Hey all,
I am making my very first batch of wine from a kit. It has been going
well until last night. I dumped in the metabisulphite, sorbate, and
clarifier per the instructions. I stirred everything in the carboy
with one of those spoon paddles attached to a drill. It foamed up
pretty good, but went down and I topped it off. I noticed there was a
lot of "debris" floating in the wine. Now, this morning there is this
floating stuff and then this big clump of brown crap at the top and it
does not look healthy. It almost looks like curdled chocolate milk or
something would be the best way to describe it.

So, what did I do or is it supposed to look like this or do I just get
rid of that stuff when I rack it for the last time in eight days after
its cleared?

I took a video of it if it helps anyone with a diagnosis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywY4aA7xy64

thanks for any input anyone might have!!

-Reed

It's fine. That's yeast in the neck. Anytime you add dry stuff to wine
with lots of CO2, which it will have after fermentation, it'll foam
like crazy. To avoid that , add the stuff to a little wine to get it
wet then add to the carboy. You're fine.

Bob


On Sep 13, 10:11*am, alphajerk > wrote:
> Hey all,
> I am making my very first batch of wine from a kit. It has been going
> well until last night. I dumped in the metabisulphite, sorbate, and
> clarifier per the instructions. I stirred everything in the carboy
> with one of those spoon paddles attached to a drill. It foamed up
> pretty good, but went down and I topped it off. I noticed there was a
> lot of "debris" floating in the wine. Now, this morning there is this
> floating stuff and then this big clump of brown crap at the top and it
> does not look healthy. It almost looks like curdled chocolate milk or
> something would be the best way to describe it.
>
> So, what did I do or is it supposed to look like this or do I just get
> rid of that stuff when I rack it for the last time in eight days after
> its cleared?
>
> I took a video of it if it helps anyone with a diagnosis:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywY4aA7xy64
>
> thanks for any input anyone might have!!
>
> -Reed

I agree with Bob that it's yeast but why did you add this now? If
it's floating it seems like you still have fermentation, give it a
gentle stir or swirl and see if it falls. Instructions are great but
there are always variables and you don't want to add those things
until the wine settles down.

Joe

Hi guys, thanks so much for the replies. I haven't touched, it but
most of the stuff has fallen away now. I was just following the
directions and timeline of when to add stuff, as this is my very first
try at making wine and i don't know any better! There was nothing
floating in it when I added the extra stuff. I really whipped the crap
out of it with the drill mounted spoon, I'm thinking a little too
forcefully. The directions just made me paranoid about "if I don't
stir it enough at this stage it won't clear properly." I think I'll be
a little more gentle next time. It's almost like I made a meringue out
of the yeast and it puffed up and floated to the top or something.
Hopefully, I'm still on track here. Thanks for the responses, they
made me feel better.

On 9/14/2008 6:27 PM, alphajerk wrote:
> Hi guys, thanks so much for the replies. I haven't touched, it but
> most of the stuff has fallen away now. I was just following the
> directions and timeline of when to add stuff, as this is my very first
> try at making wine and i don't know any better! There was nothing
> floating in it when I added the extra stuff. I really whipped the crap
> out of it with the drill mounted spoon, I'm thinking a little too
> forcefully. The directions just made me paranoid about "if I don't
> stir it enough at this stage it won't clear properly." I think I'll be
> a little more gentle next time. It's almost like I made a meringue out
> of the yeast and it puffed up and floated to the top or something.
> Hopefully, I'm still on track here. Thanks for the responses, they
> made me feel better.

Yeah, wine kits have to deal with the lowest common denominator as far
as their instructions go, and they also don't want to scare off the
beginning wine maker by recommending a nice long bulk aging period (i.e.
New wine maker: "What!?! I have to wait 9 months for this kit to
finish? Forget it, I'm buying a few bottles right now.") So the kit
instructions get you through the process at the speed of what they
figure is their new customer's attention span, rather than at the speed
of what's happening in the carboy. As you make more wine and learn more
about the process you'll find ways to modify the instructions which will
make a better wine from the same kit.

I think that their directions about stirring thoroughly come in part
from their need to have you degas the wine, since it's being made to
such an aggressive schedule. If you let it bulk age a bit this will
happen naturally. It'll also happen if you rack to a bottling bucket
and bottle from there, rather than bottling from your fermenter.


Cheers,
Ken Taborek

mail box wrote:
> On 9/14/2008 6:27 PM, alphajerk wrote:
>> Hi guys, thanks so much for the replies. I haven't touched, it but
>> most of the stuff has fallen away now. I was just following the
>> directions and timeline of when to add stuff, as this is my very first
>> try at making wine and i don't know any better! There was nothing
>> floating in it when I added the extra stuff. I really whipped the crap
>> out of it with the drill mounted spoon, I'm thinking a little too
>> forcefully. The directions just made me paranoid about "if I don't
>> stir it enough at this stage it won't clear properly." I think I'll be
>> a little more gentle next time. It's almost like I made a meringue out
>> of the yeast and it puffed up and floated to the top or something.
>> Hopefully, I'm still on track here. Thanks for the responses, they
>> made me feel better.
>
> Yeah, wine kits have to deal with the lowest common denominator as far
> as their instructions go, and they also don't want to scare off the
> beginning wine maker by recommending a nice long bulk aging period (i.e.
> New wine maker: "What!?! I have to wait 9 months for this kit to
> finish? Forget it, I'm buying a few bottles right now.") So the kit
> instructions get you through the process at the speed of what they
> figure is their new customer's attention span, rather than at the speed
> of what's happening in the carboy. As you make more wine and learn more
> about the process you'll find ways to modify the instructions which will
> make a better wine from the same kit.
>
> I think that their directions about stirring thoroughly come in part
> from their need to have you degas the wine, since it's being made to
> such an aggressive schedule. If you let it bulk age a bit this will
> happen naturally. It'll also happen if you rack to a bottling bucket
> and bottle from there, rather than bottling from your fermenter.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Ken Taborek

Good advice. In addition, from my experience, always check their website
for the latest instructions. I've had two or three that had updated
instructions that was off enough, it could have been a problem, I guess.
Luckily I called on a problem with the first one and was told of the
updated on the web. So from now on I always check the websites to ensure
I have the latest instructions.

fyi. DAve

Great advice from everyone, thanks a lot! All that stuff has fallen
back down to the bottom now and it's starting to clear. I'm going to
start another batch this weekend and have some more confidence with
what I'm doing now. Cheers! -Reed

On Sep 15, 10:23*pm, alphajerk > wrote:
> Great advice from everyone, thanks a lot! All that stuff has fallen
> back down to the bottom now and it's starting to clear. I'm going to
> start another batch this weekend and have some more confidence with
> what I'm doing now. Cheers! -Reed

You just need to get the fining agents incorporated, you don't need to
beat it in there. If you want to do that, do it before you add
anything to get the dissolved CO2 out of the wine. The best way to
make sure the wine is finished is to buy clinitest tablets or an
equivalent to determine the residual sugar content. If the wine is
not done fermenting the fermentation will interfere with clearing.

Joe