Clarifying a pomegranate wine

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mysr_

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Hello, I'm a beginner winemaker and new arround there. So, I have a question about the clarifying for my pomegranate wine. 1 month ago I fermented ≈4 gallon a pomegranate wine. I used a brew-in-a-bag technique and used 10 kg pomegranate seeds', red wine yeast, and pectinase. After 2.5 week I remove the fermantation bag and added potassıum metabısulfıte and potassium sorbate. The wine was hazy and I wanted to clarify it without chaning the taste. So, I take a sample to a glass bottle and tried added some bentonite for observing the affect. Because the sample was not too much, and I dont have a high precision balance at home I just added a pinch of bentonite by dissolving at hot water and I transfer the glass bottle to fridge. After 1 week nothing much change, I search about it and try to stir it sometimes but after some days it did not change anything. And I decide to little more bentonite and I did the same procedure and added to it. However, the sample become more dark and hazy afterwards. What I am. doing wrong and what should I do?

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I made a pom wine once. I recall it took a couple months to fully clear but even longer to condition/age before it was any good [it came out great at about 6mos]. If you used pectic enzyme you probs will be in good shape. My suggestion is keep it in a cool [50-60F] dark spot for a month or 2 and re-assess if it really needs any fining. What was your ending gravity? pH? Did you add any tannin?
Also be very careful to use dark bottles, as mine turned brown fairly quickly from light strike in some of the clear bottles I used.
 
Here's the thing: if you have enough time and the patience, all wine* will clear without any finings. Gravity will eventually pull down all particulates leaving you with a very bright and clear fruit wine. Wine makers tend to add finings if a) time is money and they are commercial wine makers and full fermenters and time means their sales (income) is restricted. Home wine makers do not have that problem.
But I put an asterisk at the word wine in the first sentence. And that is because there are two issues that fight against clarity. The first is CO2 saturating your wine.. Unless you have actively degassed - and degassing can take an hour or so of stirring by hand - the CO2 in the wine will keep particles in suspension, and the particles are from the fruit, from tannins, and from the yeast.
The second thing that can create a lack of clarity in fruit wines are pectins. Pectins are the protein chains in fruit that we embrace and use when we make fruit jams. In wine making, pectins are a problem that gravity cannot remove, and so, as IAmPistolPete, suggested, we add an enzyme, to REMOVE the pectin chains by breaking them apart. Best is always to add the enzyme BEFORE you pitch (add) your yeast as alcohol tends to denature the enzyme. In the presence of alcohol, you may need to double or triple the amount of the enzyme suggested by the manufacturer for it to be effective. And remember, when making jam, we ADD pectins. When we make wine we use an ezyme to REMOVE the pectins.
Last point, if you check out wine making kits, these days, most kits are much like commercial wine makers: they WANT to have you bottle your wine 4 - 8 weeks after pitching the yeast - an empty carboy, in their view DEMANDS to be refilled with their products... so they encourage the use of finings. When it comes to Bentonite, they suggest that you add the bentonite even as you add your yeast. Here's why: the action of the yeast in producing CO2 will tend to force the Bentonite back towards the surface even after it has glommed onto positively charged particles and has therefore become so heavy that gravity has pulled it and the particles towards the bottom. Without the action of the yeast and its production of OC2, Bentonite is not nearly as effective. In short, IF , IF you want to use Bentonite, add it on day 1 and not after active fermentation has ceased. Good luck.
 
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