How soon filter? How soon bottle?

[alan molstad]

Im a first year wine maker.
Live in northern North Dakota
By grapes are Valiant grapes that are to make a red wine.

I picked the grapes on August 25
First fermentation started on August 27
Racked the first time on September 2

I need to understand a few questions that I get asked by my friends and family that I do not know the answer to -

QUESTION # 1 - When can I filter the wine?
This questions comes up when people ask me why don't I try to filter the wine now as I let it age?
Some suggest that filtering the wine would right now would help speed up the clearing processes.
The idea suggested is the filtering even before I think about bottling would help speed things up..


QUESTION # 2 - When is the soonest I can bottle the wine?
Due to an upcoming family reunion there is the request made of me that I have my wine ready to be bottled and handed out as gifts in the near future.
I do not know how long I need yet to have the wine in the carboys before I can filter it and put it into bottles?

I do think it would be nice to have some of my wine ready to give as gifts to family members, so I have to ask you guys, that given this is just my first wine and the need I feel to get something ready to bottle, is there a rough guess as to when I can bottle it?

 

[Bossbaby]

A red grape wine will need close to a year before it is nice to drink, some even longer. sure you have a grape flavored alchohol beverage right now but if you want people to enjoy your wine let it age a while and in that time it will become clear on it's own and develop flavors that only time can make, right now your wine is sharp and tastes like yeast with a hint of grape. Next year will be a different story..

 

[alan molstad]

question...

if the above is true...
If I got one of them kit wines, and made a 5 gallon carboy with it, would thast allow me to get something ready by Christmas?

Im under a lot of pressure to have somethng

 

[CDrew]

Unfortunately, you have to be patient. It's likely no filtration step will be needed. Young wine can be good, and actually it usually is, but it gets much better in a year or two. So wine making is basically a deferred gratification thing with faith in the future.

As an example, I'm starting to drink my 2018's now. I think they are still getting better. I'm going to mostly hold off another year.

White wines can be ready in 6 months. Buy some frozen juice from winegrapesdirect and make some white wine to meet your need. It will be drinkable and good in 6-8 months.

 

[Bossbaby]

look up skeeter pee wine it can be consumed and enjoyed by some in just a few weeks, that may be the quickest wine I have made..

 

[alan molstad]

CDrew
Thanks,,,very helpful

QUESTION > as I have said I'm new and this is my first year.
I have 3 carboys with red wine I made from grapes.

I racked them once to get rid of the stems I saw on the bottom.
But I dont have any understanding when I should rack them again?

I know that I have to relocate them to the basement when it gets cold....but its only Oct when should I rack?


`1

 

[sour_grapes]

Due to an upcoming family reunion there is the request made of me that I have my wine ready to be bottled and handed out as gifts in the near future.

Im under a lot of pressure to have somethng.

Here is my suggestion. To whoever is applying this pressure, act agreeable. Tell them: "I am sure I can make something like you want. Just bring me a bottle of whatever wine you want from the store, from the 2021 vintage, and I am confident I can best it."

 

[CDrew]

So you are racking to get the wine away from undesirable things, like gross lees and the like. Once that's done, you just need to protect from Oxygen. Be careful here, as it's easy to expose wine unnecessarily to the atmosphere and thus oxygen. I rack off the gross lees, then again in February, and then just before bottling at 1 year. Others will advise more racking, but you don't need to do that. Just keep the wine clean, and be careful when you rack.

 

[Bossbaby]

As long as you are off of the gross Lee's you shouldnt need to rack for another 3 months or so. dont forget to keep up on sulfites and top up to the neck of your carboy each time.

 

[Scooter68]

This is a common mistake when first starting out making wine. Rushing a wine, especially a wine from red grapes is a bad decision. Don't let friends or family push you on this. You will regret the results.
Wine clears when it clears.
Filtering a new wine will only waste filters, eat your time, and give you poor to zero detectable results.
TIME is your friend if you let it do the work for you.
You can use fining agents but again time is the best and easiest solution.

Again this is a common problem that new wine makers get into. You should be promising a good wine for Christmas 2022 not 2021.

 

[BABRU]

Just say No! Would not be good to have friends get their first bottle or taste of “your” wine that was not ready and is not what it should be. Maybe do a quick white wine kit if you must (pun unintended) so you can say “just wait until my red from my grapes is ready!”.

 

[Khristyjeff]

You could try one of the wine cooler kits in addition to the Skeeter Pee and other suggestions mentioned by others. They go by Orchard Breezin', Island Mist and Tropical Bliss. I would still taste before bottling to make sure it's something you'd be proud to give away. Unfortunately your time frame is very short.
BTW, my first wine from grapes is one year old in a carboy and still quite tart and harsh. I am learning the importance of patience!

 

[JustJoe]

All of the comments about letting it age are correct but, with that said, I opened the first bottle of the first batch I made 8 days after it was bottled and I finished the entire 5 gallon batch in less than 6 months. I'm sure it would been better to wait a year and even better to wait 2 years but all of the people I shared it with have come back for more.

 

[Bossbaby]

All of the comments about letting it age are correct but, with that said, I opened the first bottle of the first batch I made 8 days after it was bottled and I finished the entire 5 gallon batch in less than 6 months. I'm sure it would been better to wait a year and even better to wait 2 years but all of the people I shared it with have come back for more.

But was the wine a few weeks old when you bottled it?

 

[JustJoe]

I racked it at the end of fermentation (don't know the SG since I didn't have a hydrometer at that time) and bottled it about two months later so it was less than three months from pitching yeast to drinking. I don;t recommend that to anyone; now my wine hits 2 years before I open the first bottle. I mentioned the story because I can relate to the person making their first batch ever and thinking two years is eternity. You can drink it and, with the excitement of your first batch, you may enjoy it. The good thing about that is that every batch you make after that will be better.

 

[Paulietivo]

You mentioned filtering the wine early but that is not a good idea. The filter will most likely clog because of too much sediment. What kind of filter do you have btw?

In my opinion you have a couple options.
The first would be to rack every month until November or when you can visibly see about a half inch of sediment on the bottom.
Use super kleer after the last racking to clear out the rest of the sediment. Then bottle it after you rack off the super kleer. This assumes you have de-gassed the wine and added sulfites. If u want oak flavor you can purchase oak infusion spirals that only need 6 weeks contact time. So put them in now and remove December. Also for a wine that young I would use super smoother. Its a packet that contains a small amount of glycerine and liquid oak extract. Add after your last racking and wait a few days to see if any more sediment drops before bottling.

Second option is to follow the above process to clear the wine, (rack monthly, use super kleer at the end), but also add potassium sorbate on your next racking. This will stop any yeast thats still alive from multiplying. Then after the wine is clear, you can back-sweeten the wine. The sorbate will prevent re fermentation in the bottle. To back-sweeten, basically add simple syrup to desired taste. The sweet or semisweet wine will not need any aging time to be enjoyed right away.

Other options would be to make a skeeter pee or sweet wine kit like @Khristyjeff mentioned above.

Salute!

 

[winemaker81]

@alan molstad, I appreciate your plight. The most difficult thing you have to do now is to set expectations with the folks pressuring you. The wine you just started won't be ready to drink and shouldn't be bottled until after the 1st of the year.

As others have suggested, you can make an alternate. One that hasn't been mentioned is Dragon's Blood -- there is an entire forum dedicated to that.

Kits are another good choice. Go with a Winexpert Classic or Island Mist kit, something white. Don't use oak and if making an Island Mist, don't chaptalize it -- make the wine at it's normal ~7% ABV.

Regarding filtering, the advice you've been given is spot on. Filtering polishes a wine, it's not to clear it. An acquaintance couldn't get a wine to clear, so he ran it through a Buon Vino plate filter using the coarse pads. He went through 4 or 5 packages of filters, and when done the wine was clear ... I'll give him points for perseverance, but not for good sense ...

Kits typically include kieselsol/chitosan, which clears the wine quickly.

 

[alan molstad]

@alan molstad

Kits are another good choice. Go with a Winexpert

UPDATE,
I went to a store in Fargo ND and they had a kit by winexpert that I got and have started...

 

[winemaker81]

I went to a store in Fargo ND and they had a kit by winexpert that I got and have started...

Stash a few bottles from this batch and pull them out at the 6, 9, and 12 month mark. Let others taste 'em so they get the first hand understanding that wine takes time.

This is also a good time to get a red kit, better quality, and start it for next year's holiday season! One of the folks on this forum commented that the first few years of winemaking, we are building for the future. Your best choice is to make more than you think you'll need so more wine has time to age.

 

[alan molstad]

thats a good plan...