Cold haze?

Protein hazes occur at high temperatures. Your cold stabilization is not quite complete. Commercial wines are often held at 26 to 28 degrees for several days. More info here

Good luck Lum

I have a similar problem. I have three carbouys of Sauvignon Blanc from fresh juice. I fermented pretty cold and added lysozyme after fermentation to arrest MLF. I fined with benonite, kieselsohl and isinglass and finally with spakalloid. The wine is pretty clear. I put one carbouy in a cooler at around 28 degree for two weeks. It appears to have dropped some crystals (although I'm not sure) but is is really hazy! Probably to hazy to filter.

Is this a lysozyme phenomenon? I don't know if I should cold stabilize my other carbouys.

Dan

pp wrote:

The best I can do is 33*F for unlimited time. Will this "high temp" cold stabilization do anything worth waiting for?????

More info here

Sure. It will cold stabilize the wine down to a temperature of about 33 degrees. Most refrigerators are set to temps higher than 33 degrees so your wine shouldn't show very much tartrate crystals when they are chilled for serving. But, cold stabilizing at 33 degrees _may_ take several weeks.

This is a very important issue for me as I am looking around for used front door freezer. Due to recent surgeries I can not use a top loading freezer.

My older son put a 5 gallon carboy outside for me. Here in Baltimore (pronounced: Ball-a-mer - The City that Slurs) the temperature was 5F (-15C) and he didn't come home for four days. I couldn't carry it back in, but I went outside every day rotated the carboy enough to get circulation. It did stop the fermentation and I used rotgut vodka in the airlock so that had no chance of freezing.

Now I am a Mead guy and want to use it to kill off fermentation. I had an experience with some Paul Masson wines several years. After a convention, I took several gallons home with me to store for later organization meetings. It was January in Chicago and I left them in the trunk of my car from Sunday evening to Tuesday afternoon. Night temperatures were -10 F. That's called a warm winter in Chicago. They froze and unthawed they had a significantly different taste. I am not a Wine guy, but the difference was obvious. Now 26F = -3.67C. Am I paranoid or is that low enough to freeze if left there for a week.

Dick

Dick, Alcohol depresses the freezing point of wine to -5 to -6 degrees C. Cold stabilization is normally done above, but close to, the freezing point.

That's why I said unlimited time. I have a fridge that will go to 33* and it will hold 4 25 litre carboys!

The cold stabilization formula is %alcohol minus one, divided by two, equals degrees below zero Centigrade. ie, 12%= (12-1)/2=-5.5*C.

Bob, Are you implying some particular temperature is needed or makes cold stabilization more effective? If so, I am very interested. Can you give me a reference? Lum

Hey Lum,

My understanidn was that that formula was supposed to be a rough approximation of the temperature at which any given wine would freeze.

Where you cold stabilize it, as you pointed out above, is up to you. There's a great paper by, I think, Fritz Neradt and someone else about seeding to achieve cold stabilization that makes this point really nicely.

I can't remember where I originally read that formula, though. It definitely wasn't from a peer-reviewed journal kinda thing. More like "here's how to make wine at home!" kinda thing.

Dave

**************************************************************************** Dave Breeden snipped-for-privacy@lightlink.com

Hi Dave, I completely missed the point. Thanks for enlightening me. Seems like the older I get, the dumber I get (and I never was very smart).

THat is what I read here verbatim a few months back.

Thanks much Bob.

Thanks, Lum, that makes sense. The only remaining question is - I don't seem to get any crystals anymore, just the temporary haze that goes away when the wine warms up to room temperature. Is it harder to get crystals if the wine has been incompletely cold stabilized before?

Thx,

Pp

I don't know the answer to your question Pp. But, I do know hazes are more likely with a rapid cool-down with no crystals in the container. So, I would get a small container of "cream of tartar" at the grocery store. Add a couple tablespoons of crystals to each carboy and try cooling the wine again. Good luck,