# Darn you, Sparkalloid!!!



## Brewgrrrl (Aug 28, 2009)

Okay, I have a Sparkalloid quandary and I hope that someone can help me!

I have always (in my maybe 18 months of wine-making) let things clear on their own. But we are planning a vacation visiting friends next week, and I just wanted the wine I brought to be PERFECT. I had heard great things about Sparkalloid, so I decided to try it out on my delicious 5 gallon batch of plumcot wine (hybrid of plums and apricots and WOW did it make a beautiful, tasty peach-colored wine).

I followed the directions for preparing the Sparkalloid, although I'm not sure it was boiling for as long as it was supposed to be. I added it by adding a cup of cold water to an empty carboy, pouring the Sparkalloid in, and then racking the wine over. I realize now that I should have racked over first and THEN stirred in the Sparkalloid, but I don't know why that would make a big difference because it would have been stirred into cool wine anyway.

So now the wine - which had been really clear except for a few lees at the bottom - is now absolutely MURKY!!! It's been about five days now, and it looks like it is just slightly clearer than it was. ARGH!!!!!!!

We are supposed to leave for our trip next Friday morning. I thought this stuff cleared in a week or I wouldn't have messed with it. I do have a gravity filter (which I just bought and have never used) but I know I shouldn't try it when the wine is this cloudy.

Any suggestions that might save this situation? HELP!!!! 
:-(


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## Tom (Aug 28, 2009)

Relax. Leave it alone and go on vacation. When you come back you will be surprised how your wine will look. Filtering will not clear that wine as it is now. TIME and Patience = a good wine. I hope you were not planning on bottling before your vacation.


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## Brewgrrrl (Aug 28, 2009)

That was actually the whole point of getting the wine as clear as possible. I haven't seen these friends in 8 years and I wanted to give them some of my best wine. :-( Isn't there anything I could do to clear it before then?


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## Tom (Aug 28, 2009)

Watch how fast it will clear. Did you do 1 tablespoon?Add a little bit more but you should see a big improvement in a week. Keep it in a cool place

You may be able to make it by Friday.


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## smurfe (Aug 28, 2009)

I have to ask, if it was really clear why did you add the fining agent? I can't think of anything that is going to help except for time. I have seen where a fining agent can sit for a few days with no visible change and then you get up the next day and it is crystal clear. For example, this batch never would clear. I added Isinglass and it sat for 3 more days with no change. I woke up the next day and it was this clear.


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## Wade E (Aug 28, 2009)

I agree, if it was almost completely clear then I would have just used the filter you just got to polish it and all would have been good. I cant help with the Sparkaloid as Ive never used it. I only use SuperKleer as it works very fast and there is no boiling or anything and its usually almost crystal clear the next day but letting it sit for a week or 2 will let the lees settle and harden up so they dont stir up very easy.


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## hannabarn (Aug 28, 2009)

First of all Brewgrrrl, welcome to this forum. I'll bet that by the time you get ready to go on vacation next Friday, your wine will be clear except for some lees on the bottom, which puts you back to square one! You probably didn't need sparkaloid if your wine was already clear! You may even have time to filter it before you leave!!


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## Brewgrrrl (Aug 28, 2009)

Thanks, Barney. I will keep my fingers crossed for sure. Smurfe, I've been asking myself that same question. I thought (based on what I'd heard) using the Sparkalloid would make the wine really, well, sparkle. Since I haven't seen these particular friends for so long, I just wanted to give them my absolute best wine so I made a beginner's mistake (which - hey, I'm a beginner). 
Also, I didn't buy the gravity filter until after I was panicking about the cloudy wine, but I've since realized I can't use it until the wine clears on its own anyway. Great tutorial on gravity filtering by Martina BTW - her post was what actually got me onto this forum. I'm trying to figure out how to resize my pictures so that I can properly introduce myself. I'm truly not a complete idiot. I actually brewed beer (lots of beer) for a year or so before getting into wine (actually a sparkling mead was my first "wine" batch), and now I'm jut really learning a lot so - well, here's a lesson on finings I won't soon forget. :-(


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## Wade E (Aug 28, 2009)

Here is a link to picture resizing and a resizing tool by Microsoft that works really good and is extremely easy. Just download the tool and then right click on the picture you want to resize and there is your option to resize it. Its a very fast downlaod to.
http://www.finevinewines.com/Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2514


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## Brewgrrrl (Aug 28, 2009)

Thanks, Wade. I have a Mac, but I think I've got it worked out.


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## Brewgrrrl (Aug 28, 2009)

Smurfe - what kind of wine or mead is that? It looks delicious! ~


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## smurfe (Aug 28, 2009)

Brewgrrrl said:


> Smurfe - what kind of wine or mead is that? It looks delicious! ~



It's a mead. Actually a version of the Ancient Mead you see talked about around here.


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## Brewgrrrl (Aug 30, 2009)

Well, it's been exactly 7 days and the wine is still pretty murky. WHY do they print "clear in 7 days" ??? I'm actually pretty good about waiting for wine usually but - argh - this seemed like a quick way to get a little extra polish on a nice fruit wine.





Smurfe, thanks for the Ancient Mead reference. A local meadery up here actually started a gallon of that on National Mead Day this year and I was thinking about getting the recipe. With all of the extra time on my hands now (since I can't BOTTLE, not that I'm bitter! ARGH!!!) - I threw together a gallon yesterday. A little hope in the midst of the Sparkalloid debacle..


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## rrawhide (Aug 30, 2009)

remember the 3 p's!!! 


I have trouble with them tooooo!!!


rrawhide


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## Brewgrrrl (Aug 30, 2009)

I think the 3 p's I'm thinking of are different than the ones you are referring to...


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## Tom (Aug 30, 2009)

My 3 "P's" are;

Patience

Patience

Patience

That I believe is what rrawhide is referring to.


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## Brewgrrrl (Aug 30, 2009)

Right now with this batch mine are all "P-O'd"

(I knew what he meant but my dry humor doesn't always translate online)


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## Goodfella (Sep 2, 2009)

Any updates???


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 2, 2009)

Well, it's day 10 and still cloudy. It's better than it was, but barring some sort of wine miracle I won't be bottling this in time to share it with my friends.


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 2, 2009)

It's hard to tell by the pictures, but I think I can actually see the Sparkalloid in suspension. When the wine was clearing on its own, the cloudiness was the same color as the rest of it. This time, the cloudiness is gray like the Sparkalloid. (sigh...)


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## dragonmaster42 (Sep 2, 2009)

Have you tried degassing the wine? Wine with a lot of CO2 in it will hold the fine sedimentin suspension. Just a thought.


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 2, 2009)

Aha... something I have not tried yet...


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## ibglowin (Sep 2, 2009)

Brewgrrrl said:


> Thanks, Wade. I have a Mac, but I think I've got it worked out.



Use Preview. Open the pic do a save as and then adjust the slider till it reaches 150kb or less.

Or use Preview. Open the pic, under Tools adjust the width down (usually 800 wide pixels will work then look at the resulting size as you tweak it down till its under 150kb

Glad to see another fruit lover!


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## Wade E (Sep 2, 2009)

Oh man, I didnt even think of his because I would have *assumed* that it had been done as it was already clear and you said you stirred it.


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 2, 2009)

Hey, I'm a beginner. When I first started making wine I used kits and I degassed those because it was in the directions. In following wine recipes from "Making Wild Wines and Meads" though, the directions never said to degas so I didn't think it was necessary.

So! I just ran to Meijer and bought one of those vacuum things that Waldo posted the degassing video on. I degassed the heck out of the wine until the batteries overheated. There were still bubbles coming up, but the vast majority were, I am sure, sucked out of there.

Now (as always in wine-making I suppose) more waiting...

If this clears it by tomorrow (the last possible night I could bottle) I will do a cartwheel and dance like I did when I was a kid.


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 2, 2009)

Okay, I double-checked the wine after the vacuum thingy cooled down, and it is thoroughly degassed. Just a few tiny bubbles came up and then - silence.

I am going to go to sleep now and dream of clear wine...


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 3, 2009)

Okay, it's been only 8 hours but the wine is still murky. Unless a miracle occurs while I'm at work today, I won't be bottling the plumcot (sigh).

On a brighter note, I've learned some things about Sparkalloid and degassing wine. Also, I went through my homebrew stash last night and I still have some small bottles of decent things to bring along for my friends (sparkling mead, cherry melomel, apple wine, blueberry melomel) so all is not lost. Oh - and that little gallon of Ancient Orange I started has been bubbling away all week too, so I learned about that recipe. Happy happy things...

Thanks for all of the tips. If the wine changes while I'm at work I'll post again, otherwise I'm packing for the road trip tomorrow.

Cheers!
-Ellen


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## grapeman (Sep 3, 2009)

Wine like all good things rarely happens over night. You have been tdoing all sorts of things to this poor wine for a week or so now. It never gets a chance to just settle out on it's own. Go visit the friends, bring them some other wine and when you get home it will probably be clear. When it is, bottle it up, pack a bottle up and send it to your friends then. They will have a nice surprise. 


By the way, fruit wines will rarely be at their best right after making. Again practice patience and let it improve with time.


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 13, 2009)

Just got home. Wine is perfectly clear. If I have any energy tomorrow I will take a picture and post it. Also, I had plenty of random other batches of homebrew, meads and wines for my friends so we were not wanting for interesting, delicious drinks during the trip. Everything worked out. Ah...

Thanks for all of the tips. I've learned a lot during this adventure.


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## Goodfella (Sep 13, 2009)

Good job.... I'm glad all went well for you.


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## vcasey (Sep 13, 2009)

Patience works again! I'm glad the wine cleared for you.
VC


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## ibglowin (Sep 13, 2009)

I have been told patience is a virtue....... Grasshopper !

Glad it finally cleared.


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 25, 2009)

Okay - here's a nice update. The Sparkalloid settled to the bottom and dropped out most of the sediment into a nice little layer at the bottom. So today I decided to filter and bottle the wine.












I suspected there might be more wine in the filter that I didn't want to waste...




Wow! You think wine is clear and then you filter it...








AHA! I knew it...!








Yuck!!!




YUM!!!




YAY!!!!!








So... it all worked out all right.


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 25, 2009)

P.S. Yield was two cases plus several small bottles I always do as testers (to monitor aging), plus the generous glass that gradually dripped out of the filter as I was bottling. :-D~


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## Runningwolf (Sep 25, 2009)

Nice looking wine and I love the label.


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## Tom (Sep 25, 2009)

Glad you waited... Patience is all you needed.
Love the label. What program did you use? Did you back sweeten it.


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 25, 2009)

Thanks! 

I just used the free program from Avery labels - you can download it from their webpage. I didn't backsweeten because I thought it tasted just right (semi-dry). I just added some ascorbic acid to prevent browning and then the usual stabilizers (k-meta/potassium sorbate). I'm really pleased with how it came out! Also, if anyone's interested in making a plumcot wine I posted the recipe a week or so ago.


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## uavwmn (Sep 25, 2009)

Brewgirl, just by leaving it alone to do its thing IS the best thing. Wine is pretty forgiving. Glad it all worked out for you.






Great pictures!! What is that red flying saucer thing?????


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 25, 2009)

The flying saucer thing is a gravity filter - it's an inexpensive way to really get a nice polish on a white wine or fruit wine. There is a good tutorial on using one here: http://www.finevinewines.com//Wiz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1117

For the record though, the only reason I expected the Sparkalloid to work in a week was because that is what the label on it said AND that's what the person selling it to me confirmed when I asked about it - and I was pretty peeved, since I specifically told him when I needed to bottle the wine by. In retrospect, I would have been completely fine just bottling the wine the way it was. Before, I've always let the wine clear on its own (which this wine had done well before I added the Sparkalloid but I was going for that added polish I'd heard you could get with so-called "finings").

Ugh.

Now that I have this forum, I am not reading ANY more labels!!!


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## Tom (Sep 25, 2009)

Nothing like O J T (on the job training). Works everytime.


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 25, 2009)

OJT and online forums where you can ask people who know what they're doing!


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## Tom (Sep 25, 2009)

And we do know what we are doing here. (mostly



)


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## vcasey (Sep 25, 2009)

The wine looks terrific. I am so glad it finally cleared for you. Now the important thing, what are you going to fill the empty carboy with cause they like to to kept full.


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## Wade E (Sep 25, 2009)

Ah patience! It does a wine wonderful things! It looks brilliant!


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 25, 2009)

Don't worry, Vcasey - I'm completely bitten by the wine bug and there are several possibilities already waiting in line for that empty carboy (and the winner will most likely be Wade's currant wine recipe)... which means I am also trying to locate a couple more empties on Craigslist right now!


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 25, 2009)

A post-script on the gravity filter though - you know, I even did that back and forth trick from the "how-to" section and I just thought there was more wine in it than it was giving me. I really did set the filter over a wine glass, where it stayed the whole time I was bottling. By the last bottle, that wine glass was almost overflowing! It was sort of like having someone slowly pour me a drink to enjoy at the end, but I was also thinking -hey! This filter's holding out on me!


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## vcasey (Sep 26, 2009)

Did you filter from the carboy to the bottle? I usually filter into another carboy and then fill the bottles. Or if I am feeling lazy save it for another day, cause I think I've mentioned I'm not fond of bottling.




VC


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 26, 2009)

I filtered from the carboy into the bottling bucket (which is made from an old juice pail, so that might have been confusing). The lid on the bucket has a small hole in the center that fit the filter perfectly.

In the past I've filtered into another carboy, but in addition to wanting to save time I thought - this wine has been through enough!


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## vcasey (Sep 26, 2009)

You know I even looked through the pics - need more coffee!


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 26, 2009)

I TOTALLY understand (and LOVE coffee - gotta go get some myself...)


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## rrawhide (Sep 26, 2009)

Good job and great looking wine - hope your friends enjoy both the wine and your efforts in making it look so 'sparkley' for them.

rrawhide

ppp rules and wins everytime!!!


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## peaches9324 (Sep 26, 2009)

GOOD JOB BREWGIRL! Congrats on your nice, clean, crisp and oh yea CLEAR,VERYCLEAR wine! I hopeit tastes as refreshing as it looks!


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## Brewgrrrl (Sep 27, 2009)

Thanks! I will definitely be making more plumcot wine in the future. Even this young, it is smooth and easy-drinking like a plum wine but it has the fresh fruit nose of apricots. 

Not sure if I will ever be using Sparkalloid again though... (although truthfully, it did compact the lees nicely when it settled, which make racking easier and I'm sure I got a little more wine out of the batch)


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## Tom (Sep 27, 2009)

rrawhide said:


> rrawhide
> 
> ppp rules and wins everytime!!!


 ? 
ppp? you mean PPP...


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## Brewgrrrl (Oct 8, 2009)

Okay... I used Sparkalloid again. It did a great job compacting the lees last time, so I just added it to two batches that I'd like to bottle in a couple of months.


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## Runningwolf (Oct 8, 2009)

How does Sparkalloidcompare to Super Kleer? I used Super Kleer for the first time a few weeks ago and couldn't believe how well it worked in just a few days. I still waited a week to let the lees settle a bit more before bottling.


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