Just bottled my first wine last sunday and had a look at it to see how its clearing. Theres a layer of white powdery stuff on the bottom of the bottle and if I disturb the bottle at all they move around like snow flakes. Is it infected or is this normal? It looks terrible and I was over cautious with sterilizing and making sure no sediment got into the bottles. Another thing is that we recently had our water tested and its not fit for human consumption. Theres nitrates and ammonia traces in it. We had been drinking it up until we got the test as it was fine but I made my wine and beer with this and haven't tasted any yet. Could this be contributing or causing this sediment at the bottom of the bottles? Its in my Coopers Canadian Blonde too !
This is a pretty diggicult one!
Suggest you decant off the clear wine into another bottle. Smell it and taste it!
Get some of the sediment and rub onto your bottom lip! (Seriously)
You are trying to see if its hard/crystaline/gritty or soft and squishy!
If its hard/gritty then it MAY be a mineral deposit dropping out due to temperature changes (potassium tartrate is common in wines)
If squishy it MAY just be some yeast that has floculated out. Even a clear lookinjg wine coild have a million cells per mL.
It MAY also be an infection in which case the taste test would have told you
Hope this helps
Thanks, I have a few hours to kill so Im going to do that now !
Ok so Ive opened it for a taste and it tastes great :) I am going to now transfer into a demijohn , clean the bottles well and then re bottle it. The sediment is soft and squishy it does like yeast, theres an awful lot of it though, enough to put a layer on the whole bottom of the bottle and a bit of the side.
Thats good news about the wine :)
Bad news about your water supply though. Is it a well or are you on a local group scheme?
Its a private well we got drilled about a month ago. We were told that the water was perfect and a neighbour 100 yards down the road got his own well drilled at the same time. His results came back perfect. Its a shame because we spent €5000 getting it done because our group well that fed 4 houses was also not safe for drinking. So we kinda just wasted 5k :(
Im going to make my 6 bottle chardonnay kit this afternoon. How can I avoid this yeast build up in the bottles for this brew?
So I have syphoned off into a demijohn. This is the stuff in the bottom of the wine bottles. This was the worst bottle. if I swirl it around it breaks up completely and turns the wine cloudy for a very long time.
(http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7597/zbqd.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/560/zbqd.jpg/)
Quote from: Pint-a-water on July 27, 2013, 01:10:22 PM
So I have syphoned off into a demijohn. This is the stuff in the bottom of the wine bottles. This was the worst bottle. if I swirl it around it breaks up completely and turns the wine cloudy for a very long time.
(http://img560.imageshack.us/img560/7597/zbqd.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/560/zbqd.jpg/)
I also have my first wines going into bottles today and i also have that sediment on the bottom of a couple of the demijohns, i reckon its just yeast because its definitely not infection.
Pretty sure its not infection because I had a small glass and it tasted great ;D A few weeks wait will make it even better ! When bottling I was very cautious not to let any sediment get in there. Almost on an OCD level, just like when Im sterilizing equipment. Im just wondering why this happened and how to prevent it?
How long is your primary?
I suspect you are not racking to secondary or even more, am I correct?
Try racking after a 1-2 month primary to glass under airlock for 3-4 months and then rack again, each time you rack it'll clear a bit and lose some sediment, by then time you bottle there should be very little yeast left in suspesion and fermentation should be well and truly over. Add a half a campden tablet to the wine to soak up oxygen and prevent oxidation each time you rack.
The instructions were to rack off 2 days after fermentation (5 days) I followed the instructions to a T ! I had to rack off a total of 2 times before I bottled. It was a Better Brew premium 7 day wine kit. I had to shake and stir to remove all co2 a number of times as instructed.
Glad to hear the wine turned out nice.
As far as I remember, that kit came with 2 lots of finings, right? So more finings would probably be of no use.
The only other thing you could try next time is a little more time to settle and if all else fails, a filter like this one (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/mk4-wine-filter-new-improved-model-804-p.asp)
Quote from: Pint-a-water on July 27, 2013, 04:37:19 PM
The instructions were to rack off 2 days after fermentation (5 days) I followed the instructions to a T ! I had to rack off a total of 2 times before I bottled. It was a Better Brew premium 7 day wine kit. I had to shake and stir to remove all co2 a number of times as instructed.
Ooooh 7 day wines...not real wines, all is good, follow instructions and consider a filter. Get Campden if filtering to stop oxidation and reduce chances of oxidation then leave under airlock for a while for the campden to blow out or you'll have a bad head.
Quote from: LordEoin on July 27, 2013, 09:28:54 PM
Glad to hear the wine turned out nice.
As far as I remember, that kit came with 2 lots of finings, right? So more finings would probably be of no use.
The only other thing you could try next time is a little more time to settle and if all else fails, a filter like this one (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/mk4-wine-filter-new-improved-model-804-p.asp)
Yes thats the one ! I left to settle over night as instructed but there was minimal sediment on the bottom and the wine was still a bit cloudy but the instructions said to shake or stir as much as possible basically before bottling in order to remove all co2 otherwise the wine wont clear properly. It probably should have been left to settle for a few days . Is this safe to do?
Quote from: Eoin on July 27, 2013, 03:39:52 PM
How long is your primary?
I suspect you are not racking to secondary or even more, am I correct?
Try racking after a 1-2 month primary to glass under airlock for 3-4 months and then rack again, each time you rack it'll clear a bit and lose some sediment, by then time you bottle there should be very little yeast left in suspesion and fermentation should be well and truly over. Add a half a campden tablet to the wine to soak up oxygen and prevent oxidation each time you rack.
Was about to bottle my "inmate" wines this weekend, had the 30 bottles all sterilised and all but i never thought about adding a campden tablet :o Thanks for the tip off Eoin, how long does that take to work ?
Quote from: deadman1972 on July 28, 2013, 10:07:00 AM
Quote from: Eoin on July 27, 2013, 03:39:52 PM
How long is your primary?
I suspect you are not racking to secondary or even more, am I correct?
Try racking after a 1-2 month primary to glass under airlock for 3-4 months and then rack again, each time you rack it'll clear a bit and lose some sediment, by then time you bottle there should be very little yeast left in suspesion and fermentation should be well and truly over. Add a half a campden tablet to the wine to soak up oxygen and prevent oxidation each time you rack.
Was about to bottle my "inmate" wines this weekend, had the 30 bottles all sterilised and all but i never thought about adding a campden tablet :o Thanks for the tip off Eoin, how long does that take to work ?
I'd not do it straight before bottling as the sulphate will stay in the bottle and not have a chance to blow out the airlock with time, this ends in headaches. If you want to filter it, then do that, add campden, then let sit under airlock, then bottle. Sitting under airlock is essential to rid yourself of said same Campden.