? Cream of Tartar

[Randy]

I made a MM Gurwurztraminer which was clear when I bottled it and is delicious. My concern is that when I chill the wine I get a hazy suspension that forms which I think is probably K-bitartate. The floaties that I see don't look like crystals per se but I'm not sure what else it would be. Any other thoughts on what it could be? It seems that this is more of a cosmetic than a taste problem. Does anybody else experience this with their whites? Do you just live with it or do you take steps to prevent it such as cold stabilization? That step wasn't mentioned in the instructions and being new to the hobby I haven't run into the issue before. Interestingly, when I was making cheap wine kits 15yrs ago I never experienced this.

Thoughts are appreciated.

 

[Flame145]

It sounds like you are going thru cold stabilization, when you began to chill your wine. Need more info. ph, TA, final SG, etc.....

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

Randy, I think you have already bottled it. so when you chill it to drink is when you have the crystals show up? what is happening is the acid crystals are droping out as would in cold stabilization, as the wine warms up they will disolve back into the wine.
If the wine tastes great, don't worry about it.
As I re read your post. you could have removed the "floaties" by using a fineing agent or filtering. Now that it is bottled again don't worry, but next batch clean it up a bit.

 

[Wade E]

I think what he is talking about is Chill haze. This is a problem that can only be fixed by cold stabiling before bottling. Im not sure if its a acid problem or what the cold stabilization does to prevent it and hopefully Grapeman can chime in on this as I know he does this with his commercial whites to prevent this. Ill pm him and give him this link in hope he can chime in and give us a heads up on what the process does to prevent this.

 

[Randy]

Thanks fellas.

It is bottled and I didn't check TA, or pH while I was fermenting it. FG was 0.996 if I recall correctly before I sweetened it. I figured a kit would already have all of that stuff balanced. I will check it in the future though. Wade is exactly correct, it is a chill haze as it is not present at room temp. I wish I could post pics but the really what it looks like is a hazy suspension toward the bottom of the bottle in the wine. The suspension is inhomogeneous, the top 2/3 of the bottle remain clear.

I'm pretty sure this is K-bitartrate. I was most interested in whether people usually add additional steps that may not be listed on a kit's instructions to prevent the problem and whether or not I can expect this with all my white wines in the future.

 

[grapeman]

There are a few hazes it could be. One could be acid like you suspect or it could also be a protein haze. I use bentonite late in the wines life in the tamk or carboy. After that I cold stabilize which drops out the acid and any protein bound to the bentonite. The acid helps compact the bentonite so when you rack the wine off, you leave it behind. This is one reason a lot of us have started to do cold stabilization. That drops most of the excessive tartrates out so they don't drop when you refrigerate. Also when the wine gets cold, if it remains hazy, it is probably a protein haze. There are ways to test for that, but if I see it, I add a bentonite slurry and Cold stabilize again. The wine usually drops clear relatively quickly (a couple weeks). Without more information anything we tell you is just a guess.

 

[Randy]

Thanks for your input Grapeman. I'm going to chill a bottle and then unchill it to see if the haze goes away as the wine warms.

Speaking of Bentonite, are you suggesting that I add more to the carboy as it is bulk aging? How much do you add? Also, how the heck does one get this stuff to dissolve well?