time to fine?

I made an apple wine a little while back (probably three months). I racked it twice, and when I shine a flashlight through it, the beam of light is still very much visible.

This presumably means if I bottled it I'll end up with crap in the bottoms of my bottles.

I added pectic enzyme already, so I'd think it's either yeast still in suspension, or just misc junk. (I used Lavlin EC1118 ["Champagne yeast", iirc.])

As this is a white wine being made from apples and all, I'd think I should cold stabilize it first before fining? (I don't have a fridge to do so, so letting it sit in my unheated basement in the coming winter months would be how I'd probably do it.)

Should I chill it first? And if so (or not too, I guess) what should I clarify it with? (Preferably not eggs or cow blood...)

Reply to
evilpaul13
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I agree with Tom, 3 months is a little young yet. And you're right, you wouldn't want to bottle it when it is cloudy. I had this very stubborn watermelon wine which wouldn't clear and wouldn't clear. I did use the coldest part of my basement to try to clear a wine in the winter months, and it did work. It finally got as good as I thought it would get and I bottled it. Everything was fine until my basement warmed up a few degrees this summer - the corks started popping. You just don't know what is suspended in the wine - like leftover yeast. I have a dandelion wine which is not clearing as quickly as my wines usually do. I've already determined that it is not a starch haze, nor a pectin haze. I will wait until the wine is at least 6 months old before I consider fining. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

??? I thought cold stabilization first, then bentonite. Should I do it the other way around?

Reply to
Negodki

In a word, YES! :^)

Tom S

Reply to
Tom S

I also have a dandelion wine from this spring that refuses to clear or even stop fermenting. I keep adding a small amount of sugar and it starts right back up.

Reply to
Roger

My first dandelion wine cleared fine, but this one is proving to be a challenge at almost 6 months. From a previous thread, the suggestion was to fine with bentonite, then cold stabilize - the feeling was that the tartaric crystals will damp down fine bentonite lees. This is kind of what I'm thinking of doing. Then I would rack, stabilize, and sweeten if it needs it, wait a month and then bottle. Darlene

Reply to
Dar V

Someone else complained of this recently, and less than a week after I said I never heard of it, it happened to me. It's most likely a protein haze. If so, bentonite will cure it within 2 weeks.

Reply to
Negodki

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