Two years ago I made 5 gallons of Birch sap wine. Still, today its not all that clear. Either I did do it right, was given the wrong yeast energiser or I had the wrong recipe? This week I collected 5 gallons of fresh birch sap and I'll try again. Someone with more experience can share his/her recipe.
Have you tried a fining agent like bentonite? It's pretty effective. Joe
Yes, I did used bentonite.
Ok, do you remember how much and how you prepared it? If bentonite is not hydrated probably is won't do much. I use agglomerated bentonite and make it as a roughly 5% solution. I use 2 tablespoons per pint of boiling water and mix it well with a hand mixer, I have heard of using a blender too which sounds like a great idea. I let it sit for a day and it will have the consistency of thin pudding. If you did it that way you have 2 choices, add more or use a different fining agent. I also like sparkoloid, I use the hot mix type. I'm sorry but I have never made birch sap wine so can't speak from experience.
Joe
The recipe I had did not call for betonite.
5 gallons of birch sap granulated sugar to 1.085-1.090 1/2 oz.citric acid 1/8 tsp tannin 1 tsp yeast nutrient 1 pkt Riesling wine yeastI only added the betonite after the secondary fermentation when I realized that it took too long to clear. Maybe I should have added the betonite at the primary fermentation. Or the yeast nutrient I bough was nothing but a subtitle that got wrongly labelled.
I made this batch in the late spring of 2004. It is still cloudy. I might as well discard it and start a new batch with this year sap. Only this time, I'll be more careful.
Bentonite will take out the proteins, i.e., positively charged particles. If the wine isn't clear at this point, chances are it needs something like isinglass, gelatin, or sparkalloid to take out negatively charged particles. Either that or filter.
Pp
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Marierdj,
Unless you plan on entering contests with this wine there is no reason to discard it for cloudiness. If it tastes good, why discard it? For another attempt at clearing you might try adding a positive charge fining agent such as isinglass and mixing well to stir up your bentonite (a negative charge agent).
Good luck!
Cheers, Ken
Amen to that. How does it taste?
The sap wine was started in late spring of 2004. Now in late spring of 2006 the SG is about 1.005. It has an oxidised odour and taste oxidised and is semi sweet. After leaving the wine in the test tube for 15 minutes the oxidation smell and taste seems to want to go away. Maybe I should rack the wine once again and see how it turns out. I may have use too much sugar and the yeast nutrient may not have worked well. That fact that I did not added some campden tablets at the primary fermentation could have contributed to the oxidation taste?
No, campen in the beginning will not affect oxidation, that happens after fermentation.
You need to use campen each time you rack, at least 1/2 tablet per gallon. You need to keep the container full and under seal too, either an airlock half full of water or a cap of some sort if you are sure it's done fermenting.
Check your arilock seams, sometimes the mold making seams leave a ridge that needs scrapped off. have seen that cause oxidation because the wine is not sealed off.
Joe
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