Bentonite taking a long time to clear

[Mallerstang]

I have a three-gallon batch of Strawberry wine that I started last June, from fruit (not a kit). So it's now been nine months, including three rackings, and it was almost clear but not quite - looked nice, but flashlight beam still visible. I used pectic enzyme at the start.

Six days ago I added bentonite. I mixed 2 tsp in half a cup of boiling water to make the slurry, let it sit a while, mixed it until smooth, nuked it a bit more to heat it up. Then I racked the wine, added 3 tbsp of the slurry, stirred it up good, and drank the leftovers from the racking

The bentonite has not all settled out after six days. The wine was almost clear and is now quite cloudy. Could this be due to not waiting long enough for the bentonite to rehydrate? Or could it actually take a couple of weeks?

Wishing I'd just bottled it, but I'm learning and experimenting so I wanted to see if it would help.

 

[Yooper]

Fining often helps to clear a wine. It works because the particles in wine possess either a positive (+) or a negative (-) electrical charge. So the idea is to introduce a fining that has an opposite electrical charge when in the wine.

They should attract the oppositely charged particle (the haze). That should make the particles larger since they combined, and the charge would be neutral, so that it participates out of the wine.

The most common positively charged (+) particulate is protein. Protein is easily removed using a negatively charged (-) fining agents like bentonite.

However, if the haze was caused by a negatively (-) charged particle, like yeast, Bentonite will make the haze worse.

You could try placing the wine some place very cold, and usually that will cause the suspended solids to drop out regardless of cause. If it still doesn't clear in several weeks after being held near freezing, you could try a positively charged fining.

 

[bernardsmith]

Just to add a coda to Yooper's post. If by chance there is still a fair amount of CO2 in the wine (and after 9 months there shouldn't be) the gas will help keep fruit and tannin particles suspended. If you degas you may also find that your wine will clear more rapidly.

 

[Mallerstang]

The wine was almost clear a week ago. Now, 7 days after adding bentonite, it's cloudy. It has to be the bentonite in suspension, since I racked immediately before adding it - is there any other explanation?

Is it normal for bentonite not to have settled out after a week?

I don't think there's CO2 in there - there was no sign of bubbles when I racked it, and the leftovers that I drank didn't taste fizzy at all. I started this wine last June.

Also it's been in my unheated basement (about 58 F) over the winter and spring.

Thanks for the advice! I'll leave it alone and see what happens.

 

[ForsbergFotos]

I've never heard of boiling the bentonite, sparkaloid yes bentonite no. you might need the bigger particles of bentonite to have a large enough charge to pull out them sediment

 

[Mallerstang]

Oops, correction - I didn't boil the bentonite! I followed the instructions fore rehydrating it - and I boiled the Sparkolloid that I was adding to the dandelion wine at the same time.

I read Forsberg's reply, and though "I know that - why would I have done that??" and eventually remembered. These days I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on...

 

[talob]

Oops, correction - I didn't boil the bentonite! I followed the instructions fore rehydrating it - and I boiled the Sparkolloid that I was adding to the dandelion wine at the same time.

I read Forsberg's reply, and though "I know that - why would I have done that??" and eventually remembered. These days I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on...

Hello, I just made my first batch of wine it's an Island Mist kit black cherry, have had it in the fermentor for about five or six weeks tried a sample was underwelmed so thought I'd rack it and try to clarify it used sparkolloid as instructed boiled for five minutes in a cup of water, dumped into secondary and racked my wine into it, the sparkolloid clumped up didn't disolve in the wine am wondering normal? Or did I do something wrong?

 

[Mallerstang]

Hello, I just made my first batch of wine it's an Island Mist kit black cherry, have had it in the fermentor for about five or six weeks tried a sample was underwelmed so thought I'd rack it and try to clarify it used sparkolloid as instructed boiled for five minutes in a cup of water, dumped into secondary and racked my wine into it, the sparkolloid clumped up didn't disolve in the wine am wondering normal? Or did I do something wrong?

Hi there, not sure if I have anything useful to tell you - I tried the Sparkolloid once and it didn't seem to help. Maybe it's because I tried it randomly instead of actually knowing why my fruit wine wasn't clear, lol.

I seem to remember adding the slurry to a full carboy though, so perhaps yours clumped because you did it the other way around.

If you're still looking for info about this, you might get more replies if you start a new thread. Good luck!

 

[Sballe]

Oops, correction - I didn't boil the bentonite! I followed the instructions fore rehydrating it - and I boiled the Sparkolloid that I was adding to the dandelion wine at the same time.

I read Forsberg's reply, and though "I know that - why would I have done that??" and eventually remembered. These days I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on...

So - it’s been a while But interested in hearing the results. Did the bentonite settle? Did it clear? Did you add other finings? … obvious I stumbled on this thread b/c I have the exact same issue !

 

[Mallerstang]

My notes say that neither sparkolloid or bentonite made it any clearer - just reduced the final amount of wine I got. I bottled it a few weeks later and it was fine to drink.

That was only my third batch of fruit wine, and all the recipes said it had to be crystal clear before bottling. It was almost clear but a flashlight beam shone through it was still a bit visible. These days I'd say it was clear enough and just bottle it.