My wine has dandruff! Crystalline stuff floating around on surface...

[Grape Expectations]

Are these tartrate crystals? This is orange wine that's down to about 0.996 SG and just finished.

 

[Jim Welch]

Kind of looks like yeast or some other microorganism. I had the floating tartrate crystals before, they looked a bit different iirc. Did you taste it? Tartrate crystals will feel like sand on your tongue at first but will melt away in your mouth.

 

[Rice_Guy]

You do not have bitartrate floating in your wine. “Just finished” ,, I take it that you are still in the primary, not under air lock. I do mainly fruit wines and try to get them under air lock by 1.020 when they are actively releasing CO2.

The normal answer is you have microbial growth. If it is on the surface this indicates that it is an aerobic organism, you had too much head space or you had a cork/ bung which was leaking air. When I have had this (in a carboy) ,,, I took paper towel strips wound and rubber banded on a chop stick to wipe the edge and remove as much colonial growth as possible. > Treated with 100 ppm meta and grain alcohol slowly layered on the surface. When I bottled I initially didn’t recognize burnt match flavor but eventually taught myself what sulfite flavor was. I could see treating with 0.05 gm per liter metabisulphite and hope that the flavor isn’t too bad.
How big a batch? being microbial you could prevent growth by refrigeration. Minimum head space (2 to 3 cm) is essential. Sanitizing glass (carboys/ bottles) and tubing, stirrers, anything in contact is essential before the next batch.

 

[Grape Expectations]

It's only about 10L altogether. I fermented it for 10 days and today it's 14 days old from starting.

It already has a slight Band-Aid smell (brettanomyces) as it is, maybe it's related to this.

Everything was bleached before doing anything so I'm sure it's the chalk that's done it, either from something in that or, from lowering the acidity (went from 4.0 pH to 4.4 pH).

Last night after slightly moving the bottle, I could see that same crystalline stuff floating down, I think disturbing it on the surface made some of it sink.

This morning (about 10h later) there's no more white stuff on the surface than there was last night.

I just thought it looks weird, it's some sort of crystal with branches coming off, but it's only getting to a certain size instead of carrying on growing.

I'll syphon it off, add a Campden Tablet to the syphoned lot, leave it several days and syphon again.

Cheers folks.

 

[crushday]

It's only about 10L altogether. I fermented it for 10 days and today it's 14 days old from starting.

It already has a slight Band-Aid smell (brettanomyces) as it is, maybe it's related to this.

Everything was bleached before doing anything so I'm sure it's the chalk that's done it, either from something in that or, from lowering the acidity (went from 4.0 pH to 4.4 pH).

Last night after slightly moving the bottle, I could see that same crystalline stuff floating down, I think disturbing it on the surface made some of it sink.

This morning (about 10h later) there's no more white stuff on the surface than there was last night.

I just thought it looks weird, it's some sort of crystal with branches coming off, but it's only getting to a certain size instead of carrying on growing.

I'll syphon it off, add a Campden Tablet to the syphoned lot, leave it several days and syphon again.

Cheers folks.

How did your wine turn out? I have a Pinot Noir Rosè that I knew had too much head room. I forgot about it for a couple of months now. I looked inside and floating on top is exactly what you experienced.

 

[Grape Expectations]

How did your wine turn out? I have a Pinot Noir Rosè that I knew had too much head room. I forgot about it for a couple of months now. I looked inside and floating on top is exactly what you experienced.

I drank it in the end. I'm still alive. I put chalk in that was past its date, or I somehow contaminated the chalk. The wine had a band-aid smell to it. I've never used that chalk again (or any acid reducer) and never seen those crystals again.