Cold
Stabilizing
Fall Bright,
The Winemakers Shoppe
If
your wine is not clear, you’ll need to fine before
Your wine should be brilliant, having fallen bright
and fermented dry. Now, you can cold stabilize. Put glycerin or
sufficient alcohol (vodka) in the airlock to prevent freezing.
If your wine is not dry (take a hydrometer reading!) please consider
the use of pressure safe bottles such as champagne or beer bottles or the use
of Potassium Sorbate.
Place the carboy at 25-30o F for 2 weeks or more. Excess tartrates will precipitate from the wine. This mellows the wine by reducing the acid. It will help stabilize the wine by preventing these tartrates from settling out after bottling. Rack into a clean carboy while cold. Add proper metabisulfite.
Filter if desired and bottle when stable. Always rinse bottles with a C-Brite or a metabisulfite solution. Drain well. The drainer trees are very nice for this purpose.
If your climate doesn’t allow conditions for cold stabilizing, utilize an old refrigerator. If you can find a vintage model with the icebox in the main interior, cut the bottom out of the icebox and allow that cold to drop into the refrigerator to obtain the lower temperatures. If you live in our northeastern winter climate and are using a garage or other outbuilding or cellar steps, install a thermometer and keep a log of outside temperatures plus the temperature of the chosen area for comparison. It the expected mean overnight is going to be “in the teens”, you’ll appreciate knowing whether your wine will safe or not. The safe low-end temperature range is 20 degrees F. A safer low end temperature is 25 degrees F. You may luck out if your carboy is in an area that went to 16-20 degrees F, but do you have luck? Some winemakers have had two 5-gallon carboys of wine stabilizing side by side and had one break but not the other!
Super Seeding
Super seeding is the use of a mega dose of tartaric acid at the rate of 4 grams/liter and keeping the wine in agitation for 2-3 hours at 26oF. Without seeding, the cold stabilization (detartration) should be extended for a month or more rather than weeks. (Crystals from earlier reactions can be ground up with a mortar and pestle and recycled for seeding.)