wine problem?

[vcarnuccio]

I am a wine maker in Philadelphia. I have been making wine for 29 years. I came across something that I never seen before....... if you are not familiar with this maybe you could direct me to a forum or web sight that is. My problem is this, I've made a batch of Merlot (grapes from Ca) in 09 and it was in a new 108lt barrel for 7 months I put it in carboys and after a month went to filter and noticed that the inside of the carboys were stained with the wine color and the bottom was layered in sort of a thick almost black syrup. I tried cleaning and it was difficult, I put Potassium Carbonate in with water and it cleaned it on contact. Any Ideas?
Vincent

 

[winemaker_3352]

Welcome to the forum!!

There have been several threads/discussions on cleaning the vessels that have been used. Have you tried using oxyclean? A lot of folks in here use oxyclean to get this type of grim off the inside of the carboys.

 

[vcarnuccio]

My concern is not the task of cleaning, it is the staining of the glass.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Right - the oxyclean is suppose to use O2 to get the stains off.

I had a glass carboy that had stains as well - i used a product call OneStep Cleanser - it uses the same O2 technology as oxyclean - it cleaned it up pretty good.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Wait - i may be misunderstanding - it sounds like you have it cleaned by using the Potassium Carbonate - you are trying to find out why it happened.

 

[vcarnuccio]

Does anyone know the cause? I have never seen this before.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Does anyone know the cause? I have never seen this before.

Does it taste and smell alright? I have read that if the wine goes south and turns into vinegar it can stain the side walls like that - specifically it was a Merlot Vinegar that i read about.

 

[vcarnuccio]

smells and taste fine , the acid was adjusted a little high and the brought down other than that everything seems to be normal

 

[robie]

Could it possibly be related to the problem with Cellar Craft wine kits that come with the thick jelly-like grape packs. They provide a special enzyme packet to break the substance down.

It first appears (earlier than yours did) as a white, milky substance that coats the insides of a carboy when the wine is racked off at secondary. As you rack the wine level down, it runs down the insides like cake frosting and coats the whole carboy. If you get it and you don't use the special enzyme, next time and every time you rack, you will get the same milky substance.

The wine tastes perfectly fine with this problem.

Your coating is red, not white, but that may just be a factor of aging time.

Wonder if you wait a few weeks and rack the wine again, if you will get the same coating.

 

[KevininPa]

I am a wine maker in Philadelphia. I have been making wine for 29 years. I came across something that I never seen before....... if you are not familiar with this maybe you could direct me to a forum or web sight that is. My problem is this, I've made a batch of Merlot (grapes from Ca) in 09 and it was in a new 108lt barrel for 7 months I put it in carboys and after a month went to filter and noticed that the inside of the carboys were stained with the wine color and the bottom was layered in sort of a thick almost black syrup. I tried cleaning and it was difficult, I put Potassium Carbonate in with water and it cleaned it on contact. Any Ideas?
Vincent

I had a similar thing happen with my 08 California Merlot. I use opti-red and oak chips in the primary to bind the color. Somehow i don't think all the color molecules become bound and fall out of solution. This happened for me also after racking from barrel.