Newby Question on haze....

[geckholm]

I've been homebrewing for a while....so I've learned not to panic much...

Anyway, the wife wanted to make some wine, so we went out and bought a Chard. kit. Everything went well, sample tastes good. It cleared nicely. Upon bottling, the siphon kicked up some sediment on the bottom, so some of the bottles have some haze to them. I'm sure it's just an appearance thing, but will it clear in the bottle (ie, settle out to the bottom)?

 

[Captive]

If this is a kit, and you added the supplied clearing agent, and it cleared, then it will likely clear again in the bottle. Store your bottles on their sides, the sediment should fall out again. Be careful when you move the bottle to open it so as not to stir up the sediment again. Carefully pour the wine into a decanter before serving. You can also pour the wine through a paper coffee filter paper while leaving as much sediment behind in the bottle. The paper filter won't catch the smallest particles, but it will prevent larger ones from passing through.
When I have batch to bottle, I always rack the wine into another carboy or back into the bucket before attempting to bottle. This way I can focus all my attention on getting a clear batch off the sediment and I can worry about the bottling process after I have a clear batch without any sediment on the bottom.

 

[bernardsmith]

I agree with Captive - always useful to rack your wine - once it has cleared - off any lees and sediment and into a sanitized carboy or bucket from which you bottle. The other thing is - and that applies to the activity of racking your wine into a bottling bucket - you really want to leave behind the last inch or so of your wine to avoid picking up any of the sediment. That wine is not wasted because what you do is then pour it (or rack it) into a sanitized mason jar or wine bottle and let it sit in your fridge for a few days. The sediment will drop out and you will have clear liquid on top. You can rack or pour that carefully - and repeat the process as necessary... Basically all you are doing is ensuring that your "bottled" wine is as clear as it can be - and you are extracting as much clear wine as you can from the lees without allowing the lees to cloud up the wine you have bottled.. and that extracted wine you can bottle /drink...

 

[geckholm]

Thanks! I've never really bothered to move my beer to a bottling bucket ( I actually keg) and never had this problem with my beer, always real clear. Interesting point about crashing and decanting, never would have thought of doing that.

 

[mgonbrewlab]

If you have multiple batches of wine going at once those mason jars come in real handy to top up your next batch to compensate for liquid loss on the less when you go through the next time. Or you can use them to blend.