Just racked 9.5L of Tart Cherry wine into secondaries. I used a mixture of Oregon canned Tart Pie Cherries and 1 pint of cherry concentrate from Brownwood Acres. This is the first troublesome batch of wine that I have encountered. I used a packet of Red Star Red Pasteur yeast (first time for this yeast)and pitched it dry as I always have. Two days later nothing! Noticed that my room in the basement was cool, but I didn't have a thermometer. Waited another day and used a packet of Lalvin EC-1118, which I have used many times. I purchased a thermometer and the temp in the room was a cool 62 degrees, so I pulled out my dehydrator and put it on the lowest setting and two days later fermentation was very active. Not sure if it was the yeast of the heat, or maybe a combination of both.
I made a similar version of this in Oct 05 and used the concentrate as part of the sweetening process and the taste was remarkable! It turneda so-so wine into a WOW wine, but left a notable haze that would not clear after 2 months. I wanted to ask if pectic enzyme can be added to a finished wine to help clear(I added 3 tsp in this batch to start), or is this something that can only be used in the primary fermentation process? I intend on sweetening with the concentrate again on this batch, but would like to have the wine clear. Any ideas?
Edited by: pkcook
I made a similar version of this in Oct 05 and used the concentrate as part of the sweetening process and the taste was remarkable! It turneda so-so wine into a WOW wine, but left a notable haze that would not clear after 2 months. I wanted to ask if pectic enzyme can be added to a finished wine to help clear(I added 3 tsp in this batch to start), or is this something that can only be used in the primary fermentation process? I intend on sweetening with the concentrate again on this batch, but would like to have the wine clear. Any ideas?
Edited by: pkcook