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Clearing


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Clearing
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My wine is supposed to be ready to bottle, but it is cloudy. Can I still bottle it?

No! NEVER BOTTLE CLOUDY WINE. Occasionally, wine will take longer to clear in the carboy than indicated in the instructions.

• If it’s still cloudy, just give it an extra 7 – 14 days to clear before bottling. You also want to make sure that the wine is in the right temperature range and has finished fermenting before bottling (take an S.G. reading to check the fermentation progress).

• After waiting a week and the wine has still not cleared, check for carbon dioxide (CO2) gas saturation. If there is still CO2 carbon dioxide in the wine, it will continue to put the fining (clearing) agents and the sediment back into suspension. You may need to warm the wine up, go back and fully degas it again.

How can I tell when my wine is fully clear?

• It’s easy to see with white wines when clearing is complete. Take a look at the below two pictures of white wine in carboys. The first is in the process of clearing, but is still not complete - you can see the grid paper through the carboy, but it’s still murky. Notice the difference in the last picture which is crystal clear – this second batch is finished clearing.Clearing 1  Clearing 2

• TIP: With red wine, it’s harder to see the clarity in the carboy, so it’s a good idea to take a sample, put it in a glass and hold it up to a strong light. This makes it much easier to see when the wine is fully cleared.

Will filtering cloudy wine make it clear?

No! NEVER FILTER CLOUDY WINE. Filtering is to polish wine only and give it liquor store brilliance. Filtering cloudy wine will not stop particulate which will continue to clear in the bottle.

Why is there sediment in my bottles?

The wine was probably bottled before it was fully cleared. The wine will try to clear in the bottle, but because it is unable, it will leave sediment which can change the flavour and aroma over time. In the future, make sure the wine is fully cleared before bottling.

My wine cleared but went cloudy in the bottle; what happened?

The wine was probably bottled before it was fully cleared. In the future, make sure the wine is fully cleared before bottling.