Finings anyone?

[lockwood1956]

Do you guys use finings in your winemaking?

[Axl]

i always use finnings on all my wines at the moment, as i don't know any different

[aqua]

*raises hand*

whats a fining and should I know about them?

[lockwood1956]

Fining is adding stuff to the wine to make all the paricles in suspension drop to the bottom of the demijohn/carbuoy

all sorts of different agents available

most kit wines have them packaged with the kit

additives like supakleer are available, there are many different brands.

egg whites are a good fining agent for red wines

given enough time gravity will take care of it.

but like David i like my wine clear of particulate matter as early as possible.

[ruthie]

Sometimes i do, sometimes i don't. I always use them when making a kit. I tend to leave my wines to clear on their own. If after a year they are not clear i usually add some finings. By this time the red ones are clear and just need filtering. It's the white ones i find that i have to put finings in. i usually use bentonite. This seems to work for me, but if someone has some advise to improve things, i am all ears!
Ruthie

[eggonline]

I do.
Got this finings stuff from brewshop.. its 2x bottles.. a drop of bottle A, stir & leave for 1/2 hour.. then a drop of bottle b & stir

[lockwood1956]

yup thats the stuff I use

sometimes though it doesn't clear the wine if it has a pectin or starch haze
For this I would store the wine somewhere cold for a couple of weeks and normally ther haze drops right out

I have a batch of Plum that won't clear and I'm going to give it the cold treatment, I think I will post pics of the process so people can see how it works
regards
Bob

[aqua]

that would be great bob

[ms.spain]

I use pectic enzyme and bentonite,but not together, of course.

[Daft as a Brush]

I sometimes use Gelatine granules if I use a secondary fermentor or if I need a beer to be ready quickly I use Isinglass in the keg, it doesnt matter if you stir up the sediment either, if you use good isinglass that has been stored properly it will settle quickly again.

[lockwood1956]

Wouldn't it be better to use finings before putting the beer in the keg?

I understood that you may have a bit of sediment gather in the keg from priming, but transferring sediment to the keg doesn't seem right somehow


regards
Bob

[Daft as a Brush]

There is more than one way to do it. I'm starting to use auxilary finings in the fermentor which then helps the isingglass in the keg. Having 'glasss' in the keg means that if it is disturbed it will quickly settle.

I take your point though, recently I used gelatine granules in the fermentor and didnt rack it till it was bright, then used glass in the keg to give it polish, I wanted to be able to transport the keg and for it to clear again quickly. Thats the reason brewerys use it, they can deliver a cask conditioned beer in the morning and it can be served in a short space of time.
Beer that is too bright from the fermentor may not have enough yeast to condition it in the keg.

I'm still learning about it though for instance I recently found out the quantity is critical and that if your hb shop hasn't kept it cold, it's no good.

[lockwood1956]

It just shows doesn't it that there are many many different ways to do stuff, and each to his own.

I was fascinated with your comments elsewhere about sodium metabisulphite in beer....I asked my home brew store guy about using it to sanitise bottles and he almost choked on just the thought of it. It made sense to me...if i could do it for wine bottles why not beer bottles but he said no.

Also on finings there is a great article about positive and negative charged finings in winemaker mag this month. will post a link to it once the next issue is released, then it becomes available online.

thats what makes this hobby so fascinating, everyone has their own "take"

regards
Bob

[Daft as a Brush]

I will be interested in the link cheers. I do not recommend sanitising with sodium met for beer bottles either and I didn't intend that to come accross in my post, I will have to change it if so.

Sodium met isn't an effective steraliser as it isn't effective against gram negative bacteria (don't know what they are but don't want them in my beer) SO2 stuns wild yeast but leaves brewers yeast unaffected, it allows brewers yeast to become the dominating yeast.

It is OK in wine making as wine musts contain higher sugar concentrations and are less prone to bacterial growth.

It can also be a pain in the butt because it can crystalise around the neck of your bottles meaning they need to be wiped before capping.

The only steralisers I have recommended here are thin bleach (kills all know germs dead etc.. and rinses well) and iodophor.

SO2 Neautralizes chlorine, so if you are paranoid about bleach tainting your brew, use it to rinse with.

[Daft as a Brush]

I've been reading about a test to determine the correct quantity to use in your beer, too much and too little work to a certain extent but can be easily displaced when moved, the correct amount resists displacement and will settle quickly after.

I know that people who use cornelius kegs will transfer their beer to a seperate bucket containing finings then transfer it to the corny keg. After allowing time to settle, by drawing off a pint they remove virtualy all sediment and finings, giving the keg a quick twist will dislodge any remaining sediment and finings, allow it to settle and they can draw if the remainder leaving perfectly clear beer. It will need to be injected with a supplimentry co2 source but every pint will be perfect.