Darn you, Sparkalloid!!!

[Brewgrrrl]

Okay, I have a Sparkalloid quandary and I hope that someone can help me!

I have always (in my maybe 18 months of wine-making) let things clear on their own. But we are planning a vacation visiting friends next week, and I just wanted the wine I brought to be PERFECT. I had heard great things about Sparkalloid, so I decided to try it out on my delicious 5 gallon batch of plumcot wine (hybrid of plums and apricots and WOW did it make a beautiful, tasty peach-colored wine).

I followed the directions for preparing the Sparkalloid, although I'm not sure it was boiling for as long as it was supposed to be. I added it by adding a cup of cold water to an empty carboy, pouring the Sparkalloid in, and then racking the wine over. I realize now that I should have racked over first and THEN stirred in the Sparkalloid, but I don't know why that would make a big difference because it would have been stirred into cool wine anyway.

So now the wine - which had been really clear except for a few lees at the bottom - is now absolutely MURKY!!! It's been about five days now, and it looks like it is just slightly clearer than it was. ARGH!!!!!!!

We are supposed to leave for our trip next Friday morning. I thought this stuff cleared in a week or I wouldn't have messed with it. I do have a gravity filter (which I just bought and have never used) but I know I shouldn't try it when the wine is this cloudy.

Any suggestions that might save this situation? HELP!!!!
:-(

 

[Tom]

Relax. Leave it alone and go on vacation. When you come back you will be surprised how your wine will look. Filtering will not clear that wine as it is now. TIME and Patience = a good wine. I hope you were not planning on bottling before your vacation.

 

[Brewgrrrl]

That was actually the whole point of getting the wine as clear as possible. I haven't seen these friends in 8 years and I wanted to give them some of my best wine. :-( Isn't there anything I could do to clear it before then?

 

[Tom]

Watch how fast it will clear. Did you do 1 tablespoon?Add a little bit more but you should see a big improvement in a week. Keep it in a cool place

You may be able to make it by Friday.

 

[smurfe]

I have to ask, if it was really clear why did you add the fining agent? I can't think of anything that is going to help except for time. I have seen where a fining agent can sit for a few days with no visible change and then you get up the next day and it is crystal clear. For example, this batch never would clear. I added Isinglass and it sat for 3 more days with no change. I woke up the next day and it was this clear.

 

[Wade E]

I agree, if it was almost completely clear then I would have just used the filter you just got to polish it and all would have been good. I cant help with the Sparkaloid as Ive never used it. I only use SuperKleer as it works very fast and there is no boiling or anything and its usually almost crystal clear the next day but letting it sit for a week or 2 will let the lees settle and harden up so they dont stir up very easy.

 

[hannabarn]

First of all Brewgrrrl, welcome to this forum. I'll bet that by the time you get ready to go on vacation next Friday, your wine will be clear except for some lees on the bottom, which puts you back to square one! You probably didn't need sparkaloid if your wine was already clear! You may even have time to filter it before you leave!!

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Thanks, Barney. I will keep my fingers crossed for sure. Smurfe, I've been asking myself that same question. I thought (based on what I'd heard) using the Sparkalloid would make the wine really, well, sparkle. Since I haven't seen these particular friends for so long, I just wanted to give them my absolute best wine so I made a beginner's mistake (which - hey, I'm a beginner).
Also, I didn't buy the gravity filter until after I was panicking about the cloudy wine, but I've since realized I can't use it until the wine clears on its own anyway. Great tutorial on gravity filtering by Martina BTW - her post was what actually got me onto this forum. I'm trying to figure out how to resize my pictures so that I can properly introduce myself. I'm truly not a complete idiot. I actually brewed beer (lots of beer) for a year or so before getting into wine (actually a sparkling mead was my first "wine" batch), and now I'm jut really learning a lot so - well, here's a lesson on finings I won't soon forget. :-(

 

[Wade E]

Here is a link to picture resizing and a resizing tool by Microsoft that works really good and is extremely easy. Just download the tool and then right click on the picture you want to resize and there is your option to resize it. Its a very fast downlaod to.
http://www.finevinewines.com/Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2514

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Thanks, Wade. I have a Mac, but I think I've got it worked out.

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Smurfe - what kind of wine or mead is that? It looks delicious! ~

 

[smurfe]

Smurfe - what kind of wine or mead is that? It looks delicious! ~

It's a mead. Actually a version of the Ancient Mead you see talked about around here.

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Well, it's been exactly 7 days and the wine is still pretty murky. WHY do they print "clear in 7 days" ??? I'm actually pretty good about waiting for wine usually but - argh - this seemed like a quick way to get a little extra polish on a nice fruit wine.

Smurfe, thanks for the Ancient Mead reference. A local meadery up here actually started a gallon of that on National Mead Day this year and I was thinking about getting the recipe. With all of the extra time on my hands now (since I can't BOTTLE, not that I'm bitter! ARGH!!!) - I threw together a gallon yesterday. A little hope in the midst of the Sparkalloid debacle..

 

[rrawhide]

remember the 3 p's!!!


I have trouble with them tooooo!!!


rrawhide

 

[Brewgrrrl]

I think the 3 p's I'm thinking of are different than the ones you are referring to...

 

[Tom]

My 3 "P's" are;

Patience

Patience

Patience

That I believe is what rrawhide is referring to.

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Right now with this batch mine are all "P-O'd"

(I knew what he meant but my dry humor doesn't always translate online)

 

[Goodfella]

Any updates???

 

[Brewgrrrl]

Well, it's day 10 and still cloudy. It's better than it was, but barring some sort of wine miracle I won't be bottling this in time to share it with my friends.

 

[Brewgrrrl]

It's hard to tell by the pictures, but I think I can actually see the Sparkalloid in suspension. When the wine was clearing on its own, the cloudiness was the same color as the rest of it. This time, the cloudiness is gray like the Sparkalloid. (sigh...)