Question Wine Not Clearing What Should I Do?

[btom2004]

This wine is not clearing. It has been degassed and finished and back- sweetened. What should I do? Attempt to degass more and add additional clearing agents? Or do I also need to add some more pectic emzines.

Wine log:
*Strawberry-Peach-Mango-Pineapple-Banana Fruit Mix Wine~6 Gal. in primary 10/21/12. SG 1.090~pitched yeast~10/23/12.
SG 1.024~10/26/12.
Racked to secondary carboy~SG 0.998.~10/29/12.
Reracked and some degassing~ 11/15/12 SG 0.990~Backsweetened to taste did not record SG.

Thanks for any suggestions in adavance.

 

[Rocky]

I make very little fruit wine, but it seems to me that you did everything correctly. I know that anything with peach in it has a time clearing so maybe you need to help it at this time. I have not tried it, but I have heard miraculous things about a product called "Sparkolloid." BTW, that is going to be some powerul wine!

Perhaps some of the fruit wine makers will chime in. Good luck.

Edit: Here is some information from Jack Keller's site:

[SIZE=+1]Failure to Clear[/SIZE]: If you boiled ingredients to extract flavor, color or both and your wine fails to clear, you most likely have a pectin haze (see Pectin Haze below). If your wine is made from starchy ingredients, especially grains or tubers, that were boiled and pressed through a nylon straining bag and then fails to clear, you most likely have a starch haze (see Starch Haze below). If your wine has an off-color haze that fails to clear, you probably have a metal contamination (see Colored Haze below). If you have a haze following a malo-lactic bacteria inoculation, you probably have a lactic acid bacteria haze (see Lactic Acid Bacteria Haze below). If none of these apply and your wine fails to clear after six rackings at 30-day intervals, you simply have a nonspecific cloudy wine. Unless there is a bacterial contamination at work, the wine will probably clear but may take up to a year to do so. If you don't care to wait that long, there are several things you can do.
Move the wine into a cooler place for several weeks. All that is required is a drop in temperature of 10° F., but if the wine is over-heated in the first place (80° or more) you may have to bring the temperature down 20° or more.
If the above doesn't work, you might try using a fining agent. Most of these effect the taste of the wine somewhat, but I've found that mineral finings (Bentonite or Kaolin) effect it less than gelatin, egg whites or alkaline alginates. For a thorough discussion of fining agents, see Finishing Your Wine.
The wine may fall clear if you add a clear wine of the same type to it. The exact amount to add is open to discussion, but most authorities say to add 25% of the volume of the cloudy wine, or one quart clear per gallon of cloudy wine. This doesn't always work, but it's worth trying before progressing to filtering.
Filtering definitely effects the taste and character of the wine and can ruin it if too fine a filter is used, but sometimes it is the only option left. Borrow, rent or buy a vacuum-pumped filter. They are fast, efficient and will clear almost any wine if the correct filter pad or paper is used. Gravity filters take a long time to work and expose the wine to the risk of oxidation. Just be forewarned before using a filter that doing so can change the wine and possibly ruin it.

 

[Sammyk]

I did the peach, mango, strawberry and banana wine too. It took many months to clear and is now in bottles.

I also did straight peach and it is still cloudy and it has been since July 1st. I just moved the carboys out to the cold garage two days ago.

I prefer to not fine my fruit wines and let them settle out on their own.
Also both of them were very stinky in the primary! In fact they were the only wines I have made that made one want to throw up!

I went and looked at my log, the peach, mango banana strawberry was started on 3/15/12 and bottled on 10/9 so 7 months to clear.

 

[btom2004]

Thanks for the reply Rocky and Sammyk
I'll give it more time, place it in garage crawl space away from exhaust fumes. I'll also rack after a while to see if that will help. I used bentinite in primary and Sparkolloid at fining stage. May rack and add additional "Sparkolloid if cold storage doesn't work.

@Oh yeah Sammyk this stuff sure did stink. I read that it would after I made it, luckily before I dumped it.

 

[Pumpkinman]

I notice that you mentioned keeping it in a crawl space in the garage, if it is cool in the crawlspace, the wine will take longer to clear, or night not clear at all.
I've made a quad berry wine, and a quad berry Melomel, both have cleared fast using Sparkolloid, furthermore, Sparkolloid is even recommended when other fining agents don't clear or they leave a haze.
I tried Super Kleer KC, the process slow, I now use Sparkolloid exclusively.

 

[Sammyk]

I almost pitched mine too because of the smell. But with the straight peach I knew it would get better!

 

[Fabiola]

I had the same issue until I added super-kleer, it works wonders, in a couple of hours it started clearing....

 

[GreginND]

My peach is taking its own sweet time too. Patience is the key. If that doesn't work I would think pectin haze is the most likely problem.

 

[Sammyk]

Hmm Greg, that could be the problem here too because I simmered down fresh peaches to back flavor. But OMGosh the flavor at 6 months was so peachy tasting.
I will give it more time and see what happens.

 

[SBWs]

Did you stabilize (k-meta & sorbate) before backsweetening?

 

[Sammyk]

Yes and it is fully degassed.

 

[Arne]

Did you add pectic enzime at the beginning? If not you can add it now. Dump it in or disolve in a bit of your wine, dump it in and gently stir it to mix in. If it is pectic haze, it should still work, If not it shouldn't hurt anything. Arne.

 

[btom2004]

Thanks for all the help.
@Arne: I also added pectic enzyme at start of fermentation.
@SBWs: I added Kmeta-sorbate and backsweetened at same time with sugar and peach/white grape juice concentrate.
I may add more Sparkolloid or super-kleer-and pectic enzyme. Just to see if it helps.

 

[Sammyk]

Yes pectic before fermentation.

 

[btom2004]

OK update: Let sit out in cold for 2 nights and then vacuum Re-racked degassed into clean carboy with super-kleer KC.

I lost about a gal of wine here but it is clearing nice now. I will have to top off again.

For the love of wine and the need to make Mead. I will begin to consume that gallon of Sangria top right hand corner, to use the demijohn as a secondary fermenter. CHEERS!!!!!!and HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!!

 

[slh]

I would definitely give it more time.

For example: I had a batch of skeeter pee I started in July and it didn't finally clear until November after adding two clearing treatments. Compared to my first batch, which only took a couple of months, it was frustrating.

Just rack every four to six weeks and be patient

 

[btom2004]

Yes thanks I will do. After my first batch ever made had sedement in the bottles. I'm in no hurry any more and will wait until wine clears even if it takes years.

 

[Boatboy24]

btom: Were you able to vacuum transfer with that brake bleeder? I have the same one, but haven't thought to use it for racking. How much vacuum were you pulling?

 

[grapeman]

2 days in the cold was not enough time to do much. It should be more like 2 weeks. Also you should not lose a gallon at racking. Tip the carboy to one side and put the cane in the deep end, just make sure it isn't in a pile of lees. Done correctly you should not lose more than a cupful.

 

[btom2004]

btom: Were you able to vacuum transfer with that brake bleeder? I have the same one, but haven't thought to use it for racking. How much vacuum were you pulling?

Yes wine is being transfered in photo. They say you need a vacuum of from 20-30, but you know this gauge did not show a reading when transfering. Thus all I did was pump until wine began to rack and pumped more when it began to slow down. The more pressure the faster it racked. You can also use a bigger overflow bottle if you like, such as a gal jar or bigger carboy. It seemed to work fater with a larger jar.
[ame]http://youtu.be/rVXoyWKr2mM[/ame]

2 days in the cold was not enough time to do much. It should be more like 2 weeks. Also you should not lose a gallon at racking. Tip the carboy to one side and put the cane in the deep end, just make sure it isn't in a pile of lees. Donhttp://search.conduit.com/?SearchSource=10&ctid=CT3008653e correctly you should not lose more than a cupful.

Ok I'll have to do it longer. @I didn't want to get any lees at all in this racking. I some how think one of my carboys is larger than the other, as they were purchased from different sellers.