Searched and searched.. Cold stabilizaton

[Pam]

I searched and searched just to find cold Stabiliztion instructions.
I want to know:

How long

what temperature.

I want to try to reduce the acidity in wild grape wine.

I assume you rack it off the crystals that precipitate.

thanks
Pam

 

[Luc]

- How long
a few weeks

- what temperature.
as low as is possible. Just above freezing would do the trick best.

- I want to try to reduce the acidity in wild grape wine.
That is indeed the purpose. Cold stabilising will precipitate
tartaric acid out which will reduce the acidity of the wine.

- I assume you rack it off the crystals that precipitate.
Yes that is the way to do it.

Another method would be to just age the wine.
The crystals will precipitate out of the wine anyway
and they would form at the bottom of your bottles.
It would take some years of aging to do so.

Luc

 

[Pam]

thanks Luc

thanks Luc for all your info. When you talk freezing are you talking about 32 degrees or the point that the wine will freeze?
thanks
Pam

 

[Bailey]

At my LHBS they told me to go for 25F for cold stabilization. They use that process in their own winery. I was using a plastic carboy at the time so I didn't worry about freezing and cracking anything.

I did get down to 28F w/ no ice at all.

 

[Conquistadude]

If I were to do this I would have to leave it outside at night 30-40f, and place it in cold water during the day. I don't have a deep freeze, or a big enough fridge lol. lol troy should have no problem with this...ever lol.

 

[Wade E]

I must add to this that it doesnt always work without seeding your wine. Seeding is the act of actually adding some cream of tartar to your wine for the tartaric acid to grab onto. If there isnt enough tartaric acid in your wine then it wont group together and become heavy enough to fall out of suspension.

 

[Pam]

When?

When in the wine cycle is is appropriate to do this?
My wine was started Jan 1 and is finished fermenting. Will double check SG to make sure. My freezer is too low(0), my frig hangs just above freezing.
The weather outside is perfect right now. Can I do it now or do I have to wait til it mostly clears?
Thanks
Pam

 

[arcticsid]

Got you covered Pam, -30F right now looking for -40F tommorrow, how cold again?HeeHee
(thanks for the recomendation Con, always willin to help!)
Troy
(I could start a forum on how to thaw it out huh?)

 

[Luc]

thanks Luc for all your info. When you talk freezing are you talking about 32 degrees or the point that the wine will freeze?
thanks
Pam

Outside freezing temperature would be fine Pam.

When the wine freezes that would be a bad thing to happen.
The water will expand and it might crack the carboy.
So ideal would be around 0 degrees Celsius, at that temp the
alcohol will prevent the wine from freezing.

Luc

 

[Pam]

When in wine cycle

Luc,
When in the wine cycle can you cold stablize? Can I do it to a wine that is one month along?
thanks

 

[Luc]

Pam,

You can only cold-stabilise when the wine has completely finished and is clear.

If you cold-stabilise when fermentation is still going on you stun the
yeast. Now even when yeast are frozen they still come back alive when the temperature is rising (trust me on this, I did some experiments) but they might have been damaged.

Next part is that the cold will also clear the wine.
When the wine is finished that is a good thing.
You rack and have a nice clear wine.
But when the wine is still fermenting all kinds of floating goodies that
have not been consumed by the yeast or metabolised by the fermentation process might also precipitate out, and then it is a bad thing.

So wait till the wine has finished and cleared and then cold-stabilise.

Luc

 

[Pam]

thanks

Thanks Luc,
That is just what I needed to know. I was trying to take advantage of the cold outdoor weather. We have a screened in back porch and it would be perfect to cold stabilize right now. but guess I am not ready yet.
thanks a bunch. I have heard about patience in wine making. Not sure I do very well at it.
later
Pam