Vikings blood.

[Vlabruz]

So I just racked my vikings blood mead and removed the bag of cherries. It was pretty clear until I did that. I gave them a gentle squeeze and the brew is like mud now. I also stabilized with sorbate and k meta.
I assume its going to clear and I want to wait 24 hours till I back sweeten. I also wanted to add dried cherries in secondary unless you guys think its a bad idea?
Anything else I should do?

 

[Ty520]

You should never squeeze the fruit when you take it out. That was probably the biggest issue. Did you also use pectic enzyme? If not, you can still add it but it will not be quite as effective as if you had added it in the beginning. That being said it should still clear up with time. The dried cherries will probably throw a haze as well. Note that they have more of a earthy jammy quality rather than bright and fresh. That isn't necessarily bad, just different

 

[Vlabruz]

You should never squeeze the fruit when you take it out. That was probably the biggest issue. Did you also use pectic enzyme? If not, you can still add it but it will not be quite as effective as if you had added it in the beginning. That being said it should still clear up with time. The dried cherries will probably throw a haze as well. Note that they have more of a earthy jammy quality rather than bright and fresh. That isn't necessarily bad, just different

I added pectic enzyme to the cherries as they were defrosting. Ill give it a week and see what happens. Interestingly, is it possible for this to be degassed on its own one week after fermentation completed?
I was degassing in the beginning with my nutrient additions. But today is seemed to have zero gas in it

 

[Vlabruz]

Maybe if it clears a bit ill rack it again, back sweeten, add cherries and see what happens over the next month or so

 

[Ty520]

it could take much longer than a week to clear up

 

[Vlabruz]

it could take much longer than a week to clear up

Yes, just want to see if there slight improvement. Why is it recommended not to squeeze the bag of fruit?

 

[Ty520]

Yes, just want to see if there slight improvement. Why is it recommended not to squeeze the bag of fruit?

the added pressure can force a bunch of excess sediment and pectin through the filter back into the wine and make it that much harder to clarify.

If left long enough, you should be able to extract everything you're wanting without the need to squeeze - especially with berries - they'll start to lose all their pigment.

Instead, what you can do is rig it up so you can suspend over your fermentation vessel and allow it to slowly and naturally drain back into the wine

 

[Vlabruz]

the added pressure can force a bunch of excess sediment and pectin through the filter back into the wine and make it that much harder to clarify.

If left long enough, you should be able to extract everything you're wanting without the need to squeeze - especially with berries - they'll start to lose all their pigment.

Instead, what you can do is rig it up so you can suspend over your fermentation vessel and allow it to slowly and naturally drain back into the wine

I'll try that. I just didnt want to loose too much liquid

 

[Raptor99]

I'll try that. I just didnt want to loose too much liquid

For a different option, I squeeze the fruit bags for all my wines. Sometimes I put them in a fruit press and really squeeze them hard. With a pear wine last year the liquid I squeezed from the fruit press had the best flavor, better than what I racked into the carboy.

I expect to bulk age it for several months anyway, so has time to clear. I should point out that I do this with fruit bags in the primary. With fruit in the secondary I would need to consider whether I should squeeze the bag.