Cold Crashing Questions

The two batches of blackberry wine I bottled have sediment in the bottom. I don't suppose it will hurt if I'm the one pouring , But I want to not have that happen again. I'm starting to degass the third batch to bottle.

I'm reading about cold-crashing, and how that is supposed to clarify. I'm thinking of that then as a way of making sure the wine is clear(er) and minimize the chances of having sediment again. However; I don't see a difinitive answer on how or how long, or how much.

So my questions:

1. Will cold crashing before bottling help me in my quest to minimize sediment?
2. How cold do I need to get the must when cold-crashing, and how long do I need to keep it there?

I envision using one of the lady's kimchi tubs, putting the carboy in that, and putting ice around the carboy. I'm certain that would bring down the temps, but I suppose the answers to the other questions tell me whether or not that's a good idea.

A couple of things will really minimize sediment in the bottle. One is time. And another is cold stabilization. You need both.

I never degas my wines (other than kit wines) because they are fully degassed by the time they are ready to bottle.

When you consider bottling, there are some things that have to happen first. First, it must be completely clear. Second, there must be no new lees forming after 60 days in the carboy. If there are ANY lees, it's not ready to bottle and should be racked and not bottled. If you go at least 60 days with a clear wine with no lees, then it can be cold stabilized. I put mine at 40 degrees for a couple of months but it could probably be for less time if you needed to hurry it. If lees form after the cold stabilization, it should be racked off of the lees and the cold stabilization resumed. You only want to bottle when no new lees form after all of that. By then, the wine should not be gassy in the least so no degassing is necessary.

Why not filter?

Yooper said:

When you consider bottling, there are some things that have to happen first. First, it must be completely clear.

Click to expand...

You probably have the key to my problem right here. With a clearer wine like apfelwein, it seems pretty easy to tell when it's completely clear. With blackberry wine, it's very very dark. How do I tell when it's completely clear?

DoctorCAD said:

Why not filter?

Click to expand...

I'm interested. Can you tell me more? or point me to where I can read about it more?

My first thought is how I'm going to sanitize the filter and prevent oxidation, but I'm sure theres a setup that I haven't seen that handles this.

SteveHoward said:

I'm interested. Can you tell me more? or point me to where I can read about it more?

My first thought is how I'm going to sanitize the filter and prevent oxidation, but I'm sure theres a setup that I haven't seen that handles this.

Click to expand...

Id be interested in other more experienced ones here opinion on this as well. My lhbs owner told me that while you get amazingly clear wine with filtering sometimes it affects the flavor as well. he said it "just seems to take something out of the wine".

tchuklobrau said:

Id be interested in other more experienced ones here opinion on this as well. My lhbs owner told me that while you get amazingly clear wine with filtering sometimes it affects the flavor as well. he said it "just seems to take something out of the wine".

Click to expand...

Yes, that's true. The wine can become brilliantly clear, but the flavor can be affected some.

In dark wines, it maybe harder to see if it's completely clear but if you hold a sample up to the light, you can see the difference in a clear wine vs one that hasn't cleared yet.

Some wines will still easily fall clear without any filtering, and that is my preference. Filtering setups can be expensive, but even the cheapest ones require two sets of pads for each filtering for 5 gallons. So it's not a cheap solution just to rush the wine. The wine should be clear before filtering anyway, as to not clog the pads.