calcium carbonate and bottling question before moving

[wood1954]

First the good news, i'll be moving soon. however i have about 8 carboys of wine that i treated with calcium carbonate during fermentation. I've since read that calcium precipitates out after about 6 months. Is there any way to speed that up? Most of the wine was started in September, the cranberry at the end of October. They are all clear and could be bottled, but I'm worried that I'll end up with some type of precipitate. I'm only moving 45 miles, but the new house doesn't have a basement and we will be pretty much gutting the interior and rebuilding so i guess i could store the carboys somewhere in the house but don't like the idea of moving heavy carboys around. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Norske]

You can cold crash them to speed up the process.

 

[LoveTheWine]

I have heard adding Potassium bitartrate (creme of tartar) will speed up settling of titrates and then storing for a month in near freezing temps.

 

[Turock]

I wouldn't be concerned about it at all. Just rack them, if they have any sediment on them, and make the move. Tartrates fall out at room temp with calcium carbonate. Cold is not needed. We gave a 3 gallon carboy of pear to a friend that took it all the way to Wisconsin. It had been fermented with calcium carb--she had no problems at all. We just racked it beforehand.

 

[wood1954]

Thanks Turock! I'm off to buy 10 cases of bottles today.

 

[Turock]

But they are too young, yet, to bottle! Just move the carboys---placing them in milk cases makes them easier to move and protects them too.

Be aware, however, that temp changes may make them cloud up during the move. If that happens just allow them to sit.

These wines need more aging--especially the cranberry. You probably still have some CO2 on that wine. I've seen wines bottled at the 6 month mark that started blowing corks because there was still some CO2 on the wine.