntassel]

In general I bulk age all of my fruit wines 8 months to a year before bottling, the only wines I bottle within 4-6 months are my pepper wines. then according to the type of fruit determines the amount of time in the bottle. Mulberry, tomato & sweet corn need 8months or more bottle aging before it reaches its full potential. The name of the game is PATIENCE

 

[ThousandJulys]

Well I used super-kleer and it did a pretty good job separating. Racked it off the sediment today. I still noticed quite a bit of really fine tiny particulate matter/haze entering the siphoning tube, although not much and I really left a lot of room on top of lees and just dumped it all.

Today, I added 1/2tsp of gelatin finings directly to the gallon jug and shook it up real good. Hopefully in the next few days it, too, will have all settled. I also sweetened and sorbated the wine today before I added the finings. I hope all this is ok. I know that gelatin finings are supposed to be dissolved into water and almost boiled, etc and then added to the wine. I didn't and never do this, because I don't like to dilute small one gallon batches.

 

[countrygirl]

careful with the sorbate and sweetening at the same time...give the kmeta and sorbate a little time to do their job before backsweetening...

 

[ThousandJulys]

Uh oh....

What should I have done or the order of adding the ingredients? The sorbate just said "for stabilizing wine when sweetening."

 

[ThousandJulys]

OH yeah. Is it ok to just add the gelatin finings and shake it around like I did? It sure did foam up a lot. I figured this would also be like de-gassing a wine.

If it's a one gallon, I tend to give it a good shake when racking into new glass secondary jugs.

Also, would the sediment help clear if I put it in the fridge? I don't know much about cold stabilization, and not sure if it would be to cold for the gelatin finings to work properly. Especially since I just pitch it in my wine and shake it up.

 

[Wade E]

You really should give superKleer about 2 weeks to do its job. It will dtrop most of its sediment in a day or 2 but you should always let it compact nice and hard so as to rack your wine off easier without disturbing the lees. Fine sediment in the bottle is nothing other then unsightly to some but wont hurt your win e especially in short manner as you have been drinking it. Doing a dble fining most likely is extracting some color and flavor from your wines, why are you dble fining your wine?