Strawberry wine problem

[gordonmull]

Hi folks

I made a strawberry wine from 4lbs of fruit in January.

Here is it's history:

09/01 strained fruit from the pulp and racked into DJ. SG 0996

10/01 SG0996. Moved to garage to clear.

12/01 Deep yeast ake on the bottom. Clearing. Blush colour. Racked to new DJ. and began degassing over 3 days indoors and then moved it back out.

10/02 Racked to new DJ. Now very clear.

12/04 Racked into new DJ and campdened. Just a smear of sediment.

It was the day after that last rack that I noticed that it had begun to cloud up again. It still hasn't cleared and there's a bit of sediment build up on the bottom. Can anyone help me with what's going on here? I'm pretty sure it's not restarted fermentation because it's spent plenty of time indoors in the past before and after racking, but I'll pop out with a hydro and check anyway.

[koomber]

My default answer for fruit wines is pectolase. It might be a pectin haze.

[goldseal]

I wouldn't have thought a pectin haze would form in a clear wine, although I stand to be corrected.

I wouldn't rule out fermentation. Rackingwould have inevitably aerated the wine a bit, and the warmer temperatures could have caused any remaining yeast to wake up.

I think you are doing the right thing by checking the SG. Leave it at least another week before checking again because the SG drop may be very slow.

I have heard of some campden tablets causing cloudiness in wine, although I can't remember which brand.

Have a sniff of the contents. What do you smell?

[lockwood1956]

Youngs campden tablets have been known to cause coudiness in wines after they were added, the carrier agent being the thing responsible (yet another reason for using sulphite solution)

I suspect, though, due to their being fresh sediment produced that ferment has started, it could be that fermentation had halted earlier because of beingg stuck, or by low temps, the SG will be an indicator.

If it had been cloudy but clearing slowly, finings would have been the answer, cloudiness and sediment dropping without the wine clearing leads me to think it has begun fermenting again


let us know the result of the SG test
regards
bob

[NorthernWiner]

You say this is outdoors?

If you've had a sudden change in weather where it's turned colder, you could be seeing some drop out of tartaric acid. Though strawberries themselves don't contain tartaric acid, if you used a grape juice base or added acid blend containing tartaric, this may be your problem.

Does the sediment look like normal powdery type sediment, or is it more crystalline?

[gordonmull]

OK I've brought it indoors for a decent inspection rather than under the garage lights.

Sediment doesn't look any different to a VERY thin yeast sediment <1mm thick. Weather is warming up.

SG is about 992 now, which rings some alarm bells but at the same time I'm now using a crappy youngs hydrometer that I don't really trust since my last France one got smashed by a falling bottle. C'est la vie as they say!

Still, a re-ferment seems the most obvious answer, doesn't it? The only mystery to me is that it's had plenty time to ferment again before when it's been in the warmth prior to racking and during degass. Maybe the oxygen added during the process this time kicked it back off and it's just this time that it's had the heat and oxygen enough to do it?

No crystals. It aint tartaric coming out. I've seen pics and it doesn't look anything like that.

Smells strongly of strawberries and is tempting me to drink it now!

It was indeed youngs campden that i added. Soon as I get a 5ml syringe they are getting chucked!

[NorthernWiner]

I agree. If you were at .996 and it's now .992, then it sounds like fermentation hadn't quite completed the first time round.