Question about clearing wine

[OBSCZONER]

Hey all. Just a quick question.

Made my first batch of wine not long ago. I am a homebrewer But decided to try my hand at winemaking.

When you use a clirifying agent for beer its usually Gelatin or isinglass. Which comes from Fish bladder or something similar. The wine kit I bought (RJ Spagnols Old Vine zin) Came with something called Chitosan as well as another additive i forget the name of. One or the other is Derived from Shell fish.

My brother is allergic to shellfish and really wants to try the wine when it is ready. Is there a substitute clarifier I can use in place of these? If so please help me out

Thank you in advance for any help and input. Cheers!

 

[Honda88]

bentonite is from clay so you should be able to use that..

 

[novalou]

Once the fermentation ends, it will clear on it's own. The clarifier speeds up the process. You can skip the shellfish clarifier, you'll just have to wait a few months for it to clear.

 

[Yooper]

Usually, the kit wines clear pretty well even with the clarifiers.

I like my wines to be vegetarian/vegan friendly so if I want to use a clarifier if the wine doesn't clear, I use sparkelloid.

There are lots of finings, but some have shellfish or fish swim bladders (isinghlass) or cow hooves (gelatin), or plastic-y compounds (Polyclear).

One thing that may work even better than any finings is to drop the temperature of the wine 10 degrees quickly. Either stick it in a fridge, or put it in a cooler with ice/water. Dropping the temperature as little as 10 degrees will cause the suspended solids to fall out.

With a kit, though, it should clear on its own just fine right after the degassing, even without any finings at all. I never use them on kit wines- I have a box of finings that came with various kits. I just take them out and put them in the "wine supplies" box!

 

[OBSCZONER]

Thank you all alot for the information. The kit I purchased Uses benonite when your mixing it all together ( vinting? ) Therefore the way I understand it is Just give it a bit more time then suggested, and/or crash cool for about 20 mins or so and I should end up with clear wine. Awesome. Not saying anything bad in any way or bashing anything, but it amazes me Just how easy it is to make wine. Should of tried this out a long time ago.

Thanks again for all your input!

 

[Honda88]

really its all in the way you siphon, if you have a good technique then your wine should be clear, if not then you will have sediment in the bottle. A small amount isnt a big deal, i wish i had a wine filter just so i had zero sediment but o well its something I will have to deal with.

 

[DoctorCAD]

... Not saying anything bad in any way or bashing anything, but it amazes me Just how easy it is to make wine. Should of tried this out a long time ago.

Thanks again for all your input!

Making wine is easy, making GOOD wine is a much harder, making Great wine is a lifetime endeavor.

 

[Heavywalker]

Chitosan comes from chitin, which is a polymer found in the shell of the shellfish. The allergic reaction to shellfish is caused by the proteins in the meat of the shellfish which are not present in the shell. through the process of converting chitin to chitosan all of the proteins, from the meat, that may be on the shell are removed during the conversion process. Therefore the chitosan contains none of the proteins that cause some people to have allergic reactions to shellfish, and is safe to use in wine even if the person consuming the wine has a shellfish allergy.

You may feel more comfortable using another clearing agent or letting the wine clear on its own, but just know that chitosan is safe for people with shellfish allergies.