Hi folks! Been a while ',;~}~
Well, a bunch of wine I made last year (mainly from plums, about 40lb - man, THAT was some tough processing, like the other new post mentioned) went all mercaptany on me (as I mentioned last I posted here...), and I couldn't get rid of it on its own.
I decided I'd 'strip' the wine (~30+ litres, rather high % abv, guessing 17% or so), and then flavour it afterward with whatever I feel like using (gonna split it and use sloes with some for certain - other fruits/herbs/spices/combos for the rest) to make mild 'liqueurs'. (put so much damned effort into making it, I'm not letting it escape me
*completely*, heheheh..._
Managed to find some activated charcoal (my wife found it for me), came in a bag, in suspension - enough to treat 'up to 25 L'. Figured it was worth a shot.
There weren't any instructions, so I just did what it mentioned in an old wine book (for eliminating slight off/'mousey' flavours etc.), but used the whole lot - tipped it in, shook it up and left it - been about 5 days, and it's lost a fair amount of colour, and a reasonable portion of the bad tastes (can now actually taste the ETOH 'flavour', if you will).
My thinking is to add more, as I guess 'up to 25 L' means it will manage that much, if the aim is only to remove a slight off flavour?
What further advice would you knowledgeable folks suggest I follow? How does one eliminate the traces of fine particle carbon that don't settle (I'm not in a position to filter this wine any)?
Should one do as I did with this stuff - just dump it in, mix well, then leave it to settle, or should one agitate it regularly for a few days to improve particle/bulk of wine contact?
As ever, thanks in advance for any help ',;~}~
Cheers!
Shaun aRe