And the Wine is a hazy shade of... Pectin?!

[Bliorg]

Hi all -

I have a batch of berry/dragon fruit wine going. Have been battling H2S issues since second racking. Have sulifited it heavy, degassed, hit it with Reduless, fined, racked over and over. I think I'm on the good side of this now - no detectable sulfide coming off it. At last racking the flavor was pretty nice, and again, no sulfide in it that I could tell.

Next issue: This has a pronounced haze that doesn't want to go away:
Haze by Scott, on Flickr

In the past, I've attacked this with loading doses of pectic enzyme and warmth (FermWrap) to try to break it. I dose the wine heavily before primary ferment with pectic enzyme, but always end up with this haze. I've already dosed this once before the sulfide issues popped up. Was clearing somewhat, but during degassing to drive off H2S, the haze reappeared and hasn't gone away again since. So I'm wondering if this is actually pectin haze or more of a protein haze. The wine is predominantly dragon fruit, which I've never used before. I'm leaning toward giving it a heavy dose of pectic enzyme, again, with the FermWrap (as the wine is in the ~48 degree garage currently), and see if things improve. If not, bentonite.

I'm thinking better to go with the least intrusive addition first, and I don't really see a downside to excess PE being in the wine if it's not a pectin haze. Thoughts?

This wine has taken more intervention than any wine I've ever made. Really hope it's worth it...

 

[balatonwine]

Have you tried any old school method: some egg whites or diatomaceous earth?

 

[Ajmassa]

+1 for thread title

 

[Bliorg]

I haven't tried egg whites - IME this is more a strategy for removing astringency in reds. I've never used DE for clarification. My understanding is it works kind of as an in situ filtration medium, and generates a cake as it's removed. I have a filter system I'll use later.

FWIW, I hit this with a fairly stout dose of liquid pectic enzyme solution. And heat, via a FermWrap. Overnight it looks a bit better; in the past it's taken a good 48 hours to see significant changes. This was already fined with kieselsol/chitosan, which did nothing to abate the haze (and in my experience, never has). But as part of the Reduless treatment I wanted to fine to get rid of any Reduless residual.

Anyway, that's where we are this morning. Should the PE not clear everything, I'm still thinking bentonite.

 

[Bliorg]

Haze for days.
IMG_3262 by Scott, on Flickr

So, the pectic enzyme and heat may've improved things a little but clearly (well, not clearly) there's still a haze. Next step: Bentonite.

 

[Scooter68]

Hang in there. I bottled a batch of Peach wine that took about 18 months to become "Almost Clear" It still had a light haze but I did see some change from October to January so I went ahead and bottled it.

I figure that it won't take long for there to be more dust ON that bottle to cover up the haze inside the bottle. If someone mentions the haze when I pour them a glass - I'll just take that wine away and give the a glass of water.

My best recommendation is to go ahead and hit it with bentonite, give that a week or two then rack and airlock it if not cleared up. Just walk away then and start another batch. Sometimes these wines will try your patience but when the haze breaks, you will walk in some day and say WOW ! Lookee Here! Until then just keep making more wine and.... review your notes on that batch and see what you might be able to change in the future.

 

[Bliorg]

Hang in there. I bottled a batch of Peach wine that took about 18 months to become "Almost Clear" It still had a light haze but I did see some change from October to January so I went ahead and bottled it.

I figure that it won't take long for there to be more dust ON that bottle to cover up the haze inside the bottle. If someone mentions the haze when I pour them a glass - I'll just take that wine away and give the a glass of water.

My best recommendation is to go ahead and hit it with bentonite, give that a week or two then rack and airlock it if not cleared up. Just walk away then and start another batch. Sometimes these wines will try your patience but when the haze breaks, you will walk in some day and say WOW ! Lookee Here! Until then just keep making more wine and.... review your notes on that batch and see what you might be able to change in the future.

Thanks - good advice. I'm hopeful the bentonite will cure this, but if not, I've done about all the intervention I think I can. Will just get sulfite and sit after that. I had some sauv blanc a while back that was cloudy in bulk storage and eventually cleared on its own. I bottled it, and maybe 3 or 4 months later the haze returned in the bottle. I wasn't happy with that so dumped it all in a carboy and tried PE, which helped a little, then bentonite, which made it crystal clear in a few days. So that's what I'm hoping for here.

I'm hydrating the bentonite now, will get it mixed in later today, then we'll see what happens..

 

[Bliorg]

Quick update: Dosed at about 1.4 grams/gallon on Sunday. This is at about 48 hours post-fining:
Clearing... by Scott, on Flickr

Very much improved. Still a little haze to it, but it's early, so I'll give it a week or two and see where we're at. But it's looking much better already.

 

[Bliorg]

And there you go.
Cleared... by Scott, on Flickr

Time to rack.

 

[hounddawg]

alot more time and patience bulk aging works for me,
Dawg

 

[hounddawg]

gotta learn to read post dates lol
Dawg

 

[Arne]

Somebody has to keep the old posts alive. LOL Arne.

 

[Hazelemere]

bentonite removes protein and sulphite