bentonite, shake or not to shake?

[catfishhoward]

I mixed the bentonite with my wine at final racking (not primary) and have read some sites where they mix the wine every hour for the 1st four hours but some sites don't mention mixing the wine after adding the bentonite at all?

I mixed the wine 4 times yesterday after adding the bentonite and was wondering if mixing it today (24 hour later)or 3 or 4 day later would help or worsen the clearing of the wine? I was planning on waiting 2 weeks before racking again.

 

[Nooner]

Giving it a good stir so it is evenly distributed is enough. The bentonite will attach to positively charged particles in the wine and then fall out of suspension due to the weight. Mixing it around more will not improve performance.

 

[catfishhoward]

It's been 2 weeks since I added the bentonite and I was very pleased with the final result. I seen on line that some sites said to rack after several days but I found that that is to early since sediment kept falling to the bottom, I hope 2 weeks was good, I'll find out if I see any white sediment on the bottles I racked today. Not only did it clear the wine but it made the wine taste better as well by taking away a slight yeast flavor.

 

[catfishhoward]

I should have given it more time to settle, 3 days after bottling I see a slight cloud at the bottom of each bottle. I also screwed up by back sweetening with cranberry and wildberry concentrate which I guess had pulp since the bottles I back sweetened with apple or grade is good with no pulp.

 

[Coffee49]

If vessel is properly topped off allowing 1 inch of ullage, it wouldn't hurt to let it go a month to eliminate all suspension, bentonite will not kill off any yeast cells that have played hide and seek so beware that backsweetening may bring the Hardy boys back to life