Clearing Question

[suecasa]

What things could keep a kit wine from clearing?? (Green Apple Riesling)

It is thoroughly de-gassed over several days ... and after 2 weeks of the included clarifiers i whipped again and added sparkloid ...

is still dropping sediment ... and still quite cloudy.

Do kits ever get pectin haze? Its starting to get cool in my wine room ... could that be it? Other ideas?

Dont have the money for a filter yet ... so need to figure out what could be going on!

Thanks

 

[Scott]

Sue, Can't answer ya on the pectin haze, someone smarter than me should be along shortly. The temp shouldn't matter much when clearing only up through secondary and degassing, was it up to a good temp when you stabilized and degassed? Don't use a filter to try to clear the wine just to polish a cleared wine.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Add pectic enzyme. Keep it at room temperature. Is it degassed Did you prepare the sparkolloid correctly? Simmer 30 minutes. Is it done fermenting?

All thoughts and ideas.

 

[suecasa]

dingbat

my instructions for sparkloid say to "mix in boiling water for 5 minutes" ... i brought to a boil then took it off the stove ... i'll try again ... and keep the heating pad on this time since it really is chilly in there .. here's to hoping!

yes .. well degassed ... done fermenting & sorbate/kmet added then F-Pak ... SG has been stable ...

i had hoped it would be ready for turkey ... but sadly i dont think it will be ... but there's of course other bottles ready to go!

thanks for the help !!

 

[djrockinsteve]

Here is a link to a tutorial on fining a wine.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f71/how-fine-wine-10502/

With fining a wine you need to make the agent positively charged so that when added to the wine it will attract all of the negative particles aka sediment and drag them to the bottom of the carboy.

People who short simmer sparkoloid find it takes longer to clear.

Simmer 20-30 minutes. Stir often and do not let it burn.

Add hot and stir well to blend it throughout the wine. Top off carboy and airlock.

Keeping it at room temp. @70 degrees will help. Do not heat your wine. 70-75 is sufficient.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Country/fruit wines and some wine kit wines suffer from pectin hazes.
I wouldn't add too many fining agents, they can also strip or remove some color, body, taste and aroma from the wine. My bag of Sparkolloid says boil 5 mins as well, I've seen instructions recommend adding it while still warm to wine and adding it when cool to fruit wines. I agree on trying Pectic Enzyme, it won't hurt it.
You mention that it is still dropping sediment, do you have an area that you can cold stabilize it in? If you can get the wine down to 28° - 32°, it will help to settle the wine and speed up the whole sediment dropping time frame, if you can remember to put vodka in the airlock instead of water.

 

[cpfan]

Island Mist Green Apple - call Winexpert. They can probably help.

Steve

 

[suecasa]

thanks for the help! it's clear!

Did add an extra dose of sparkloid ... boiled for 15 min.

and then set the carboy out in the cold for 10 hours or so

and went to work last night and when i got home it was sitting there all clear and ready to bottle soon!!

thanks again ...