If you are a kit winemaker, I’m sure you have asked yourself this very question. If you haven’t, my guess is that you eventually will. Like my wife (Meg) and me, you may have found yourself looking at a very clear carboy of wine that has been sitting for a few weeks in secondary fermentation. The fermentation has long ceased and the lees have settled into a nice 3/8 inch thick layer of sediment at the bottom of the carboy that looks like it’s two inches thick through the carboy glass! The wine already looks great and it’s now time to start the next two steps in the process, stabilizing and clarifying. You have probably made at least a few batches of wine and each time you’ve gotten to this step, you have wondered, maybe tempted: “maybe I’ll just rack this batch off the lees (sediment) and then stabilize it.” Oh, but wait. The kit instructions are crystal clear: do not rack the wine before stabilizing. Maybe I should try it anyway? Just maybe I should, just this once, rack that crud off and see how it works. After all, it’s already clear. It just eats at me to mix up all that junk at the bottom of the carboy back into the wine and then stabilize. Well, fellow winemakers, that is exactly where I found myself about three weeks ago. And, finally, after resisting this urge with many previous batches of wine, the temptation really got to me. What did I do? Why, I called George, of course!

George Cornelius at The Winemaker’s Toy Store (finevinewines.com) is always a fantastic help with any questions about home-brewing so I mentioned my predicament: We had not one, but two batches of this year’s latest Winexpert Limited Edition Release wines, both red, ready for stabilization and clearing. (Yes, we did buy them from George!) Meg and I had taken our time with both, rather than staying on the manufacturer schedule, so they were already totally clear – just beautiful. Should I rack both wines before stabilizing? What I really was looking for was for George to talk me out of trying it. But nooooo, he didn’t do that. Instead, he threw out a suggestion (or was he taunting me with a dare, or maybe even a double or triple dog dare.) He said “why don’t you try one each way and then write an article for Pressing News (the finevinewines newsletter) about how it went?” I thought to myself, “He must really be desperate for articles!” Then, immediately after that thought, I let it slip out, “Hey, George, that’s a great idea!” Ouch.Why can’t I keep my mouth shut?

When Meg got home, I told her what George said. As she smiled, I’m sure she was thinking, “Why can’t he keep his mouth shut!” Actually, I’m sure Meg thought I was crazy for trying but she understands the “chemist” inside me. Oh, did I forget to mention that I have an unused 30-year old college degree in chemistry? She shook her head and said “Ohhh-kayyy”. So, that evening, we proceeded to the chem. lab (our winery in the basement) to initiate the experiment. We stabilized both batches of wine as follows: First, we did one batch just exactly the way Winexpert strongly recommends and with the other batch, we did the opposite by carefully racking the wine off the sediment and into a clean carboy. We did a magnificent job with the racking, too. There was practically no contaminant in the racked wine. It was beautifully clear and was begging to be drunk. With both batches, we added the appropriate packets of sulphite and sorbate, mixed well, and then adding the clarifier, which in both of these kits was chitosan. The only difference between the batches was that with one, we racked off the sediment and with the other, we did not. The thought did occur to me at this point, why even bother to add the chitosan fining agent to the wine with no sediment. Will it do anything? Does it remove micro-particles we cannot see and prevent any protein haze that might form later? I assume it does have a legitimate purpose here but do not have the real answer. Maybe one of our readers can offer me some insight into that later. In any case, we added the fining agent to both batches.

Now, allow me to digress. Those of you who have made wine from Winexpert kits have undoubtedly wondered just why the manufacturer would recommend you mix all that junk back into the wine at the stabilizing step. I had noticed that some other wine kit manufacturers don’t really mention or stress it that much but most of them don’t call for a racking, either. Well, I already knew what Winexpert had to say about it because months before, I had gotten curious and done some research. I found the detailed answer to this question on Winexpert’s website in their “Answer Box” section. I must say the reasoning they give makes total and complete sense, based on my limited four years in the college chemistry lab and my analytical mind. For those interested, here is the link to Winexpert’s information and it is well worth reading:

http://www.winexpert.com/index.cfm/fusemethod/answerbox_cats/catid/8/cattitle/The%20Most%20Common%20Winemaking%20Questions/#43

Winexpert’s answer is several paragraphs long but to summarize, the reason is basically that the clarifying or fining agent will act much more efficiently when it works in combination with the contaminants that are mixed back into the wine. The clarification process involves particles of fining agent attracting to particles from the sediment to efficiently clarify the wine in a short time period. Chemistry and physics come into play as negative and positively charged particles attract each other and then combine to settle down to the bottom of the carboy. I think Winexpert’s final paragraph in the online answer sums it up:

“Resist the urge to jump the gun on transferring, or racking, the wine! Trust the method behind the madness of Winexpert's instructions, and stir up that sediment with confidence!”

Ok, back to our laboratory experiment (Meg would probably say my experiment, not “ours”). I will now describe what has happened to each of the batches of wine during the last three weeks since we initiated stabilization. You may take notes but there will be a closed-book test at the end of the article. Daily, I watched the progress as the two carboys started to clarify. Henceforth in this article, I will refer to the batch that was racked off the sediment as “RACK BATCH” and the other batch as “NORMAL BATCH”.

At 24 Hours:

At the end of the first day, RACK BATCH had odd clumps of contaminant in the wine, all over the sides of the carboy, and at the bottom. It looked like a mess! This stuff must be the fining agent, Chitosan. The carboy had a totally different look than I had ever seen before when clearing wine. On the other hand, NORMAL BATCH was looking normal. Hey, how about that! It was already starting to clear from the top of the carboy. The top 2 inches or so were very clear. There was a clean, thin, well defined layer of sediment already forming in the bottom of the carboy.

At 72 Hours:

By day three, RACK BATCH was still basically the same as at 24-hours, with visible contaminant floating in the wine from top to bottom. NORMAL BATCH was now very clear in the top third of the carboy. Below, it was uniformly cloudy but obviously settling nicely as the layer of sediment was getting thicker.

At One Week:

By the end of week one, it was obvious that the experts at Winexpert (pun intended) knew what they were talking about. RACK BATCH was still pretty much unchanged, with little pieces of contaminant floating in the wine everywhere and the sediment at the bottom looking more like wispy crud rather than a clean layer of sediment. NORMAL BATCH was now very clear from the top all the way down to about 6 inches from the bottom of the carboy. The layer of sediment was very smooth and settled. There was no sign of any contaminant particles anywhere in the wine. It was just a little cloudy in the bottom 6 inches. By now, I was starting to question what I had done and trying to figure out “how could I blame George or Meg for this!” No, I’d never be able to pull that off. Now, let’s jump ahead another week.

At Two Weeks:

By the end of week two, RACK BATCH still had not changed very much. Slowly, it seemed that contaminant was starting to settle downward as the top couple inches of wine appeared pretty clear. However, the walls of the carboy were still covered with little particulate chunks. If I gently shook the carboy from side to side, I could see small particles moving a little, floating in suspension, throughout the carboy, except for the top couple inches. On the other hand, NORMAL BATCH was now very clear from top to bottom, with no sign of any contaminant except for the smooth layer of sediment in the bottom of the carboy. Yep, normal.

Now, I don’t claim to be much of a photographer but the three photos below do show the significant difference in the two batches at the two-week point.

Photo 1 above - “RACK BATCH” at two weeks - Note wispy looking contamination suspended in the wine and the odd look of the particulate at the bottom of the carboy.

Photo 2 above - “RACK BATCH” carboy sidewall contamination at two weeks. These little flakes are clinging to the carboy sidewall but are also floating in suspension throughout the carboy.

Photo 3 above – “ NORMAL BATCH” at two weeks. Wine totally clear, well defined sediment layer at bottom.

Summary:

It has now been over three weeks since this experiment was initiated. RACK BATCH is very slowly starting to clear but there is still contaminant floating throughout the bottom ¾ of the carboy. I hope that it will eventually wind up as clear as its counterpart, NORMAL BATCH, which is now ready to bottle. However, it is apparent that this process is going to take a very long time, maybe even months, for RACK BATCH. Isn’t winemaking fun? At this point, Meg and I can definitely attest to Winexpert’s recommendations. I promise George and you readers that I will provide an update down the road on how long it took for RACK BATCH to finally clear. Ah, that is if it does! Perhaps some readers will be willing to share their experiences with letting wine from kits clear naturally, rather than adding the fining agent at the stabilization step. I would be very interested in hearing from any of you. In the meantime: Yes, Winexpert, you did tell us so!