clearing

[makinit]

Hi, I made a small batch of merlot from a kit. Having brewed beer at home I was somewhat familiar with the process. The wine appeared clear prior to bottling, however after bottling it appears somewhat cloudy. After a few days it seems to have cleared up some. Will it continue to clear?

 

[smurfe]

Did you rack the wine off the lees prior to bottling? If not and you bottled some of the lees, it will clear but you will have sediment in the bottle. My very first batch I ever did which was a white wine had some sediment in the bottle as I didn't do a good enough job racking my wine. One of the reasons I bought a filter and filter all of my wines now.

Smurfe

 

[cpfan]

Makinit:

Smurfe beat me to the punch on this one.

You said kit, but did you add the clearing agents that came with the kit?

Plus filtering is not perfect either. If the sediment in the wine is sucked into the pads then they will clog and maybe spray wine all over. You must be careful with any sediment when filtering.

Steve

 

[Caplan]

After adding finings to white wines I prefer to rack what seem 'perfectly clear' wines off any sediment into a final carboy/demijohn and age it a little while longer. The tiny layer of 'dusty' sediment that falls out of the wine can be a surprise! The same applies to reds, it's obviously difficult to gauge the 'clearness' but I apply the same principle.

 

[FentonCellars]

I also rack a few times to avoid the lees. When it comes down to it, and I'm ready to bottle and I can see some lees/sediment, I just don't bottle that last bottle and dump it.

 

[BettyJ]

When bottling, I have been taking that last bottle or so and refrigerating overnight in an appropriate sized container (no head space) that I can use a bulb type aspirator with - the liquid separates nicely from the lees and I use this for topping up later (or just drinking). This helps me avoid getting sediment in my finished bottles (which I hate!)

Hope this makes sense!