Help! Wine hasn't cleared.

[andycole]

H. All. I expect that's quite a common thread title!

I am a fairly experienced brewer, although I am making my first wine in 2 years.
I have a selection Barolo 30 bottle kit and I have got to the stage where the wine should be clear and I rack it. But the wine was not clear. When I opened the fermenter to put in the siphon tube, there was sediment floating on top, which I thought was unusual, and the wine has lots of tiny floating particles in it, it is not clear at all. What could have gone wrong? And more importantly, how can I fix it?

I have just looked over the instructions of the previous step of stabilising and clearing, and I am sure I did everything correctly. It mentions the importance of proper degassing, and I used a stirrer mounted in an electric drill to stir it very vigorously for several minutes.

What can I do?

thanks

Andy.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Did you degas in the same direction or did you give it a couple of seconds in one direction then a couple in the opposite direction for a minute or two?

My last wine cleared very slowly so i degassed it again, i don't think my drill had much charge in it originally as the second time there was a lot more CO2 being removed, i added more fining and it seems to be clearing nicely.

 

[andycole]

I stirred it all in the same direction, that is, the drill was going clockwise all the time, but I was moving the stirrer about a lot, even though the wine was all spinning fast in a clockwise 'whirlpool'.

So, is it a good idea to do another degassing cycle now, or is it too late?

Thanks
Andy

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I would give it another go and do it in both directions.

 

[andycole]

Yes, thanks, I have done so and put it somewhere cool. How long should I give it before checking again?

Andy

 

[Chippy_Tea]

That depends on how desperate you are to drink it. :lol:

 

[andycole]

I have just checked a glassful of this and we are back on track! :). Wine is very clear in a glass now and tastes great! There was a definite sharp tang before, which I thought was probably CO2.

Phew!

I think I am going to have a go at a WOW variant now. Something to drink while this expensive kit is maturing!

Thanks for the help.

Andy.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Try an easy Rosé wine, everyone that has tried mine thinks its great.



Easy Rosé wine (one of our favourites)

1 litre Red grape juice (Tesco)

1 litre Apple Juice (Tesco)

800g Sugar.

1 tsp Tannin or a mug of very strong black tea. (3 bags stirred every couple of minutes as you put the rest of the ingredients together)

1 tsp Yeast (i use youngs super wine yeast compound)

1 tsp Yeast Nutrient.

1 tsp Pectolase.

1 tsp Glycerene.

1 tsp citric acid or juice of one lemon. (optional)

 

[Scaff]

Try an easy Rosé wine, everyone that has tried mine thinks its great.



Easy Rosé wine (one of our favourites)

1 litre Red grape juice (Tesco)

1 litre Apple Juice (Tesco)

800g Sugar.

1 tsp Tannin or a mug of very strong black tea. (3 bags stirred every couple of minutes as you put the rest of the ingredients together)

1 tsp Yeast (i use youngs super wine yeast compound)

1 tsp Yeast Nutrient.

1 tsp Pectolase.

1 tsp Glycerene.

1 tsp citric acid or juice of one lemon. (optional)

Chippy, do you add water to that recipe to make it up to 4.5ltrs or leave it at 2ltr.


Thanks


Scaff

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Yes 2 litres of juice and the rest is water.

 

[andycole]

Try an easy Rosé wine, everyone that has tried mine thinks its great.

Yes, I think I will. I also fancy the Apple/Pear/Grape juice that someone mentioned on the WOW thread. Pear wine, gotta be delicious, hasn't it?
I worked out that 1 gallon would cost less than a fiver, although I'd have to spend more than that to get larger quantities of the ingredients, so I may as well make 2 different ones and bring down the cost per gallon :)

Andy

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If that's Apple/Pear/Grape in a single carton don't bother its been discussed before and does not make good wine, you need a litre of grape juice (for the body) and a litre of another 100% juice, i have found the red grape juice tastes fine with a carton of apple as the red grape juice is quite strong before fermenting.

 

[andycole]

Oh, that's a disappointment about the pear. Are there any other varieties with pear juice that work? I know that welch do a white grape, apple and pear, although I am sure that's not 100 percent juice either.

Andy

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Tesco do a apple and pear juice, I have just bottled a wine made from a litre of wgj and a litre of apple and pear juice.