Cold Stabilizing & Fredonia

[Runningwolf]

I just added 23 gallons of an apple blend and three gallons of blueberry to freezer for cold stabilizing. Last night I remove a bunch of other wine including 6 gallons of Fredonia. I racked it all immediately after as I always do. Tonight the Fredonia has another 1/2" of sediment. I've never had this happen before with any other wine. It was already fined and degassed. Did anyone else have this issue with Fredonia?

 

[Arne]

Not wanting to hijack your thread ,Dan, but do you just lift those full carboys in and out of the freezer or do you have some kind of a lift you use? My back started hurting just looking at the pic. Think it would be fairly easy to make something to help get them in and out. Arne.

 

[winemaker_3352]

I would imagine he uses his vacuum pump to rack out of the freezer into another carboy - then just removes the empty from the freezer.

Looks good Dan!

I just got my strawberry out of cold fermentation - i have to rack my apple spice and put into CS as well.

 

[Runningwolf]

Ahhh, I do set them in and lift them back out before racking. A pulley system some day might not be a bad idea

 

[Arne]

Just an idea, but maybe it wasn't fully degassed. When you racked it, more of the gas came out. As it warmed up, the finings kicked in and the next thing is "Where the heck did all the sediment come from." And racking out of the freezer sounds like a great idea also. An empty carboy wouldn't be bad to lift out. Just make sure your recieving carboy is not too warm, wouldn't want to shatter it. Arne.

 

[grapeman]

Dan, I was just looking at the picture again and notices something. Is that a one gallon jug with an upside down bung on it? I never thought to try that when I have run short on the solid drilled bungs for the one gallon jugs. If so, it seals OK even with the threads on the outside of the jug?

 

[Runningwolf]

Dan, I was just looking at the picture again and notices something. Is that a one gallon jug with an upside down bung on it? I never thought to try that when I have run short on the solid drilled bungs for the one gallon jugs. If so, it seals OK even with the threads on the outside of the jug?

Rich, that is a 750ml bottle. It will fit 750's and 1.5L bottles upside down. That was extra wine for topping up.

Just an idea, but maybe it wasn't fully degassed. When you racked it, more of the gas came out. As it warmed up, the finings kicked in and the next thing is "Where the heck did all the sediment come from." And racking out of the freezer sounds like a great idea also. An empty carboy wouldn't be bad to lift out. Just make sure your recieving carboy is not too warm, wouldn't want to shatter it. Arne.

Arne, just coincidental I was also racking Fredonia ar work this week. Racked about 1200 gallons out of cold stabilization. It took 10 sets of 7 micron filters. Each set consists of 17 pads. We backwashed each filter 3-4 times before switching out. A typical 1/2 day job took a day and a half and we lost 300 gallons total. Next we racked the 900 gallons again with 3 micron filters no issue (1 set). Today I racked it again using 1 micron filters and it took 3 sets of pads. The last two rackings we lost the typical 15-20 gallons. We assumed we were going to lose about 100 gallons on the first racking due to sludge and filter change outs but not 300.

 

[grapeman]

Wow Dan that is a lot of loss! That is over 25%! I wonder what it was with the Fredonia?

 

[Runningwolf]

Just for comparison, normally we would first filter with a 2-3 micron filter then at bottling time drop down to a .45 micron.

 

[Arne]

You mean one of my bonehead ideas mite just have a little bit of fact mixed in with it?? LOL, Arne.

 

[Coyote Creek]

What temp do I need to get to cold stabilze. I don't have a freezer spare but do have a spare refridgerator that works great and will get really cold...

thanks,

clark

 

[Runningwolf]

I C/s at 28*. Just get your refridgerator as cold as you can.

 

[GreginND]

My fridge is currently around 5°C (41°F). I have three wines stabilizing right now - a concord, an unknown grape and an experimental white grape. They are all dropping tartrates. Wish I had a bit colder but I'm getting some of that acid out.

 

[Runningwolf]

Greg, you'll be ok. I would leave it in there for four weeks though.

 

[GreginND]

Thanks. Yes. 4-6 weeks was my plan.