First, I would read what others had to say in response to "will my carboys
break?" I live in Wisconsin and I would not put one of my carboys out in
the garage in January for cold stabilization. It might be in the 40's today
but by Monday, they are saying we're in for a cold snap (high might be 15),
low in the single digits. I've tried cooling my wines down by finding the
coldest part of my basement - sometimes all it takes is a drop of 10 degrees
or more to get more sediment to drop. You talked about sediment in your
wine bottles. If I might ask, how old was your wine when you bottled it?
and how many times did you rack it before you bottled it?

I tried cold stabilization with my dandelion wine to get it to clear, but
that was in November, and it did clear a bit. Then, I brought it back in
and racked it. I waited until it warmed up and then fined with bentonite.
After about 3 weeks of clearing, I racked off the bentonite lees. Then I
stabilized, sweetened, waited 10 days for more sediment to drop, and then
bottled.
Darlene

"MOhar871" > wrote in message
...
> darlene, i have a question for you, i hope you dont mind. i am fairly new
at
> this home winemaking business...last year when i made some concord wine, i
> ended up with a ton of sediment after bottling that i was told was the
tartaric
> acid problem. so after a little research i was told about the cold
> stabilization...keep in mind i never used a clearing agent with my first
batch
> of that concord. so anyhow, now i have 4 batches of various juices which i
> began in septmeber, i had my husband bring them all out in the garage
yesterday
> for the cold stabilization. i do want to use a clarifying agent with these
and
> i assumed i was supposed to do that before bottling but you add your
before
> cold stabilizing?? will thia make a differance for me? also, we are in
pretty
> cold weather here(buffalo) i am terrified my carboys will crack! is this
safe?
> thanks a bunch, marlene