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I have a question about cloudiness in my cranberry wine

I racked my cranberry wine after fermentation was complete. After the racking, the wine was initially cloudy, but slowly the cloudiness has been dropping to the bottom, leaving a very nice, bright red color. Now the bottom 20% of my carboy is filled with this white cludy wine. My question is this: if I rack the wine again, do I have to discard the bottom 20%? Will the "cloud" compact itself if I give it more time? I imagine that this would be an issue with all sorts of "clear" wines where clarification is desired for aesthetic purposes, no?

Franco

Reply to
Franco
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Give your wine more time to clear. Rack it after you get a compact sediment on the bottom of your carboy.

Later, A.J.

Reply to
A. J. Rawls

Give it more time. My cranberry was very slow to clear up. But kept patient and it all cleared nicely. Mine was in carboys for twice the recipe, but now I have very clear 6 gallons bottled and aging for November 2006 initial tasting.

wait> I racked my cranberry wine after fermentation was complete. After the

Reply to
DAve Allison

It is true that cranberry throws a LOT of sediment. I know that Jack has commented on that and I have noted it as well. You will lose a lot more volume than with other wines. The first time I made it I followed his recipe for 6 gallops and ended up with 7.5 gallons when I moved it to secondary. I contacted him and he said that was because his recipe is designed to end up with a certain volume not start with it. After racking, sure enough I ended up with what he said. The good news is that cranberries are cheap so it is not so much of a loss.

Depending on the volume of your wine there are some things you can do to improve things. If you made only 1 gallon there is not much you can do. If you made 5 or more gallons, rack the clear top part off into 1 gallon jugs. Then move the cloudy stuff into 1 gallon jugs as well. There is no reason to leave the good clear wine in contact with a lot of cloudy stuff and the cloudy wine will give a greater yield if moved to smaller containers.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

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