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How clear does my wine have to be before bottling?
I started my primary fermentation with fresh, concord grapes from my parents back yard the day after Thanksgiving. We used a 5 gallon bucket, stirring daily for one week.
We transfered it to the secondary fermenter, added a bit of sugar and water, and left it there for 4 weeks. My parents basement was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, too cold for yeast, so we moved it upstairs where it was warmer. They also didn't completely top off the wine with water. [this is probably a bad thing?].
Since then wine has stopped bubbling and cleared up a bit, but I am afraid of bottling it too early and having a disaster on my hands. How clear should the wine be before I bottle it and how can I be certain it is finished fermenting? Should I top off the container with water first and let it sit? I have no tools to test the specific gravity.
Not getting into your procedure...the first thing I would do is go buy a hydrometer. Its only going to cost you about $10-$15 and is definitely worth the insurance not to mention knowing the percentage of what you're consuming. Another thing that will work is let it sit in your secondary for 6-8 months and then stabalize with a potassium sorbate and you shouldn't have any problems with additional fermentation in the bottle. There are very good clarifying agents on the market for wine making that will help to clear your wine as well such as bentonite, sparkolloid and isinglass.
Absolutely use a hydrometer. even if you didn't take an OG reading you can still take a gravity reading to see how far along the fermentation has gone. You can also take a small sample and taste it. if it tastes real sweet you might have stuck fermentation, if it tastes pretty dry you're probably close to done fermentating.
how much sugar did you add to the grapes before fermentating? how many gallons is the batch of wine? I've made concorde grape wine with about 3 pds of sugar per gallon. It can ferment out in a few weeks but if your temp got cold the yeast might have went dormant and not fermented out completely even after warming up. take a gravity reading and post it and we can go from there.
I make a lot of wine and currently have 5 gallons of elderberry and 4 gallons of Plum wines bottled. good stuff.
DC
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