After fermentation, particles of must, yeast and tartar remain in the wine, making the drink cloudy. This problem is solved by treating the finished wine with special substances that absorb unwanted particles, causing them to precipitate. In the language of professionals, clarification of wine is called "fining". We look at the best ways to clean homemade wines from grapes, apples, and other fruits.

The most effective method of wine clarification is long-term aging. But this natural process takes too long (3-6 years) and is only suitable for expensive branded drinks.

Long-term aging of homemade wines is impractical, they are insisted for 3-5 months. After that, the drink is drained from the sediment and look at its color. If the wine remains cloudy and this does not suit you, you will have to clean it.

Clarification does not improve homemade wine, but only makes it clear and may slightly increase shelf life by removing third-party impurities. This is a desirable but optional step that can be skipped.

To determine the optimal clarification method, I recommend experimenting with different methods on a small amount of wine (250-500 ml).

Wine purification methods

1. Gelatin. One of the simplest and most effective methods, suitable for any wine (especially white grape, apple, pear and plum). Clarification of wine with gelatin is carried out according to the following technology:

1. For 100 liters of wine, take 10-15 g of gelatin. During the day, soak it in cold water, changing the water every 8 hours.
2. Dissolve the swollen gelatin in warm water, add to the wine container and mix well.
3. Leave the wine alone for 2-3 weeks, until all the turbidity gathers into flakes and precipitates.

2. Egg white. Effective for cleaning all homemade wines, especially useful for reds (grape, cherry, plum). To clarify 100 liters of drink, it is enough to separate 2-3 chicken proteins from the yolks, add a little water and beat into foam. Then mix the whipped proteins with a small amount of wine and pour into a container where the main part of the wine is located. You will see the result in 18-25 days.

3. Bentonite (white clay). It has absorbent properties, perfect for fining grape wines. Sold as a fine powder. To clean 1 liter of wine, you need 3 grams of bentonite (20 grams in a tablespoon). Technology:

1. Pour dry white clay with cold water in a ratio of 1:10 (one part of bentonite to ten parts of water) and leave for 10-12 hours. For example, to clean 20 liters of wine, you need 60 grams of white clay and 600 ml of water.
2. The clay will turn into lime. Before clarification, add water to betonite so that the mixture becomes liquid, then pour it into the wine in a thin stream.
3. Drain the wine from the sediment after 5-7 days.

Bentonite

4. Milk. Universal way. For cleaning, it is enough to add 1 teaspoon of skimmed cow's milk to 1 liter of wine, mix thoroughly and leave to stand for 3-4 days at room temperature.

5. Heat treatment. Close glass bottles with wine tightly with a cork so that the alcohol does not evaporate when heated. Put the bottles in a suitable container, pour cold water up to the neck. Slowly heat the water to 50°C and remove the container from the heat without removing the bottles from it. Wait until the water cools down.

The procedure can be repeated 2-3 times. After the last heating, the wine is allowed to settle for 5-6 days and drained from the sediment. The method is used to clean any homemade wines.

6. Clarification of wine with cold. Table wines are chilled (on the street or in the refrigerator) to -2°C, not fortified to -5°C. Under the influence of low temperatures, the particles of wort and yeast sink to the bottom. After that, the wine is quickly drained from the sediment and filtered until it has warmed up.

7. Activated carbon. I recommend using this method only in extreme cases, when an unpleasant smell is felt in the wine, indicating the presence of fusel oils. Pharmaceutical activated charcoal is ineffective, wood is needed.

Grind coal to a powder state and add to a container with wine at the rate of 3-4 g of coal per 10 liters of drink, mix well. Insist for 3-4 days, shaking every day. Filter through filter paper.

8. Tannin(powder from the core of the oak). Suitable for refining wines with a high sugar content (apple and pear from sweet varieties) and without astringency on the palate. Tannin can be purchased at a pharmacy.

Tannin

To clarify the wine, dilute 10 grams of tannin in 2 liters of distilled water, let the solution settle and filter it through filter paper. Next, add 6 teaspoons of tannin per 1 liter of wine, mix, leave for 7-10 days, then drain from the sediment.

Regardless of the method chosen, after using it, I recommend letting the wine brew for another 25-40 days, and only then bottling it. The fact is that the smallest particles that are not visible to the eye, still remain in the wine, they will settle a little later.

Hello! Today I will talk about how to lighten with bentonite. I'll tell you what it is, where to get it and how to use it correctly. Cleaning mash with bentonite is very simple, as you will see now.

Why lighten the wash

You probably know why you need to lighten the wash as well as I do, but just in case, I will briefly tell you. After fermentation, dead yeast remains in the mash, which burns during distillation. From this, the final product acquires an unpleasant odor. It also contains harmful compounds.

The easiest way to clarify is to put the fermentation tank in the cold and wait a couple of days. This is easy to do in winter, but what about when it's summer? In this case, bentonite will come to our aid. He will not only paste over the mash at room temperature, but will also do it much faster than cold (there were cases when 15 minutes were enough).

What is bentonite

Bentonite is a kind of natural clay. It is used in construction, agriculture, mechanical engineering, etc. Even in the manufacture of tire rubber and as cat litter.

But the most interesting thing for us is that it is used for fining (clarification) of wines. And quite a long time ago - from the 30s of the last century in the USA and from the 60s in the USSR.

The thing is that this clay has excellent adsorbing properties. It binds dead yeast, microorganisms, proteins, etc. and precipitates with them. In other words, she collects all the dregs from the mash and lowers it to the bottom. The result is a purified and clarified mash. We can only decant it (drain from the sediment).

Where to get bentonite

The easiest way to buy it is in specialized stores for winemakers. I recommend doing just that. It is inexpensive, and you will definitely get exactly the right bentonite for winemaking, ready for use.

If there is no opportunity or desire to buy wine bentonite, then you can buy it at a regular Pet Store. The fact is that bentonite is used as a cat litter. Carefully read the composition, it should indicate that the filler is 100% clay and there are no flavorings.

But even such a filler does not always give the desired effect. Plus, it still needs to be prepared for use. I will talk about the preparation in the next section, but for now I will give examples of well-established manufacturers of toilet fillers: Pi-Pi-Bent, CatSan, WC Closet Cat, Kotyara.

I do not advise using any others, because. not all work well. If you have experience using a manufacturer that is not included in this list, then write about it in the comments.

How to use

I just want to warn you. It is necessary to lighten completely fermented mash and at room temperature. If the process is still going on, then nothing will work.

If you are sure that fermentation is over, then proceed to gluing. If in doubt, it is better to heat the mash to 50 degrees. At this temperature, all yeast will definitely die.

Attention! Do not dispose of used bentonite down the drain. He clogs the pipes so that they can only be cleaned mechanically!

• Application of wine bentonite

1. We measure the right amount of bentonite. The instructions say that a standard sachet of 20 grams is enough for 23 liters of liquid. I usually use 1.5 grams per liter for a 10 liter fermenter. With an increase in volume, the amount of clay in proportion is better to increase.

For reference: if there are no exact scales, then navigate as follows - half a teaspoon ≈ 2 grams, a heaping tablespoon ≈ 20 grams.

But it is better to buy electronic scales of course. They come in handy in our business. You can order the Chinese. Rubles for 350.

1. Fill with cold water 1 to 10, mix and leave to swell for 2-3 hours.
2. When the clay swells, mix it again and slowly pour it into the fermentation tank, while actively stirring the mash.
3. Clarification can last from 15 minutes to a day. Usually a 10 liter bottle is pasted over for me in 20 minutes, a 20 liter bottle in 40-50.

• If you decide to use litter for toilets

1. We take the filler at the rate of 2-3 tablespoons per 20 liters of mash.
2. Grind to powder in a coffee grinder.
3. Pour the powder into a jar, pour warm water (250 ml) and mix until smooth.
4. Pour the resulting solution into the mash.

You can not dirty the grinder and not grind (although it is better to grind anyway). Just pour the filler into a jar of warm water, close the lid tightly and shake vigorously so that the bentonite does not clump. Shake the jar 4 times with an interval of 5 minutes.

Video

Below is a visual video of one of my colleagues from YouTube. Illuminates right before your eyes.

Now you know how to lighten mash with bentonite. Difficult? I also think not. Be sure to tell us in the comments how you did it? Also indicate what kind of bentonite was used. In conclusion, I will say that this is not the only way to paste over mash. In the near future I will tell you about others. And for today, I say goodbye to you.

Sincerely, Dorofeev Pavel.

Winemaking at home is a rather complicated process, since there are a number of nuances here. However, clarification of wine deserves special attention. Of course, drinks made from individual berries and fruits can be clarified on their own, which means they do not need human intervention.

These wines include those made from:

• raspberries;
• chokeberry;
• red currant;
• cranberries.

However, for the full cleaning of most of the drinks (wine, juice, moonshine mash), human help is still required. The fact is that it is during clarification and filtration that unnecessary substances are removed from the wine, due to which it, in fact, is cloudy. After removing the sediment, we get a pure noble drink that has a really marketable appearance. There are many ways to perform this procedure - down to using a flannel bag or cardboard - but today we will look at clarification with bentonite. What is this mineral? How to use it? This is what we will try to figure out.

What is bentonite and how is it related to alcohol?

By bentonite is meant a clay material belonging to the montmorillonite group and characterized by environmental friendliness and safety. One of the main features of the mineral is that when interacting with water, it tends to swell. Moreover, thanks to bentonite, sedimentation of turbid impurities is accelerated, microorganisms are removed, oxidative enzymes are adsorbed, the concentration of proteins decreases, and so on. It turns out that the mineral is associated with alcohol and winemaking, in particular, precisely because of its distinctive features.

Note! It is for this reason that bentonite for clarification of mash and wine has become increasingly popular in recent years. Let's try to get acquainted with this mineral in more detail.

The main deposits of wine bentonite

So, we found out that with the help of bentonite clays, the must or the wine itself is clarified; moreover, the mineral is used to stabilize wines in relation to protein haze (we will talk about the latter a little later). For the most part, the mineral is mined in the Transcaucasus, but more specifically, experienced winemakers recommend using bentonites from the deposits below.

1. Azerbaijan: Khurlala, Gekmala, Dash-Sakhalin, Khanlar.
2. Moldova: Tiraspol.
3. Georgia: Ascanian.
4. Ukraine: Pyzhevskoe, Gorbskoe, Kurtsevskoe.
5. Russia: Khakassia.
6. Uzbekistan: Akzamar.

Bentonite deposit - Republic of Khakassia, 10th Khutor.

It is worth noting that the mineral that goes for the suspension must be dry without fail. It should also be stored in a dry place, more precisely, in special boxes or craft bags.

What are the differences between wine bentonite?

The scope of application of bentonite is unusually wide. In the food industry, for example, where the mineral is also known as food additive E558, it is used in the production of brine and animal feed. It is also actively used in hydraulic engineering, agriculture, steel and oil refining industries.

Ordinary bentonite lefton right.

As for specifically wine bentonite, its main difference from the usual one is the increased requirement for the chemical composition. Wine bentonite must comply with the requirements of OST 18-49-71.

You can buy real Wine Bentonite from our partner – bentovin.ru.

The Bentovin company is the official representative of the only company in Russia that produces wine bentonite - Bentonite of Khakassia.

What makes drinks cloudy and why should they be clarified?

Natural rainfall is not the only reason why wine becomes cloudy. The fact is that another almost imperceptible "dregs" remains in the waste: protein mass (remains of dead yeast), yeast waste, cream of tartar, etc.. That is why the drink before bottling - regardless of the specific variety - is recommended to be clarified, or, in the language of professionals, to paste over. Let us immediately state that clarification is not the same as filtering. Various flannel or paper filters are used for filtration, but because of this, the quality of the drink deteriorates, it loses its strength and exhales. Therefore, clarification is always preferable.

As you know, the production of wine begins with the pulp. For its manufacture, it is necessary to take only fresh berries (necessarily dust-free), but in fact, unpeeled specimens, i.e., with third-party inclusions, can also get there due to indiscretion. As a result, due to such impurities, the final drink can become cloudy. Let's move on to the second reason. In the production process, the berries must be properly crushed - not large, but not small. Tellingly, the fruit seeds cannot be crushed, otherwise their particles will float in the alcohol in suspension. When the pulp stops fermenting, it must be passed through gauze to get the must. In principle, this is the first filtration of wine, but if this procedure is done inaccurately, then again, suspensions will appear in the drink.

Note! Earlier we already mentioned the tartar. Who does not know, this is an acidic salt that forms on the walls of containers during the winemaking process. This salt includes potassium tartrate and potassium hydrogen tartrate.

By the way, exactly tartaric acid is produced from tartar, it is also used in cooking as a baking powder. This stone may precipitate in case of:

• lowering the temperature (the optimal indicator is 20 degrees Celsius);
• mechanical impact;
• increase in alcohol content.

And when this happens, its compounds drag along the coloring matter, yeast residues, iron salts and other impurities found in the drink. And if the wine is of low strength, then the risk of formation of a cloudy product increases significantly. The problem can be solved by adding sugar - this will lead to the activation of the enzymatic reaction, increasing the strength and quality. And the suspensions themselves in this case will not form so intensively.

How does bentonite work?

When used for wine or mash, this mineral increases the intensity of sedimentation of cloudy particles, eliminates microorganisms, absorbs oxidizing enzymes, and significantly reduces the amount of protein and other third-party substances. It is mainly used for clarification of wines. The clarification process is based on a tandem of two processes - adsorption and flocculation cloudy particles; the stabilization process consists in the adsorption of protein impurities, polysaccharides, condensed phenols and other compounds that, in the case of prolonged storage, react with each other and precipitate.

Bentonite, on the other hand, "clings" all these substances and captures to the bottom. But, which is typical, oxidases remain active, therefore, if the sediment is clouded, then the mineral remains, together with the enzymes “attached” to them, will rise to the surface layers, react with air, and the wort will again begin to absorb oxygen. In other words, immediately after clarification, you must immediately remove the wine from the sediment.

Note! Concrete for wine is especially important during the years of intensive decay of grapes, when the must contains a large amount of oxidases.

Instructions for the use of wine bentonite from our partner – bentovin.en

So, the unique properties of the mineral, combined with its harmlessness and neutrality, made it an ideal candidate for our case. In addition to high-quality raw materials and yeast, when preparing mash, competent clarification should also be carried out. And the use of bentonite for these purposes will not only save time, but also give the drink a pleasant look, as well as improve the quality of its composition. Although the method has a drawback: at the end of the process, up to 10 percent of the product can be lost in the sediment.

Having familiarized with the theoretical material, you can proceed directly to practice. You should start with the preparation of the mineral itself.

Stage number 1. We prepare bentonite

Immediately make a reservation that there is simply no ideal recipe in this case. You can successfully use bentonite for wine 20 times in the proportion of 3 grams / 1 liter, but the 21st time the mineral may not work and its amount will have to be increased. Therefore, before starting the process, it is possible to make a trial clarification of a small volume of wort. Although often 2-3 grams / 1 liter is enough.

If the volumes exceed 20 liters, then increase the amount of bentonite by about one and a half times. Having decided on this, pour the required amount of bentonite with hot water until a 20% aqueous solution is obtained and mix it thoroughly. After 30 minutes, re-stir and leave the solution to swell for several hours. The result should be a kind of gel. If the proportions are observed correctly, then the consistency will resemble heavy cream.

Video - Experiments with bentonite concentration

Stage number 2. We prepare the wort

We continue to talk about how cleaning is done. Remember the main thing: if the yeast "works", then the precipitate will not fall out! The simplest and fastest method of preparing unfermented wort is heating to 50 degrees, at which the yeast will simply die. However, if everything was cooked correctly, then the yeast should fall into suspended animation when the sugar runs out, precipitating as a result.

The temperature should be room temperature. And perhaps most importantly: before clarification, drain the fermented liquid from the yeast sediment.

Stage number 3. We perform clarification

Upon completion of the preparatory measures, pour the concrete suspension into the wort and mix everything thoroughly. If the volumes are large (more than 20 liters), then during the first 24 hours, mixing should be carried out 2-3 times. After that, the wort should remain for a day at room temperature.

It is also worth noting that clarification is often of two types.

1. Slow, smooth– within 24 hours.
2. Rapid(precipitate falls, but the turbidity does not disappear - everything looks the same), followed by daily sedimentation of suspended matter.

If there is time, shake the container again after a day and leave it for the same amount of time. Then drain the contents from the sediment. That's all, for a more detailed acquaintance with the issue, we recommend that you watch the thematic video below. Good luck!

Video - The use of wine bentonite

The material is provided by the site http://bentovin.ru/. A unique store of rare items for home brewing.

Lightening mash with bentonite- one of the easiest, fastest and safest ways to remove the mash from the sediment. In this article, we will talk in detail about where to get bentonite, how to prepare it for use, and describe the clarification technology. If for some reason you cannot use bentonite, you can use other methods of lightening the mash.

Where to buy bentonite?

You can buy ready-made, purified bentonite in specialized stores for moonshiners and winemakers. For example, in .

If it is not possible to buy purified bentonite, you can use cat litter. Many cat litters are made from granulated bentonite clay, as it absorbs not only moisture but also odor. When choosing a filler, study the labels on the packaging and make sure that it is really made from bentonite (white clay) and that it does not include additional fragrances and flavors.

For those who would not like cat litter to lighten mash, you can buy cosmetic white clay at a pharmacy. At the same time, it is also worth studying the composition, and making sure that there are no flavors.

How much bentonite is needed for clarification?

If you don't have a cat at home, buy the smallest package. The recommended concentration per 1 liter of mash is only 2-3 grams (half a teaspoon). For 10 liters of mash, you need to take 1 full tablespoon of bentonite (about 20 grams). When clarifying large volumes of mash (from 10 liters), the amount of bentonite must be increased to 5 grams per 1 liter of mash.

Preparation of bentonite for clarification

The bentonin preparation process consists of the following steps:

If bentonite is in granules or raw pieces, it must be crushed and dried in an oven at 120°C for 30-40 minutes;

After drying, bentonite is ground to a powder in a coffee grinder, blender or rolling pin on a cutting board;

Pour bentonite powder in small portions into hot water (0.5-1 l), stirring constantly to avoid the formation of lumps.

After that, the mixture is left for 5-7 minutes so that the clay is saturated with moisture, after which it is mixed again. At this point, the consistency of the solution should be like that of fatty kefir.

Preparation of mash for clarification

Before proceeding to lighten the mash, you need to make sure that it has completely fermented. Unfermented mash is not clarified. You can determine the readiness of mash by three signs:

By stopping the release of carbon dioxide bubbles

According to the bitter taste of mash

According to the time that this type of yeast usually takes to ferment

In order to be sure of the readiness of the mash, you can use a device for measuring the amount of sugar in a solution - a wine meter-sugar meter. To do this, 1.5-2 liters of mash are taken from the fermentation tank and filtered through several layers of gauze to remove yeast corpses.

Then the selected and filtered mash is poured into a transparent container with a wide neck (for example, into a three-liter jar) and the sugar meter is lowered into the liquid. After waiting until the device stops swaying, record the readings on the scale. If the percentage of sugar in the mash does not exceed 2%, you can proceed to clarification and distillation.

Technology for cleaning mash with bentonite

Before adding a bentonite solution to the wash, it must be shaken to raise the settled particles of clay from the bottom. Then you need to strongly stir the mash with a long spoon or spatula-mixer, so that a large and deep funnel forms on the surface. After that, a bentonite solution is quickly poured into the center of the funnel. These manipulations allow you to instantly distribute bentonite throughout the entire volume of the mash. If the fermentation tank has a narrow neck and it is not possible to create a rotation of the mash, you can simply pour in bentonite, tightly seal the neck and shake the mash for a while until the bentonite solution is completely and evenly distributed.

After precipitation, you need to carefully collect (decant) the clarified mash, without disturbing the sediment, and pour it into another container or into a distillation cube. To collect and overflow the mash, you can use a piece of ordinary PVC hose or a special overflow siphon.

Braga that has undergone the above clarification procedure with bentonite will be almost transparent and without an unpleasant yeast odor. When distilling clarified home brew, moonshine turns out cleaner and almost does not smell (if you cut off heads and tails correctly).

Attention! The sediment remaining after the collection of the mash, consisting of yeast and bentonite, must not be drained into the sewer! Swollen clay can tightly clog the sewer, and it will be very difficult to clear this blockage. To dispose of the sediment, it must be scooped out of the fermentation tank into an unnecessary container or a tight bag (if necessary, dry, leaving it open for several days), and thrown into the trash.

Before bottling the wine after a long exposure, it is desirable to clarify it. For this, various substances are used: tannin, egg white, gelatin, bentonite, fish glue. This process is called "fining" the wine.

After three to six months of aging, light and strong table wines can be served at the table. If you did everything right, and the wine, after rapid fermentation, was defended in the right conditions, then the drink should lighten itself and it can be safely bottled. However, there are cases when the wine completely refuses to clarify on its own, which is especially true for white wines and some fruit and berry wines. In addition, a barely perceptible turbidity remains in a transparent-looking drink - the waste products of yeast fungi, the protein mass left over from dead yeast, cream of tartar and other impurities.

Before bottling wine, no matter what sort it is, it is desirable to clarify it, or, as professional winemakers say, to paste over. By fining is understood the addition to wine of various substances that have an adsorbing effect and contribute to the precipitation of foreign impurities. It should be noted right away that clarification (fining) and wine filtration are two different things. Wines are filtered through various filters made of paper, flannel, etc. This process greatly affects the quality of the wine, and not for the better. During filtration, the drink “exhales”, which means it becomes less durable, so fining is always a priority.

In fact, in oenology - the science of wine - there is a whole section that studies the causes of clouding of wines and ways to combat this phenomenon. At wineries, this is treated very carefully and factors that can lead to clouding are excluded in advance. But at home, such extremes rarely reach, so you have to rely on chance and, if necessary, take drastic measures. Why radical? Yes, because both filtration and fining of wine lead to a decrease in the quality of the product - they "peel off" its taste and aroma, although not to a large extent. But filtering does much more than that.

Cream of tartar is an acidic salt that forms on the walls of a vessel during the production of wine. It consists of potassium hydrotartrate (KC4H5O6) and potassium tartrate (K2C4H4O6). It is tartar that is used for the production of tartaric acid, as well as in other areas of cooking as a baking powder.

It precipitates at low temperatures, an increase in alcohol content and as a result of mechanical action (shocks, mixing). When precipitated, tartaric compounds carry along yeast cells, dyes, silica, salts of iron, ammonium, and other impurities found in wine.

Choosing a gluing agent is also not so simple. For white wines, gelatin is better, for red wines with a tart taste - chicken protein, and for sweet and not tart wines, which indicates a low content of tannins - tannin or fish glue. If the dosage is correctly calculated, then these substances form bonds with third-party impurities in the form of flakes, which subsequently precipitate.

If you add them less, then clarification will not work, and if you add more, then the wine may cloud even more. Therefore, before fining the entire batch of wine, you should conduct several samples on a small amount of it and choose the optimal proportions for yourself (and the substance that will least affect the taste and aroma).

Clarification of home wine in practice

Clarification with gelatin

This is one of the best ways to get rid of haze and cause minimal damage to the product. Gelatin can also be dosed more accurately, unlike, for example, egg white. For 10 liters of wine, you need from 0.5 to 2 g of high-quality, natural gelatin. Before pasting, it must be soaked for 2-3 hours in 5-10 times the amount of cold water (you can soak for a day, you need to change the water 2-3 times). Then you need to add the same amount or a little more boiling water and mix well. The result should be a gelatin solution with a temperature of 35-40 ° C without lumps.

This is what a perfectly clarified wine should look like.

The wine must be twisted into a funnel and gradually pour in the gelatin solution in a thin stream, not forgetting to constantly stir the drink. Then the wine is poured into a vessel, which must be tightly corked and left in a cool place for 2-3 weeks until it is completely clarified. After that, it is enough to drain it from the sediment. Before using gelatin, several samples should be taken so as not to miss the amount. After 3-4 days it will become clear which sample will ultimately give the best result.

Lightening with egg white

One egg white is enough to clarify 50 liters of wine, you can take 2-3 per 100 liters. It is very important to use fresh eggs. Carefully separate the protein from the yolk and lightly beat it with a little water until foamy. Pour the resulting solution into the wine and mix it thoroughly, then install a water seal on the container and send the wine to settle for 2-3 weeks. Protein, like gelatin, binds tannins, so it is advisable to add it to white wines where tannins are not appropriate, as well as to red wines, as an intermediate purification agent.

Clarification with bentonite

Bentonite

They can be clarified immediately or do it after cleaning the wine with protein or gelatin in the event that they did not give a precipitate. Bentonite is just refined clay. Sold as a fine-grained gray powder. If you have not been able to buy bentonite specifically for winemaking purposes, you can use clay cat litter. The main thing is that the clay is cleaned and disinfected.

For 1 liter of wine you need 1-3 g of bentonite. Samples should be carried out before gluing to determine the exact amount.

The process of clarification of wine with bentonite approximately looks like this:

1. Bentonite in the right amount is poured with 10 times the amount of water for 10-12 hours (overnight). During this time, the clay will swell and turn into a suspension. Then you need to add the same amount of clean water to it and mix until a homogeneous, creamy mass.
2. We twist the wine into a funnel and pour bentonite into the center in a thin stream, constantly stirring the drink.
3. We wait 5-7 days until the sediment completely falls out and drain the crystal clear wine.

Lightening with fish glue

Fish glue, unlike gelatin and protein, does not bind tannins, which means that it is good to use it for red wine that is not tart or very sweet. For 100 liters of wine, 1.5-2 g of good catfish glue is enough. It must be soaked in cold water and changed frequently until the glue granules are completely swollen. Then you need to take a small amount of wine, heat it up and pour it on the swollen granules.

When the glue is completely dispersed, it must be strained through a flannel to get rid of lumps and other impurities, and then pour into the wine and mix well. After 2-3 weeks, the precipitate should fall out completely.

Clarification with tannin

Tannin is an odorless substance with an astringent taste. It is sold in pharmacies in the form of a yellowish powder. It is extracted mainly from oak, but there are enough tannins in the skins, seeds and ridges of grapes. It should only be used to clarify red wines (and very sweet, non-tart fruit wines) and only for those with little or no astringency. If you were preparing wine "in white", then tannins should not be used.

To clarify the wine, you need to take 10 g of the purest tannin and dissolve it in 1-2 liters of distilled water. The infusion should be given time to settle, then strain it through filter paper, pour into a bottle, and then use. On average, 6 teaspoons of the solution are needed for 1 liter of wine, but samples must be taken before adding it, otherwise the wine can be very spoiled.

It is not difficult to make a test: take several bottles and fill them with 0.5 liters of wine, and then add an arbitrary amount of tannin solution to each of the bottles. For example, in the first bottle 1 tsp. solution, in the second - 2, etc. After 6-7 days, you can see the result and recalculate the amount of solution for the entire batch of wine. Now the solution must be poured into the wine, mix everything well and stand for 7-10 days, after which the clarified wine can be drained from the sediment.

Wine clarification test in production

Clarification with milk (casein)

You can try to clarify the wine with milk. For 1 liter you need to take 1 tsp. skimmed cow's milk, mix thoroughly and leave for a few days to precipitate. The milk should curdle and form the same flakes that were discussed at the beginning of this article.

Even after fining, the wine should be aged for at least another month.

If all the described methods did not lead to success, then, unfortunately, nothing else will help your guilt. If at the same time its taste is not affected, then invite friends over and cook mulled wine or punch from it. If the taste leaves much to be desired, then the only right decision would be to overtake it for moonshine (grape - for) or, in the absence of equipment and desire, simply pour it into the sewer. But let me remind you again: any fining worsens the quality of wine, in particular, it reduces the amount of tannins, so it is better to lighten the wine by aging.

You can also resort to cryostabilization, which I wrote about in an article about homemade grape wine. In the same place, I described the conditions necessary for the correct aging of the product, observing which you will surely get a beautiful, transparent wine.