Peach wine won't clear...

My peach wine won't clear....

Recipe:

6gal batch

4.5gal Welch's white grape peach juice (SG = 1.057)
5x 12oz white grape juice concentrate
9cups cane sugar
1tsp energizer
1tsp nutrient
water to 6gal

EC-1118

OG = 1.090

After 1 week, SG = 1.004. Racked to secondary.

After 3 weeks, SG = 0.994. Racked, stirred several times to degas, and added 1.5tsp sorbate and 6 campden tabs. After that, I applied SuperKleer-KC per the instructions...

Normally after I apply SuperKleerKC, my wines are clear in a few days to two weeks. After TEN weeks, this batch was still very cloudy. I racked it again, and applied a second dose of SuperKleerKC which doesn't seem to be working very well either.

In my Googling, I've noticed that other people have had problems with peach wine – some claim that using pectic enzyme helped (I didn't use it because I didn't heat anything). Some people claim that bentonite worked when other clarifiers failed. Some people said nothing short of filtering worked (though filtering worked very well).

Any suggestions? It's starting to taste very good, so drinking cloudy wine isn't a catastrophe. I do like to give my wine as gifts, so I would like to get it as clear as possible.

Try chilling it as cold as you can (without freezing it!). Sometimes a drop of only 10 degrees will help it drop clear, but if you could put it somewhere in the 30s for two weeks, that should clear it right up.

Yooper said:

Try chilling it as cold as you can (without freezing it!). Sometimes a drop of only 10 degrees will help it drop clear, but if you could put it somewhere in the 30s for two weeks, that should clear it right up.

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Unfortunately, the weather here is mid-70's in the daytime and mid-50's at night. I don't have any way to artificially cool down a 6gal carboy.

What I'll probably do is let it sit for another couple weeks, and then set it outside for a night...

Thanks for the sugestion.

OneCerebralSamurai said:

Unfortunately, the weather here is mid-70's in the daytime and mid-50's at night. I don't have any way to artificially cool down a 6gal carboy.

What I'll probably do is let it sit for another couple weeks, and then set it outside for a night...

Thanks for the sugestion.

Click to expand...

Agreed with the cooling, I've got a peach mead that was not clearing at all and when I put it on the back porch (2-3 days the temperature outside was low 40's or high 30's, it's cleared up a ton). Not totally so I'm hoping to rack and let it sit out there over winter until bottling.
Any access to putting it in a fridge, or maybe even a big bucket that you could put water and ice or ice packs to keep it cold would probably be your best bet.
Everything I've read, and after talking to even a commercial fruit wine maker, peach wines can be difficult to clear without very low temps and/or filtering.

In case anyone comes across this thread...

Putting my peach wine in a tub of ice and getting it to the low 40's for a week did almost nothing. There was some sediment, but I think that was mostly the second batch of SuperKleerKC falling out. The peach wine was still very, very cloudy.

I decided to hit it with 2tsp pectic enzyme (although I didn't heat anything) and bentonite (some Google searches led me to believe that bentonite works with peach wine.)

I was familiar with using bentonite from the dozen or so wine kits I've done... rather than wait for an online order, I bought the bentonite that HBS had... something called “speedy bentonite”.

Let there be no question, “speedy bentonite” is a very different creature from the bentonite that comes in wine kits. I didn't understand this before – now I do!

Long story short – since I was confused about the difference between “bentonite” and “speedy bentonite”, coupled with too many internet searches, I pretty much screwed up the application instructions...

… still, the effect of the “speedy bentonite” has been dramatic. After a few hours it is vastly clearer than it was. It looks very promising... I expect to let it sit for a week, and then rack... and then I'll consider bottling.

Bottom line – let peach wine sit for many weeks, but when you are ready to get it clear, hit it with “speedy bentonite”.

Did you hit it with the speedy bentonite alone? Or was the pectic enzyme added at the same time?

I'd be curious about individual results if you separated the two actions. I'm anxious for clarification one way or the other.

I hit it with both at the same time... but it is very obvious that it's the “speedy bentonite” that's done all the work.

How is that obvious?

Sorry – sometimes I take too much for granted. The solution (wine) is showing the results of electrostatic attraction, which is causing large clumps in the wine which are settling out. A pectin haze would be expected to dissolve away. (remember I didn't heat anything)

The clumps are settling out rapidly, so by tomorrow I expect the wine to be very clear.

Hope this helps.

Give it time, it will clear..

I used local peaches. Pasteurized them and then added pectic enzyme as soon as it cooled. Let it rest for 24 hours and then added the yeast. I've had lactobacillus when I didn't pasteurize the fruit first. Anyway, Weeks have passed and it has been racked twice and degassed and speedy bentonite added. It's been over a week after the bentonite and the peach wine looks slightly greenish from the bentonite and isn't clearing.
My husband is a beer home-brewer and he keeps wanting to work the wine like he would an ale that isn't clearing. He put it in his lagering fridge, after adding gelatin, for a week and a half and it didn't clear. (that was before I added the bentonite).
What now? Chill again or toss it?

I'm going to try one more racking and chilling it.

See, I always let my wine/mead ferment and do their stuff. Then, about 48 hours before I am going to filter, I use finnings and pectolase. I found that adding pectolase before then, well, it just plain doesn't work. But that's just me. Works, though.

RuthiePowell said:

I used local peaches. Pasteurized them and then added pectic enzyme as soon as it cooled. Let it rest for 24 hours and then added the yeast. I've had lactobacillus when I didn't pasteurize the fruit first. Anyway, Weeks have passed and it has been racked twice and degassed and speedy bentonite added. It's been over a week after the bentonite and the peach wine looks slightly greenish from the bentonite and isn't clearing.
My husband is a beer home-brewer and he keeps wanting to work the wine like he would an ale that isn't clearing. He put it in his lagering fridge, after adding gelatin, for a week and a half and it didn't clear. (that was before I added the bentonite).
What now? Chill again or toss it?

Click to expand...

If you cooked the fruit, that set the pectin (think jam/jelly) and it won't clear. Ever.

It's ok to drink it, but it just doesn't look as pretty.

NEVER heat or cook fruit (except for very rare cases/recipes). Not only does it mean the wine won't clear, it changes the flavor of the fruit. A "cooked fruit" taste in the wine isn't as good as a never-heated fruit.

To sanitize fruit/must, most winemakers use campden tablets (sulfites) which dissipate out and then a chosen wine yeast strain is added for fermentation.

Ive always had great luck with it 1 tablespoon to 1 cup of water boil5 minutes then add to the wine while hot ive seen results in 24 hrs every time but u may still have to filter to get rid of a haze

Yooper said:

If you cooked the fruit, that set the pectin (think jam/jelly) and it won't clear. Ever.

It's ok to drink it, but it just doesn't look as pretty.

NEVER heat or cook fruit (except for very rare cases/recipes). Not only does it mean the wine won't clear, it changes the flavor of the fruit. A "cooked fruit" taste in the wine isn't as good as a never-heated fruit.

To sanitize fruit/must, most winemakers use campden tablets (sulfites) which dissipate out and then a chosen wine yeast strain is added for fermentation.

Click to expand...

Well, it did clear and you we're not helpful. It just took longer than I had expected. It gave me time to do additions like French oak chips and crystallized ginger. It's absolutely fantastic and thank you to the people who had great ideas on what to do.

I've been helping others and making my own for a long time, I wanted to see if anyone else had info I hadn't picked up yet.

I've currently have Almond sparkling wine, a dry French oaked Loganberry wine, sweet Blueberry and a dry French oaked Blueberry wine, American oaked and gingered apple wine, French oaked and gingered peach wine, Skeeter Pee and a Pinot Noir in my wine racks. Yes, I made all of that.

I also have a Candy Bar Porter, all grain. All grain Honey Tea Amber that my husband and I made on National Homebrew Day.