Clearing plum wine

Hello. I hope someone can indulge a complete beginner and help me out with a few questions on some plum wine I've recently made.

1) The fermentation finished about three weeks ago. I've racked the wine three times since and now, although I'm getting very little sediment at the bottom of the container, the wine is still very cloudy. What would be the best way to clear it? I've tried pectolase, both before fermentation started and also a bit afterwards. I've also added a small quantity of bentonite. Is there anything I've missed/done wrong or am I just being impatient? 2) I made about 22 litres and the liquid is in a large carboy which could hold maybe another 10 litres or so. Is there any risk to the wine in there being so much air sitting on top of the wine while it clears? The process of racking is adding fresh air ro the carboy. Will this air oxidise the wine or affect its flavour detrimentally? 3) I read that the wine should be fermented in the dark which I complied with. Does it need to remain in the dark while it clears? 4) Does the wine have to be completely clear before I bottle it or does the clearing process continue after bottling?

Thanks, Stephen Stokes.

Reply to
sjstokes
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Hello, Your wine is very young, and you're fine. I've made plum wine, and you need to give it more time to clear on its own. I usually don't bottle my wine until it is about 8 months old - which might include 2-4 rackings in that 8 months depending on how cloudy the wine is. Yes, it sounds like you have too much head space in your carboy and that would be a concern. You need to get your wine in 1 or more carboys with bungs and airlocks with very little head room. I do 1 gallon batches and there is barely 1 inch of headspace between the wine and the bung. Do keep some wine back for top-up - when you rack the wine off the sediment (which will continue to drop over the next few months). I like to keep all my wine in the dark as much as possible, especially when you're aging it. I wait until the wine is clear before bottling. If you bottle a young cloudy wine, you'll get sediment in your bottles, so you need to decide if that's acceptable or not. The most I get in my bottles is a dusting of sediment. I let time do its work - I've only had to fine with bentonite 2 or three wines in the 4 years I've been making wine. Good-luck. Plum wine is a yummy wine. Darlene Wisconsin

"sjstokes" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Reply to
Dar V

In article , Dar V writes

Dar, if a finished wine is in its 1 gallon storage vessel, cleared and fermentation ceased, is it beneficial to leave it in there to mature, or will it do that better after it has been bottled? I have two or three now at that stage and I am not sure whether to bottle them yet.

Reply to
Alan Gould

Alan, There's two types of aging a wine. One is bulk aging in a carboy, and the other is bottle aging. I think both are important and contribute different things to a wine. We all have to decide how long we can bulk age a wine. I started with bulk aging until 7 months, I'm trying to let the wines bulk age to 8 months now - I'd like to go longer, but I was working on building up my stock. It took four years, but I now have enough wine on hand so that I don't run out, and I can allow certain wines to age the proper amount of time. I still probably don't bulk age as much as I should. It depends on the wine - strawberry wine is better at a young age and loses something by 1 year, so I won't bulk age that wine that long. Pumpkin wine is better at 2 years, so that could bulk age longer, but it does fine in the bottle from 7 months old to aging to two years. Each wine is different and I would check Jack's site for his suggestions on which wines benefit from aging longer. Some on this site bulk age for years.... Anyway, it is up to you...my only concern is that if you bottle too soon sometimes you can end up with bottle bombs - the wine might be quiet now but sometimes things change. And I do get concerned when beginner winemakers get discouraged after bottling to early and then they end up with 1/2 inch of sediment in their bottles. The wine is still drinkable after you decant, but the wine could be much better. Hope this helps. Darlene

"Alan Gould" wrote in message news:0TbvsBB$ snipped-for-privacy@agolincs.demon.co.uk...

Reply to
Dar V

This I think is one point where the kits are really nice for us beginners. While they don't necessarily make the best wine if you're following their instructions, the wine is good, and it's ready in a month or three. I know if I had just been doing the smaller batches from scratch, and not doing kits too, i would have been discouraged already(yes, I've only been at this for a little more than two months, but I'm definitely not the most patient person ;) ). The kits have allowed me to get something done now, that I can see, taste, and enjoy, which allows me to be more patient with my other batches, and let them properly age, clear and degas. Just racked my first two batches for the second time, barely any sediment this time around, will probably rack at least one more time before I even think about stabilizing(two welch's recipes from Jack's site), but already I can start to see a nice clear wine, and the taste is developing nicely(I start siphon just by suckign on end, so get a little taste to see how it's doing ;) ).

But I also was able to enjoy a nice bottle of an Island mist kit, and part of a bottle of a Merlot, that I made from a Winexpert kit. The merlot is still a bit young, of course, and will benefit from more aging in the bottle, but at least it let's me open a bottle that I made myself, and have that good feeling of accomplishment(and save me some money to boot).

Joel

"Dar V" wrote in message news:apgTe.26779$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.rdc-kc.rr.com...

Reply to
Joel Sprague

Listen to those above, your wine is way to young to worry about clearing. If left on it's own, it will probably clear in 2 to 4 months. If it does not, that is when to worry about it. Also, you are racking WAY to frequently. You are losing wine with each racking. After you rack off of secondary fermentation, you should not rack again for 4 to 8 weeks, even if there is some sediment. It will hurt nothing.

One question. Did you use pectic enzyme? If not you may have a pectic haze but it is too early to worry about that.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

In article , Dar V writes

Thanks again Dar. Yes, I am aware of bottle bombs, air spaces and sediments, and the fact that it is a bit of a lottery knowing the best way to handle them. I reason that if a wine seems to be still, it is not a good idea to store it in a vessel with a lot of air at the top. If there is sediment, I rack it off, but that often re-activates it, and results in air spaces. I now know about the trick of keeping some of the wine in a fridge, to be used later for topping up, and I will use that idea in future.

To try to ascertain if a bulk stored wine is still very slowly fermenting, I gently replace the airlock a solid bung in the top. If it works its way out, or if there is a hiss of gas when taking it out, the wine is still working. I've caught a couple of them out like that, but the only redress I know is to add campden and sorbate, either of which can impart an odour and neither of which are wholly reliable.

Reply to
Alan Gould

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I've just been a bit impatient!

Ray,

I used pectic enzyme both before fermentation started and again after it had finished. I don't know if pectin was present after fermentation but have since read that I can test for it with methylated spirits. Fortunately, I didn't lose very much wine with the racking I've done so far presumably because I hadn't left it long enough for much sediment to fall!

Dar V,

I'm going to transfer the wine into four or five demijohns so that I can drastically reduce the amount of air sitting on top of the wine and then I'll leave it in the dark for a few months before checking it again. Would leaving maybe an inch between the top of the demijohn and the bung be a suitable buffer?

Thanks very much for your help.

Reply to
sjstokes

Do you have access to 3 gallon or 5 gallon carboys, instead of breaking down your batch into 1 gallon carboys? 1 gallon carboys are fine, I just thought you might like to know some other generic sizes which are out there. 1 inch headspace is okay - you need to be aware that depending on where you store your wine and how cool it is, may affect that. I usually leave less headspace because I store my carboys in the basement and it is much cooler down there so the wine contracts. But I have been surprised when the basement warms up in the summer, how this can come back to haunt me...lol. Good-luck and welcome. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

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