Hazy wine confuser

[pebrey]

Hi,

I ave been making some cheap fruit wines - basically following the recipe from a belvino kit as follows:
1) Add 4 KG of sugar to 3l of boiling water
2) Add fruit (I ahve been using bags of dried fruit, such as Whitworths premium fruit mix - 500g)
3) Add pectalose (7g) and citric acid (40g) & leave for an hour
4) Top up to 23l
5) Add yeast (Youngs super wine yeast - 30g), yeast nutrient (20g) and bentonite (10g)
6) leave until fermentation complete
7) Rack off
8) Add stabiliser (13g), then finings A&B (1 day apart - youngs wine finings)

The resulting wine tastes nice, but is always cloudy. I have tried leaving it for a couple of weeks, but it refuses to clear - UNTIL I bottle it. Once bottled, it clears in a couple of days (Regardless of how long I left it to clear in the brew vessel), so I wind up syphoning it out of each bottle into a clean one to get a clear wine.

I have tried varying the amounts of bentonite and pectalose, and even doubling up on the finings, but to no avail.

Anyone have any ideas / suggestions?

Thanks is advance,

Paul

 

[ricardo]

Once bottled, it clears in a couple of days (Regardless of how long I left it to clear in the brew vessel), so I wind up syphoning it out of each bottle into a clean one to get a clear wine.

:wha:
I can't follow this at all ( or is it me ?? )

 

[pebrey]

...said it was confusing! Basically it will not clear in the brew vessel Refuses to. Wont. Once its in the bottle the sediment settles to the bottom of the bottle in a few days. Its just a pain having to syphon out of 30 bottles (i.e. take the lid of each bottle, and syphon off leaving the sediment in the bottom)....

 

[ricardo]

Are you keeping it somewhere cool ???
After I rack my wine off & add stabiliser I leave it about a day or so then de gas it using my electric drill & a mixer whisk !!
Give it a good do several times a couple of hours apart.
After adding the A & B finings or whatever the wine should drop clear in a few days.
You could give it a week or so to make sure.

Ah just noticed you are using bags or dried fruit............my comments are really only about wine kits without fruit additions....
You really should hang around until Moley comes along....have to say he will have the answer for you.

 

[pebrey]

Yeah - its in a cool(ish) place - certainly not hot, and other wines / kits settle fine there. The bottles are also in the same place.

I have tried filtering it today with a vinbrite filter, but it just gets blocked very quickly - typical of pectin. I am now wondering if its one of 2 things: 1) Adding the pectolase to boiling water - could this be destroying it? (On the current batch of wine I have added some more and will leave it to see if it helps). OR, is it starch haze? (In which case is it amylase I need?) And is there any way to test to find out?

 

[pebrey]

If it helps, the fruit ingredients are as follows:

Raisins (35.5%) (Raisins, Vegetable Oil) , Sultanas (35.5%) (Sultanas, Vegetable Oil) , Sweetened Dried Apple (20%) (Dried Apple, Dextrose, Humectant (Glycerol) , Apple Juice Concentrate , Starch , Flavouring , Acidity Regulator (Malic Acid) , Preservative (Sulphur Dioxide) , Sweetened Dried Cranberries (9%) (Sugar, Cranberries, Vegetable Oil)


....and I think I may have just answered my own question with starch being on the list of ingredients?