Pear wine not clearing?

greetings barb! i've had good luck & nice results using "sparkalloid" with both peach & pear wines. most of my fruit wines lean towards "knockout juice" anyway (but in a genteel manner,) so a higher alcohol level hasn't been a concern. it's easy to use & works better if you allow it to sit 4-5 weeks before racking. However: after a year+ in the bottle, a small amount of brown sediment does appear; by small amount, i mean pehaps a half teaspoonful, if that much. hope this helps, regards, bob

It would be good to know what stage the wine is in at this point. DId you use fresh crushed pears or cook them? A friend used a "cooked " recipe that never really did clear. We even froze it to drop the solids out of it. I've had much better results with using fresh pears w/o cooking.

Bobdrob, thanks for the suggestion. Can't find Sparkalloid in the UK - anyone know an equivalent I could try? What about bentonite?.... I've never had to try it before, but is it worth a go?

Encat, I chopped the pears and steeped them in the primary in boiling water, added ingredients when cool and yeast after a couple of days. Maybe the boiling water was a mistake...

BarbUK

Hi Barb,

Sparkalloid is harder to find here. I used Kwik Klear Finings 2 months ago on a cranberry-raisin wine which refused to clear after 9 months. It was crystal clear within 24 hours, though I left it the recommended 72 hours anyway before bottling. I felt that the flavour was unimpaired using Kwik Klear and the colour was still excellent. Kwik Klear is a two part liquid fining agent (gelatin & kieselsol) which comes in disturbingly / reassuringly small bottles! It is available at most winemaking stores in the UK - I have found it at the three I use in Birmingham UK and the online stores I order from too. That would be my recommendation.

I have used Bentonite to great effect in clearing a plum wine that just wouldn't lie down last year. As long as it is well mixed and left overnight to properly gel its a wonderful fining agent. I am not sure that it didn't strip the flavour from my plum wine slightly, though it probably wasn't the best taste raw anyway!

Best of luck, Jim

For what it's worth, I make pear wine each year from fresh uncooked Bosc pears and, like you, add some pectic enzyme to help break down the fruit. And each year, there is a small amount of suspended fruit matter that does not clear. This material will not fine out with bentonite (tried that) but will eventually settle with time. We ignore it, bottle it, and allow it to settle in bottle, then decant when opening a bottle to leave the settled sediment behind. We could let the wine stay in carboys for a few months and settle it there, but we like to drink the wine fairly young, so we don't bother.

Use 1 EGG WHITE add to carboy and watch it clear. Tom

I tried the KwikClear finings before with other wines, but I found the gelatine went "off" horrible and smelly in the bottle, and un-usable / expensive. The egg white sounds good, and is a solution mentioned in C J Berry's book. I think I might try that, since the wine was so cheap to make it won't matter if I ruin it.

And I always have eggs in the fridge and don't have to go to the homebrew shop to buy something!

Anyone else tried this?

Barb UK

I can see how that would put you off KwikKlear Barb! You do have to make sure your fining agents are stored well and fresh when you buy them I suppose. Be sure not to use an egg which has gone off either ;) I believe egg whites are the traditional for fining red wine, I haven't used them myself...

Jim

OK, I just stuck in a good glob of egg-white, per CJ Berry's book, and we'll see what happens! I hope it works ... what I like about this solution is that it's non-chemical.

Barb UK

Barb,

We have a couple of pear trees at our place. After trying a few methods, I've found that quartering and freezing the pears for about a week works best for me. When they're thawed, a golden pear nectar oozes out of the segments. I toss them all in the primary to ferment then press when fermentation subsides. Since I age my wines in the carboy for at least 6 months, any particles settle out before bottling.

Paul

If that doesn't work try it again following a different procedure. Stir 1/2 teaspoon salt into 1 cup of water until dissolved. Separate the egg white and add twice as much of this salt solution to the egg white and mix it into a slurry. Let the foam subside before adding it to wine. The French usually do this in a copper bowl but I'm not sure if that matters... 1 egg is probably enough for 5 gallons Imperial. (I've never made pear wine so refrained from posting until now; I know you need some salt in the egg whites.)

Here is a nice link on fining from the university of Arkansas:

Joe

Joe

Thanks for the link Joe, one to keep! Well the egg gloop doesn't seem to be doing anything straight away (most finings show some small sign of effect within a day with me) - I'm going to stick it in the porch where it's cold. I did put a small pinch of salt in the egg, as advised in the book.

I'll try your method in a week or so, if the stuff still remains murky.

Barb UK

I hate to be a curmudgeon here, but I don't think this egg white advice is going to do a damned thing for your pear wine. Egg white(positive charge) is a traditional fining agent to reduce some tannins (negative charge) from harsh red wines. Your issue is almost certainly not tannins - pear wines tend to be deficient in such and some winemakers add grape tannin to stiffen up their wine.

As a pear winemaker myself, I would bet that your haze is caused by suspended fruit particles. Not even sure what charge they carry - which would dictate a fining agent strategy - but I do know that time will settle them out. One year, I kept the pear wine in carboys for almost a year before bottling and it was crystal clear. But usually we bentonite fine, allow a couple months to settle most (not all) the fruit material, then bottle. Usually have a small residue in the bottles after a couple more months - but find it easy to pour or decant such that we eliminate it.

On 11/10/2007 12:16 PM, AxisOfBeagles wrote: [snipped for brevity]

You've got me curious. If you don't know what charge the suspended fruit particles have, why do you use bentonite?

I've made a couple different pear wines/meads. Five gallons with about

30 lbs of assorted pear varieties, apple and pear juice at 50/50, etc. All have dropped clear over time, but all did throw additional sediment in the bottle. Not a huge amount, but a fine dusting on the bottom of the bottle. But I do use pectin enzyme with any fruit wine, and I do not boil or even heat the fruit.

Cheers, Ken

Curious as to whether you could share a recipe for Dry pear wine. As for tanins, I believe pears are higher than a lot of other fruits. I think that is for this reason that they make a fruit wine more like a grape wine. I have made some fairly decent pear wine and it just took time to clear brilliant. Of course, I did not heat my pears but merely cut them up.

Yes, a member in our club uses it 100% of the time. Remember ONLY use the whites. No need to beat it just add to wine. Tom