Hazy Beetroot-Apple wine

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AHB1982

Junior
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Dear all

made 2 gallons of apple beetroot wine in May of this year.Have racked it 4 times. Taste is a little yeasty. Not much.But more importantly, it’s so cloudy. What can I do to clear it and refine the taste as well. Alcohol reading is 12%.
Can I add more sugar and yeast to restart fermentation? Would that refine it? Have tried sparkloid and bentonite to refine it as well. This is my first beetroot attempt. Never again. Also tried refrigerating the carbuoys.
Any advice would be welcome. Thank you
 
My last alcohol check was 12%. That was a month ago. I’ll recheck. Only fear is that Iv added too many things in an attempt to save the whole batch.
 
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ABV is not important at this time. What is the Specific Gravity of the wine?

FYI -- unless it's too high or low, ABV is not important in debugging winemaking problems. Knowing the Original Gravity (OG) and current SG may include or exclude suggestions.

Also note that calculating ABV is not a linear equation. There are multiple equations that approximate the ABV, and the ABV itself indicates which equation to use. The equations are correct for specific ABV ranges, e.g., different equations are used for beer, low alcohol wine, high alcohol wine, etc.

This concludes your math and chemistry lesson for today! 😉
 
As Bryan posted pectic enzyme should help, apple is noted to have a high yield of pectin.
* The yeast taste will go away with time, this usually decreases as the clarity improves and as the wine is degassed. Bentonite will help pull yeast out so that was a good additive.
* Refrigerating the carboy increases gas solubility, therefore it indirectly slows clearing. Cooling will slow residual fermentation so it is sometimes used to stop a fermentation leaving residual sugar. You are dealing with apple/ malic acid which has good cold solubility, therefore acid taste wouldn’t change.
* The beet I have seen had low acid/ flat taste and was improved by adding acid blend. Your post does not mention if acid was in the recipe/ starting pH or TA. The beet wine I have seen cleared completely including the red beet pigments, , and adding a few grains of acid to a glass helped it.
* Tannin is frequently added to give longer/ memorable/ dehydrating flavor notes, you didn’t mention if this was in the recipe. Tannin is synergistic with acid if your total grams of acid is low. A tannin addition typically is followed by a few weeks/ month to let particles solubilize. Note there are some alcohol extracts that can be added as is.
* Time is a magic ingredient. I have done flavor adjustments on peach then bottled with a pectin haze which fell to the bottom of the bottle. By carefully pouring I could get a clear wine for serving.
of apple beetroot wine in May of this year.Have racked it 4 times. Taste is a little yeasty. Not much.But more importantly, it’s so cloudy. What can I do to clear it and refine the taste as well. Alcohol reading is 12%.
sparkloid and bentonite to refine it as well, ,. Also tried refrigerating the carbuoys.
Welcome to Wine Making Talk
 
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Time is a magic ingredient.
It's not possible to emphasize this enough!

One difficult thing with time is that it's not a constant. There are no hard-n-fast rules. Most red wines need 12 to 24 months to be good -- yet some are good at 6 months. Fruit wines are the opposite -- many are good at 6 months, but others need a LOT longer to mature.

A wine not tasting drinkable at 5 months is not a surprise. My gut feel is this one will need at least 12 months. If the haze clears as expected, give it another 3+ months in bulk, and another 3+ months after bottling.

If you have them, bottle in splits (375 ml) and start tasting every month or two, recording your impressions. This will teach you a lot about how wine changes and improves with aging.
 

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