Cloudy red

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Starbuck

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Hi,
I am making wine for the first time with grapes from my backyard. It is currently in carboys (two 5-gallon, one 3-gallon), has been there for about 9 days, and I haven't done any racking yet. Two of the carboys have cleared and settled, and one of them is still completely cloudy, so much so that it's hard to even see any sediment at the bottom.
The only reason for this that I can think of is that during pressing, while adjusting the press, it came apart a little and some of the skins and whatnot came out, and poured into the container. So this might be the one that has most of that in there. Otherwise, as far as I know, all conditions were the same.
Can I go ahead and rack it anyway? Is there a way to clear it without having to determine what the cause is? Could it be some of the must going in that caused this?
Thanks for any help at all! I am pretty much learning on the fly in this whole process.

Starbuck
 
Did you use any pectic enzyme in the wine? You might have a pectin haze in that one pesky carboy. I'd use a teaspoon of pectic enzyme per gallon in that one that's not clear. I'd be willing to bet that is the issue, since some skins and pulp came in during pressing. Pectic enzyme is pretty innocuous, in that it won't hurt or flavor the wine, so there is nothing to lose giving it a try.

Usually a clarifier used at the end of fermentation will clear it up but it helps if you can guess at the cause. I use sparkelloid for most of my wines that won't clear on their own, but I wait for a long time first. My dandelion wine from May is not clearing, so I might use sparkelloid on that before I rack the next time. Remember to not rush it, though. Sometimes clarifiers that clear the wine can strip the flavor and color, too so I always hope it clears on its own!
 
Thanks so much for the tips. I will go ahead and rack it and wait a while longer, then try the pectic enzyme. I didn't use any pectic anything in the first fermentation. I haven't heard of sparkelloid, but I will keep that in mind in case the other tactics don't work.
Cheers!
 
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