60 days in secondary, peach wine still cloudy

[meatcleaver]

Made a 1 gal batch of peach wine using canned peaches & frozen white grape juice concentrate. After 60 days in secondary it's as cloudy as the day I racked it.
Looking through my notes I see I totally forgot to add any pectic enzyme.
I had expected to rack this today but I can't tell that any lees have fallen. so, now what?

 

[meatcleaver]

Bump...

 

[Yooper]

Well, if there are NO lees in the carboy, you can leave it. But even if you have a light dusting, you can rack and if you want to use a clarifier on it you can. There are lots of different finings out there, but I use a vegetarian friendly fining if I'm going to use one.

Oftentimes, just placing the wine in a cold place will clear it though. Sometimes, just a drop of 10 degrees will clear the wine. That's probably the first thing to try.

 

[meatcleaver]

Well, I took another look and to be honest it's so cloudy I can't really see the bottom of the carboy.
As far as cold crashing... I don't have a spare fridge nor room in the kitchen fridge. I suppose I could put it in a bucket of ice water for a day or two.
In regard to fining agents/clarifiers, is there a specific product you would recommend?
& thanks so much for the advice.

 

[Yooper]

Well, I took another look and to be honest it's so cloudy I can't really see the bottom of the carboy.
As far as cold crashing... I don't have a spare fridge nor room in the kitchen fridge. I suppose I could put it in a bucket of ice water for a day or two.
In regard to fining agents/clarifiers, is there a specific product you would recommend?
& thanks so much for the advice.

Finings work because of the 'charge' they have. So, if you have a positively charged haze (protein), a negatively charged fining like bentonite would work. Most hazes are due to negatively charged particles, like yeast.

If it's a pectin haze, you could try pectic enzyme first and that would probably be the first line of defense here.

I'd try a positively charged fining like sparkelloid. Actually, that's not really so. I'd try cold stabilization first, and then a fining if it's still not clear after the pectic enzyme and the cold stabilization.

I rarely use finings, as I just don't really ever need them.

I know that things like polyclar work well, but they are expensive and not really worth it for a one gallon batch, but sparkelloid can be used in small amounts and it's cheap.

 

[meatcleaver]

I'll try to keep it cold for a few days & see what happens.
Thanks again

 

[meatcleaver]

ok, I kept this @ 40 degrees for a couple of days with zero effect.
next up...pectic enzyme in the secondary.
any advice on how to add it?

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Peach is notoriously slow to clear, but it will clear with time. I suppose you could use finings or filter if you feel the need.
Regards, GF.

 

[jensmith]

Pectin enzyme. Disolve it in a sample of your wine and dump it in. Give it a swirl or gentle stirr if possible. Feel free to use twice the dosage listed on the bottle. At this stage it takes a little more to work.
Also the wine may be gassy. When you fermented it did you do so in an open buck with twice daily stirrings? If not give it a good vigerouse stir when adding the pectin enzyme. No need to splash or make waves. Just stirr well.
Sometimes if the yeast is not done it refuses to drop to the bottom. I have had this happen. Sometimes just a little more suger as a last meal and it will ferment out and then clear. Watch for volano effect!!! This is where I have my fun. I add a spoonfull of dextros to the carboy. As it hits bottom the wine goes nuts and bubbles up. Very fun!! As long as it does not explode out the top that is! When the wine no longer boils up with new suger it is finnely done and ready to clear.


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[meatcleaver]

Also the wine may be gassy. When you fermented it did you do so in an open buck with twice daily stirrings? If not give it a good vigerouse stir when adding the pectin enzyme.

Started this 2/22 in a bucket, stirring twice daily. by day 3 the SG was down 60+% so I racked to secondary.
30 days later was sitting on 1" lees so I racked again this time onto 1 crushed campden tab.
60 days after that I started this thread.
og was 1.082, fg .995

 

[meatcleaver]

Peach is notoriously slow to clear, but it will clear with time. I suppose you could use finings or filter if you feel the need.
Regards, GF.

if time will do the trick I'd rather just wait. should I go ahead & rack this leaving a bit behind? I can top up with some commercial pilot grigio.

 

[fuelish]

I've had some peach meads somewhat slow to clear, and that's with using pectic enzyme....give it time, it shall clear...eventually. Hey, it could've been worse - it could be a mango wine...my mango mead took forever to clear, again, used pectic enzyme. I don't use typical finings nor cold crash, I just let my stuff sit and sit and sit in the dark basement with occasional rackings...every single batch has cleared given enough time - I know it sucks to wait and wait, but the wait is well worth it.....unfortunately, 60 days is nothing, really

 

[gratus fermentatio]

if time will do the trick I'd rather just wait. should I go ahead & rack this leaving a bit behind? I can top up with some commercial pilot grigio.

A dose of pectic enzyme will help though.
Regards, GF.

 

[jensmith]

Started this 2/22 in a bucket, stirring twice daily. by day 3 the SG was down 60+% so I racked to secondary.
30 days later was sitting on 1" lees so I racked again this time onto 1 crushed campden tab.
60 days after that I started this thread.
og was 1.082, fg .995

With only three days in the open bucket and being airlocked befor its fermented dry, it could be gassy. If the pectin enzyme does not work try degassing.

With the starting sg at 1.082 the yeast may not be ready to call it quits. Thats a fairly low starting point. (Yes, recamended by many.). If you used a wine yeast then the yeast is in its prime and rareing to keep going. Even after three months it may not have given up and gone to "sleep" yet. You can wait it out. I have tried waiting and after 6 months it was still not ready to call it quits. A spoon of suger every few days and it gave up. Not even enough suger to up the abv. But it bubbled and fermented for a few days and then stoped reacting to the suger and cleared up within a week or two.
Yes, this sounds crazzy and propbely is, but worked for me on several different batches.
If nothing else it is easy to test for and fun to watch

Or you can hurry up and wait, or drink it cloudy. ( not bottle, but just rack into one galleon jugs and drink them one at a time)


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