Yeasty taste?

[MPRIN42]

Fairly new to wine making. My son and I have been doing it for about 2.5 years now and are just starting to taste the fruits of our labor.
We are somewhat successful in our attempts but not totally satisfied. All of our wines are reds, Cabernet, Merlot, Malbec ,Pinot Noir. All are made from Juice. All have been in a secondary for at least 9 months most 1 year,racked at least 3 times, and then in the bottle for the rest of the time.
We say somewhat successful because though our wines are good they all seem to have a "yeasty" taste for a lack of a better way to describe it.
We have been able to clear most of this flavor out by cold stabilizing in a refrigerator for approx. 3 weeks.
Though this process does work and our wines then taste Very good, we both agree that we are missing something.
Any Ideas as to what we may be doing wrong?

 

[CBell]

what type of yeast are you using?

 

[MPRIN42]

The prepackaged Red Star and also the Lalvin

 

[robie]

All have been in a secondary for at least 9 months most 1 year,

I don't fully understand what this statement means. Do you mean they have been bulk aging in a carboy for this time or are you saying you left the wine on the sediment (yeast remains) for this long?

There is a process called 'surlie', where the wine is intentionally left on the yeast cells for extended periods of time. This process purposely imparts a yeasty, biscuity, nutty flavor to the wine. It's primary value is for non-aromatic white wines, like chardonnays and is seldom utilized for reds.

Even if you are not intentionally doing surlie, the longer the wine sets on the fine lees after alcoholic fermentation ends, the more of this flavor will be imparted to the wine.

 

[CBell]

I don't know but he says he racked at least 3 times, so I think he's just saying secondary when he means 'in a carboy'

 

[MPRIN42]

No we rack it into the secondary as soon as it reaches below SG 1.00 and then again in about a month and at least one more time in the middle before preparing to bottle.

 

[MPRIN42]

Yes when I say secondary I am referring to the carboys and or Demijons

 

[jswordy]

Have you ever tasted wine in primary? Does the taste you experience seem yeasty like it would from primary?

I am having a hard time with this because by rights, after a year or more all the yeast should have settled out. Even if you bottled early, it would have settled out as debris in the bottle. So I'm thinking "yeasty" may actually connote some other taste?

 

[robie]

Yes when I say secondary I am referring to the carboys and or Demijons

That's what I thought you meant. In wine kit making circles, secondary is the second phase of alcoholic fermentation, where the wine is kept from excess oxygen with an air lock. usually in a carboy under an air lock.

After fermentation is completed, just make sure you don't leave the wine on the lite lees for very long.

Other than that, I can imagine why your wine would have a yeasty taste.

Based on my description of secondary, how long do you leave the wine in secondary before you rack it for stabilization and clearing?

Also, when clearing, how long do you let the wine set on the sediment before you rack it?

After the gross lees have been racked off, usually before secondary, the remaining lees is made up mostly of dead yeast cells. (Of course most kit wines don't have a lot of what we call gross lees.) The longer the wine sets on any sediment (yeast cells), the more of the yeasty taste it will absorb..

 

[MPRIN42]

Never tasted it in the primary, good thought. We have some Zin almost ready to be racked now so I will taste it.
I think that the most important part of this is that if I cold stabilize it the taste goes away?
So maybe yeasty is not the proper term, but it is a bit of a sour? taste. Could easily be something other than yeast. But it is gone after 3 weeks in the fridge!

 

[jswordy]

Hmmm... the cool thing is, you know a solution!

Look at this list and see if it may by chance be helpful...

http://www.bottlenotes.com/winecyclopedia/assessing-quality-faults-and-troubleshooting

A more extensive list...

http://discover.winecountry.com/wine/2009/10/top-wine-faults-how-to-deal.html

 

[MPRIN42]

Ive read all of the problems on your lists and though they seem to be very informative. none seem to fit
the taste.It has been likened to a "young" wine.... does that help?
As ive said yes I have found a solution which is really good, but the cause is what I would like to understand.
Id also like to add that this is not solely in our wines, I have tried this with other home made wines made by aquaintances and found that the cold stabilizing has seriously improved their wine as well.

 

[Arne]

I have kinda the same problem with some of my wines. My wife will take a sip of them and say that one has the taste I don't like. The next one she will say that one doesn't have that taste to it. My question "What does it taste like." Answer " I dunno know." End result, some she likes and some she doesn't, and I don't know how to change them so she likes them. She can't tell me either. LOL, just have to keep on making them and maybe someday will find out what the taste is. Arne.

 

[MPRIN42]

Arne, thats a great answer, but honestly the best way to handle that is to not share with our wives!::

 

[Brew and Wine Supply]

Could be your pallet is sensitive to yeast, where most of us will not taste it, you will.
Had a customer bring in some wine he complained about having a yeast taste to it. I didn't taste it. He resorted to doing some filtering and he said that helped solve the problem for him.

 

[jswordy]

I have kinda the same problem with some of my wines. My wife will take a sip of them and say that one has the taste I don't like. The next one she will say that one doesn't have that taste to it. My question "What does it taste like." Answer " I dunno know." End result, some she likes and some she doesn't, and I don't know how to change them so she likes them. She can't tell me either. LOL, just have to keep on making them and maybe someday will find out what the taste is. Arne.

She even found that taste in my wine, and I have never tasted it. Hmmm...

 

[Arne]

She even found that taste in my wine, and I have never tasted it. Hmmm...

If you ever do taste it and figure out what it is, let me know would ya?? Arne.

 

[Arne]

Arne, thats a great answer, but honestly the best way to handle that is to not share with our wives!::

If you don't share with them how are you gonna get lucky?? What I mean is how you going to get them to let you keep on spendin money to get more stuff to keep on making your wines? Or sumthing like that, Arne.

 

[Duster]

I don't consider myself as nearly experienced as some of you guys on here but it makes sense to me that if the odd yeasty flavor is described as "sour" and cold stabilization cures it, wouldn't that point to the acid being out of balance in the beginning?

 

[MPRIN42]

I like the acid out of balance answer. As I stated earlier we are fairly new to this and I didn't start testing the PH and acid until recently. I did make what we thought was a bad batch of Cabernet, so instead of tossing it< I started experimenting and found that the PH was at 3.2. I added Calcium and got it to 3.8 and found that I actually saved the batch.
Now the other reds I am talking about are no where near as bad, The PH on all of the rest are at approximately 3.5, at least for the ones we made. I do check the PH from the start now.
Would it be beneficial to raise the PH to a slightly higher level?