Topic: S.O.S.

[jupeter]

Being complete novices, last Autumn we made our first gallon of wine using grapes from a friend's grapevine. The grapes were neither black nor white but an in-between "blush" colour.

The wine is now in a demi-john and has been racked twice in total. The flavour is, well, errrrrrrr ??? exceedingly dry. We have added two teaspoons of Tate and Lyle sugar and, until it was racked for the second time a fortnight ago and a second Camden tablet added, was clearing well. After this racking, however, it has become very cloudy and we are at a loss what to do  :'(.

The problem is that in March we are giving a party to launch our wine!!! Our guests may well have to cope with its sharp flavour but not with it cloudiness, which looks awful. Please help  :-* or we may be forced to cheap by bottling up 6 of Tesco's finest!!!!

[Doris_Pinks]

You could try some finings, available from your home brew store , that should clear it!
We bottle our dry stuff and add teaspoonfuls of caster sugar to each bottle until desired flavour is there, or again you can get special sweetener from the home brew store. It may even clear itself again if left.
Hope this helps  DP

[jupeter]

Thank you Doris. We'll try some finings but I wondered if it was the addition of the Camden tablet that made it go cloudy. What do you think please?

[derbex]

Could it have sprung back to life? Did you stop it with sorbate as well as the Campden tablet? If not I'd do that then leave it a week and then add finings as Doris suggests, leave it and bottle. The trouble is that you'll be running out of time for a party in March.

Jeremy.

P.S. You'd get a more informed opinion than mine here :

http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/cgi/yabb/YaBB.cgi

[jupeter]

Thanks Jeremy. I can't see that it's still bubbling. Just looks muddy. Not sure what sorbate is .... will look on link .... but do you always add that just to be sure?

[derbex]

Potassium Sorbate and Campden tablets, used together, will kill off the yeast -c. tablets on their own just give it a nasty headache  ;D
BTW if you do add the Sorbate I think you need another cmpden tablet or you can get a strange smell in the wine.

You often see the two sold together as 'wine stabiliser'.

I don't use it myself, and not much campden either, BUT I'm happy to wait a lot longer to let nature take it's course -so I'm just starting on the 2003 Elderberry -and jolly nice it is too *hic*

I did try a kit wine last week that I made in Nov. (using all the chemicals), I don't think it's ready yet so I'll leave it until summer and try again.

I'm still learning though ???

Jeremy

[Doris_Pinks]

2003 Jeremy! Cor you are good! We have started on our 2004 Elderberry and runner bean, thats delish too, but there won't be any left to drink next year! ;D  Dp

[derbex]

You just have to make it through that first year Dp, after that you're ok, you can always be one behind. Get someone to hide some for you -assuming you know a teetotaller  ;D

Jeremy

Still collecting demi-johns, and as I tell the wife they take up the same space full as they do empty -so time to start another batch.

[jupeter]

Jeremy - I hope you read this. This is my first go at this Chat Room thing - or whatever I'm doing! Well, I wanted to tell you that you are DEAD RIGHT! I stared and stared at the demi john today - AND THE WINE HAS STARTED BUBBLING AGAIN! It must have happened because we added sugar as it was so dry. Before that we were congratulating ourselves on how clear it looked. Our party is on 19 March ..... a few weeks to go. So can you tell me exactly what I should do please. Thinking about the timescale I mean. I guess I want it to LOOK GOOD - even if it tastes foul .......  8) That's me looking cool! 

[derbex]

Try this in pictures, go from step 11, skip 12

http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/basic_method1.html

If you haven't got them you'll need sorbate and finings from your homebrew shop, the sooner you start the better.

Once you've added the sorbate & campden tablets you should be able to add the suger (a day or two later), a little at a time -best if you make a syrup, to sweeten it up without frementation starting again. Do that before you fine. Don't worry about step 12 just go straight to 13 and get the finings in, leave them to settle for a few days and then siphon into bottles. The longer it can be in the bottle before you drink it the better.

Jeremy

[jupeter]

Jeremy. Can you please reply to this. Thanks.

I did exactly as you said. It stopped the wine fermenting and cleared it. I was so happy :D. But it was still too dry so I added more sugar and now ... guess what ... it has started fermenting again tonight in the demijohn!  :'(. I'm really gutted. Can I do exactly the same procedure over again, using exactly the same things? Please confirm.

Thanks in advance. I'll look for a reply tomorrow. Good night.

[derbex]

Strange, the sorbate and Campden should kill off the yeast. The problem that you've got is that if there's any left alive at all, adding suger will cause it to breed again and hey presto it all kicks off. If I were you I'd let it ferment out until it stops and then rack it over.

You can add more sorbate and campden, but you've already added quite a lot of Campden and it might end up tasting quite sulphurous. If you've only fined once you're probably OK to fine again.

After that i'd either accept that it's dry, or add sweetner of some sort -not suger.

If you really want to use suger them you can keep adding it until the yeast dies of alcohol poisoning -but what you end up with might be more like port than wine.

Jeremy

[jupeter]

Oh Jeremy .. you were a few hours too late! I looked for a reply and when you didn't, in a panic I went ahead and put more stuff in again to "stop it". I added a Stabliser Tablet and a Campden Tablet. That was earlier today. I feel so cross with myself adding more sugar as it was crystal clear. Now it's misty again. One more question ... should I add any more Pectic Enzyme and if so, when?

Thanks for all your help. x

[derbex]

Never mind -it'll probably be ok, at least you won't rot ;D

You shouldn't need any more pectic enzyme as it has been clear in the past, what's clouding it up is yeast.

From here do as you did before, once it's clear if you need to sweeten it use a sweetner to be on the safe side -or hand round slices of lemon to your guests first, once they've sucked them it will seem sweet enough.

Jeremy