First Wine Kit - White Stuff on Carboy Interior

[floridacelt]

Hello! First post here, first wine making experience.
I'm using a Fontana fruit wine kit and am now waiting for fining/clarifying agents to take effect prior to bottling.
Starting SG was 1.072 and finish was 0.992.

I racked the 6gal from primary into a 6gal and a 1gal carboy for finishing up fermentation.
I then racked both back into the primary for degassing and then back into the 6gal carboy altogether after two days for clarifying.

During the last day of degassing I added K-meta, and much later I added the K-sorbate, followed by the fruit pack and then kieselsol followed by chitosana few hours later. Just a day later I noticed a TON of whitish deposits forming all over the interior of the carboy. It appears to be sediment clinging to the sides. If that's the case, is that normal? I didn't expect so much sediment to be collecting at this stage for a kit.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I'm a bit nervous here!

EDIT: the photo attachment is upside down, notice the lees and the poka-dot accumulation above it.

 

[AZMDTed]

That's completely normal. You can tap the sides or twist the bottle to get the ones on the side to settle. They will probably settle down on their own over time.

 

[floridacelt]

Thanks! How long should I wait before racking? My plan was to give it two weeks, rack it off the sediment and bottle right then. However, I don't mind waiting longer if that's a good idea.

I just don't want it to sit on that sediment too long, nor do I want to rack it too soon (losing the K-meta in the process).

 

[dcbrown73]

That is the stuff floating in the wine that the clearing is clearing out! The stuff in the wine sticks to the chitosan you added and then drops to the bottom.

It's how it works!

Welcome to the fun of winemaking!

 

[dcbrown73]

Thanks! How long should I wait before racking? My plan was to give it two weeks, rack it off the sediment and bottle right then. However, I don't mind waiting longer if that's a good idea.

I just don't want it to sit on that sediment too long, nor do I want to rack it too soon (losing the K-meta in the process).

If it's your first wine, I would follow the instructions that came with it.

That said, some winemakers leaves it on the sediment during aging. (even stirring it up from time to time) It's called Sur Lie.

 

[cmason1957]

It looks like normal lees to me. I do have an unrelated comment. Take it for what it is worth. Your ending sg wasn't 0.920. Your hydrometer doesn't go down that far. It might have been 0.992.

Why does it matter. If you want to calculate your Abv, you need to use the correct sg values.

 

[floridacelt]

Yep, just wrote it in wrong. Thanks, everyone!

 

[floridacelt]

That is the stuff floating in the wine that the clearing is clearing out! The stuff in the wine sticks to the chitosan you added and then drops to the bottom.

It's how it works!

Welcome to the fun of winemaking!

Thanks! I was just paranoid about bacteria. It looked scary until I used a flashlight and it looked more like sediment.