Sparkolloid

Same boat as youse w/ both peach and pear wines. Now that I've got experience w/ sparkalloids, I try to schedule an intermediate racking before hitting the bottling bucket. The cheapest/practicalest (I know that's not a real word) solution I've developed is to either use mini-vise grips or a hemostat/ jumbo roach-clip like devise to grip the cane. The mini-visegrip has enough mass to sit on the mouth of a carboy to hold the cane at a decent level to avoid hoovering too much lee, but aren't as gentle on plastic canes; I cracked one the 1st time. So the hemostats are more gentle on the plastics but require better, more delicate balancing skills on the carboy mouth. I've learned to live with the mini-visegrips and put the hemos away for other applications... HTH, regards, bob

This item is at my local homebrew shop:

and looks like it might be useful for holding your racking cane fast while you're distracted by the siphoning process.

Marshall

bobdrob wrote:

Patience. Winemaking is not a hobby for those in a hurry.

The longer you wait after adding Sparkolloid before you try to rack the wine, the more compact (and less readily disturbed) the sediment will be. In my experience, this is a process measured in weeks, not hours or days.

Don't try to bottle it right away, either. Rack to a second carboy, then allow to settle again, for at least a week. Two weeks is better. *Then* bottle.

I've had similar problems with pear and quince wine. I generally just let them settle for 6-8 months in the carboy and rack gently. On these occasions I wonder if using filter paper would be a good idea. Rack off 85-90% of the clear stuff, then pour the rest through a coffe filter to get the remaining liquid separated from the solids. There must be a reason not to do so, as I've never heard it recommended in the last ten or twelve years that I've been making wine, but I can't think of what it might be.

Paul

I've made pear before and had it clear just fine without needing anything. I used the same approach this time but no luck.

Dick

Pavel314 wrote:

Not nearly as well as if you add them *before* filtering.