Cloudy Reds - Noobie

Perhaps something has stirred up the sediment. Any jokesters around the house? Seriously though, drawing on my knowledge from high school and college chemistry, when the temperature drops, certain salts and chemicals present in the wine may precipitate out due to the low temperatures. They might redissolve, but then again, maybe not. I have this happen frequently when I make ice tea from teabags. The brewed tea is perfectly clear, but if I leave it overnight in a pitcher in the refrigerator, it will be cloudy by morning. It might possibly have something to do with the water used to make up the wine, or perhaps you have bacterial activity, which is leaving new residues in the wine. Your nose should be able to tell if something is amiss if this is the case.

If everything smells okay, I would wait and see if it clears out on its own. If everything is okay so far, you should not be in a hurry to bottle the wine yet. Fermentation of my fall wine was a protracted affair due to the low temperatures in the unheated garage I did my fermentations in, but my wine cleared just fine, and has some potential to be a good wine. I ended up moving the wine to the basement to age in a cool dark and undisturbed environment until at least Spring before I bottle it, and fermentation restarted a bit. I understand your desire to enjoy the finished product, but a good red needs to be aged at least a year to be really ready to be enjoyed.

In the meantime, check out some of the Internet resources for specific advice on clearing up the wine. Pay attention to the amount of acid and tannin in the wine, these can affect its ability to clear. If you still have issues with clarity in a few months when you are ready to bottle it, egg whites, gelatin, and Bentonite Clay are inexpensive and reliable standbys that can be added to the wine to assist clearing.

Good Luck and 73 de Bruce N3LSY

Hi Bruce:

Thanks for the response.

Water for the fruit wines is from our well, which does have iron in it. It is filtered to the point that the color is clear and the taste is eliminated, but I'm sure there is still plenty of Fe ions present.

So initially I thought it was a metal haze as described in Berry's book, Keller and Lum sites. But SWMBO pointed out, that dosen't account for the haze in the pure grape wines, Cab, Zin, Gamay.

The smell and taste are fine, nothing odd, offensive or unusual. TA's range from .60% to .75% and pH from 3.1 to 3.5 all depending on the wine (using litmus paper). Tannin levels, using taste only, are

-there-. I like dry wines with a bit of a pucker quality to them, so we seem ok here. Normal I suppose, whatever that is. :-)

All I have is Sparkalloid on hand and it has performed well on the wines that have needed clearing so far. I guess being a noobie, I have a bit of confidence with that fining agent.

I thought I'd keep track of the wines using a 6 cell flashlight, see if any clearing is noticable top to bottom over the next week or so, before doing anything. Then try Sparkaloid on the 3 gallons of plum first. Which was clear enough to read through before subjecting it to the colder conditions in the garage.

Here's my concern. I'd like to clear this haze before temps rise and whatever is precipitated goes back into solution. As long as I don't strip flavor and color in the process, though. We'll see what happens.

Take Care and Thanks! Steve - Noobie Oregon

Tom S had an excellent response to Paddy O's request for help here on the NG about problems with cloudiness in red wines, and goes into more detail than I can give.

Thanks Bruce, I found the thread.

Steve - Noobie Oregon