I have a peach wine that has a haze to it. The wine will not clear. It has been chilled for 2 weeks after fermentation, racked 4 times and I have added fining agents. It cleared to this fine haze but will not clear any further. Is this a wine that is not going to completely clear and I just need to live with it? Oh yea, there was pectic enzyme added at the start. What are your thoughts? Thanks
Name: Echota
State: TN
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Hello Echota,
Base on information you have given, it sounds like the reason your homemade wine will not clear is because you have a pectin haze, even though pectic enzyme was added at the beginning.
Fining agents will take out the particles in a wine that can cause it to be cloudy, but a pectin haze is different. It is not caused by particles. It is caused by the actual make up of the liquid itself. The pectin chemically bonds to the wine, making it impossible to clear with just fining agents such as bentonite or isinglass.
The standard dose of pectic enzyme called for in most wine recipes is enough to breakdown and drop out a usual amount of pectin from the fruit, but in some instances the amount of pectin in a wine must can be unexpectedly large. This leads to the situation you are describing where your homemade wine will not clear, completely.
One way to know for sure if your wine is experiencing a pectin haze is to take a
sample of the wine, say a half-full quart mason jar, and add a ridiculous amount of pectic enzyme to it. If the wine clears without leaving any sediment, then you know that a pectin haze is the reason for you wine being cloudy.
If the wine clears, but leaves sediment behind, then you know it is a particle haze – not a pectin haze – and more time, gravity and fining agents is the answer to resolving this issue.
Clearing up a stubborn pectin haze in a wine after the fermentation has stopped is somewhat difficult, but it can be done. It’s simply a matter of adding more pectic enzyme to the wine.
The problem really lies with the fact that the fermentation is no longer fermenting. This causes the pectic enzyme to take longer to do it’s thing, so some patience will be needed. It could take as long as a month or two for the pectic enzyme to clear up the wine completely.
If you are using our liquid pectic enzyme the standard dose is 1/8 teaspoon for each gallon of wine. However, in this situation you want to add a double dose of 1/4 teaspoon per gallon of wine. This is in addition to any pectic enzyme you added
at the beginning of fermentation. If you are using a powdered pectic enzyme the story is the same. Add double the recommended dosage listed on the package and give it time.
When ever a homemade wine will not clear you always want to look towards protein particles such as yeast cells, tannin, etc to be the cause. These are things that can be easily dropped out with fining agents and wine clarifiers. But whenever you get into a situation where that last little bit will not clear out of the wine, no matter what you try, then it’s time to start suspecting a pectin haze to the reason your wine will not clear.
Happy Winemaking!
I have Homemade wine from watermelons and pineapples aged about 11 months now.I simply like the taste. How can I boast to myself or develop the confidence that I have made a good wine. The SG of the wine is 1020
Do not despair Echota – peaches are notorious for pectin haze. I have done 3 batches, only one cleared perfectly, but they all tasted great! Certainly try Ed’s suggestions, but when all else fails, you can try filtering or just ‘live’ with a cloudy, delicious wine – tell your friends it a “natural” wine ;))
From what I read on Ed’s post I suspect a pectin issue but I wonder if that is possible from a kit wine? I just finished a White Pear Riesling, and even after carefully degassing, and clarifying using kitosol and isinglass (that came with the kit) and filtering using a 1 micron filter I have cloudy wine.
This is the first time I have had an issue after many fermentations and bottlings. Usually after filtration I have crystal clear wine to bottle.
Is it likely to have pectin haze from a kit wine or should I suspect something else?
Is pear particularly a problem for pectin?
David, I suppose a pectin haze is possible even with a wine kit. Yes, pear wines are susceptible to pectin hazes. You can test to see if it is a pectin haze by taking a quart of the wine and adding one teaspoon of pectin enzyme. If the wine clears within a few days, you know that is the problem. If it does not, you can take a look at the following article for more information regarding cloudy wines.
Cloudy Wines
http://www.eckraus.com/blog/cloudy-wine
God is good to me, I have been making peach, pear, apricot, and any other than grape wines for many decades. I have never had one that didn’t clear on it’s own. I always use peptic enzyme in fruit wines. I have two carboys of peach, two carboys of apple, two carboy of muscadine, three carboys of pear that are all Christal clear. I usual use super-kleer k,c, a couple of weeks before bottling so there won’t be any dregs in the bottles next year when I try it.
I have made fruity wines from fresh fruit when it is available, I have also used canned and frozen when I can’t find fresh. Ed Kraus has some recipes on their website, I use them as guide lines (I tweak them to my taste) to date, I’ve had a bad batch. I do use extra fruits at times, and less fruit at times. I usually ad frozen grape juices in most batches.
this is a hobby I enjoy and have gotten better at over the past 60 years.
good luck and God bless
I have an elderflower wine that is very cloudy, I dont make alot of wine but when I do I dont use any additives, and just put it together natuarlly the old fashioned way, usually resulting in a good clear wine, even got a third this year in the local produce show…anyway I have tried bentonite in this cloudy batch, but still it looks like cloudy lemonade…it was made with elderflowers, lemons, etc,and a good white wine yeast….any ideas how I should proceed, I have just bottled it in the hope it would help..,thanks Wendy
Wendy, the first thing you need to do is take a hydrometer reading to see if the fermentation is complete. The wine will not begin to clear until it completes. There are basically four reasons for having a cloudy wine as listed in the article posted below.
Reasons For A Cloudy Wine
https://blog.eckraus.com/cloudy-wine
I have a peach wine with the same clearing problem described. After fermentation was about complete (1.000 sg) I added K-sorbate to stop fermentation. The wine was perfectly clear but a little dry. I then added liquid wine conditioner to back-sweeten the wine. Tastes great, but it then became cloudy. Tried bentonite and sparkaloid, but still has a haze. Added 2x the typical pectic enzyme powder two weeks ago.
I do see a 1″ layer at the top of the wine that is nice and clear. Below that there is a haze that has not cleared. Do I need to wait another month to let this haze settle and let the pectic enzyme do its thing or does it appear I am just going to have a cloudy wine?
Richard, the fact that the top of wine is clear means that pectic enzyme is working because it will start clearing from the top. You just need to allow more time for the haze to clear. It could take another month or more.
My rice and raisin wine and my banana wine won’t clear even after adding the findings. Help! Please.
Michele, there are a number of reasons that can cause a wine not to clear as explained in the article listed below. Have you taken a hydrometer reading to confirm that the fermentation is complete?
Four Reasons That Wine Will Not Clear
https://blog.eckraus.com/cloudy-wine
Hi,
I’m one week in to my secondary fermenting stage of my first batch of peach wine ever. I have a 6 gallon carboy with a pretty sufficient head space. My airlock is bubbling very slowly and there seems to be little difference in clarity so far. There is however a sufficient amount of sediment settling to the bottom. I used your recipe to the T. Should I still wait until the bubbling stops to rack off again? Should I top up with a white wine to fill head space? When can I add fining agents to help?
Thanks
Dennis
Dennis, as explained in the article posted below, there are several ways that you can deal with excess headspace.
Topping Up Homemade Wine
https://eckraus.com/wine-making-topping-up/
I have a Peach wine that will not clear. I used Bentonite and followed with Sparkloid. Then did the double dose of Pectin, this helped but it still has a slight haze. Can I add more Pectin? Is it possible to add to much Pectin?