Fruit wine getting darker

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junit83

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I have a batch of white Plum wine in a secondary carboy... It has started to darken, mostly around the top 2inchs. Two things i can think of is, too much headroom... ( have no other choice for container ) so i know i have too much head room but i dont know what negatives that would/ could cause. Or Second i just didnt add enough absorbic acid in hte beginning... is there anything i can do to fix this or is nothing broken?
 
how much head room exactly? when you say you have too much headroom and that the wine is turning brown near the surface, that leads me to believe oxidation. you need to do what you can to eliminate that headroom - put some sanitized marbles into the container to bring the level up into the neck. sorbate will stop fermentation, but sulfite is better at preventing oxidation IMHO. did you sulfite the wine as well? how long has it been aging before it started to turn brown? any chance you can rack off the good wine underneath and keep the browned wine in a separate container so that it doesn't potentially contaminate the rest of the batch?
 
You could also be confusing it with a wine that is clearing. When I make a raspberry wine it looks like a fire engine red when its fermenting and has just finished. After it has been degassed and is clear it is very dark unlike what it looked like before. Check out the link I attached, The wine in the left to carboys are This years raspberry and the one barely in the picture is ast years and all clear, Big Difference and not oxidized at all!

Raspberry.jpg
 
Yeah, I was thinking clearing too. Try shining a torch through the "brown" part and let us know what happens.
 
WEll i can swirl it around...... If i jiggle the carboy a bit, the darker wine at the top swirls, it almost looks like when you add simple syrup... but its all collecting at the top... first two pics are from 10 minutes ago and the last lighter colorer one is from 2 weeks ago.

oct09 009.jpg

oct09 010.jpg

oct09 004.jpg
 
wow. that is a substantial amount of headspace. that might have all fit in a 5 gallon carboy instead of a 6 gallon.

how does it taste? how does it smell? from the pics it appears that it has all darkended substantially in the last two weeks.

i'm no expert, but i think that much O2 headspace is a major concern. you may have to do some research on here for remedial measures to correct for oxidation but i'll reserve my judgement in anticipation of much more experienced fruit winemakers as my experience with fruit wines is nil.
 
That is a 5 gallon carboy and the only lower one i have is a 3... I could have put it in the 3 but sacrificed 1.5 Gallons.... i just tasted it and it tastes fine.... Dry as it should since i have not backsweetend it yet... i probably will do so a little bit. Also Smells fine... just looks like Apple Cider

on a better note my watermelon wine is some of the best looking stuff ive made... SOOO clear..

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I really think it is just trying to clear. All the sediment will slowly fall to the bottom leaving you with a nice clear wine at the top.
 

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