Finish my first batch (guava), questions about order of events

[Stressbaby]

Hello,

Newbie here, first post. By way of intros, I am a long time greenhouse tropical fruit grower here in Missouri. A few months back I decided to try wine from my plants and so I have a total of 5 gals in secondary (guava, starfruit, hibiscus).

My first batch was a guava blend, 2 gallons. The recipe I used called for boiling the fruit. The link to the recipe is now broken, and I don't recall whether or not I used pectic enzyme at that time. It is now 5 months along. Today when I brought the wine up from the basement one of the airlocks had some funk growing in the water. The wine looks fine however. The aroma excellent, pure guava; taste is good, but tart; I would like to backsweeten this wine just a little bit. Color is sort of an amber and it is hazy, as it has been from the very beginning...this wine has stubbornly refused to clear. The pH is 3.4 and TA as tartaric is 10g/L which according to my chart translates to 6.5g/L H2SO4 and may be a little on the high side from what I've read. It was last racked 60 days ago and I added 1 Campden/gal at that time. It has laid down absolutely no sediment since the last racking.

The recipe said I would probably have to clear with bentonite. So from what I read I need to clear the wine, stabilize, and backsweeten.

• What order are those things done in? Do I stabilize and backsweeten then clear with the bentonite? Or do I clear with the bentonite first, then stabilize and backsweeten? Or can I do them at the same time?
• Jack Keller says to rack the wine before adding bentonite. Do I need to do this if there is no sediment? Generally speaking, is there any benefit in racking wine when there is no sediment?
• Regarding the acidity, I'm thinking just leave it alone and see how it tastes after doing the above...thoughts?

Excellent forum, I've already learned a lot from lurking here. Thanks.

 

[JoshDivino]

Don't know much about backsweetening sorry :/ You want to clear it first, then stablize then back sweeten. If you back sweeten first the bentonite is just going to pull out sugar before it can be absorbed in your wine I believe. Racking is mostly for clearing sediment so I dont think you need to rack before adding bentonite. What was the target PH in the first place? It sounds like its aged for awhile so I would say try a sip now then decide if you should reduce or not. Good luck, your exotic wines sound pretty darn tasty!

 

[Stressbaby]

Thanks, Josh. I degassed using a tool I built yesterday from a 3/8" steel rod and some leftover parts lying around the workshop. I added the bentonite and the wine is clearing up beautifully.

I'd like to ask a follow up question. The guava wine won't need an f-pac but the starfruit wine may (made from a Jack Keller recipe with 3# starfruit/gallon). The f-pac thread says to stabilize > add the f-pac (essentially backsweetening) > clearing agent in that order. It says that if you clear first, the f-pac may cloud the wine again and you may have to clear it a second time.

So am I correct? If I don't need an f-pac I can clarify first, then stabilize/backsweeten. But if I intend to use an f-pac I want to stabilize/bacsweeten/f-pac first, then clarify?

 

[JoshDivino]

Yeah that sounds like you've got it all figured out right. I can't see why you would want to clear it twice so I would wait until you backsweeten like you said!

My degassing tool is a clothes hanger that I boiled to bend to stir home made degassers are the way to go!

 

[Stressbaby]

10 bottles, clear as a bell!

Thanks again!