Clay for wine purification: pros and cons for clarification and calculation of proportions

Making homemade wine is an interesting and exciting process. Each winemaker has his own recipes and secrets for making drinks. Some prefer grape, others - berry or fruit wines. Getting rid of sediment and impurities from drinks, clarifying and filtering the gifts of Dionysus is also a very responsible process. Using clay to refine wine is one way to get a beautiful, aromatic drink.

Pros and cons of using white clay to purify wine

There are several ways to get rid of sediment, yeast flavor and stop the fermentation process in young wine.Apply egg white, gelatin, tannin, skim milk. The use of white clay is one of the most popular types of cleaning product. This clay is called bentonite. You can buy it at a hardware store, online stores for winemakers, or buy cat litter in the form of granules, on the packaging of which there is an inscription: "100% bentonite without impurities and flavors." Cosmetic varieties without additives will do.

Pros and conswine is clarified quickly and efficiently;betonite does not change the taste and aroma of the product;the sediment is dense, a clear drink is easy to drain.product losses during production - 5-10%;the aroma of the drink may become less intense.

The main disadvantage of such clarification is that it is not always possible to buy a special tool for winemaking, and the use of cat litter scares most beginner winemakers.

Important: clay for clarification of wine must first be diluted with water.

Bentonite is chemically neutral, economical and cheap for the consumer. It can be used to re-clean the product if clarification by other methods (gelatin, egg white) did not work.

Calculation of proportions

To clarify 5 liters of wine, 15 grams of bentonite is needed. If not a special clay for winemaking, but a cosmetic version of the product or cat litter, the bentonite should be crushed and then laid out on a baking sheet. The process takes 40-45 minutes and is carried out at a temperature of -120-130 °C.

After calcination, the clay is crushed in a coffee grinder, bentonite is stored in a tightly closed container so that the clay does not absorb moisture and odors. Bentonite is best suited for clarifying grape wines. It is also used to remove fusel oils in the production of moonshine.

Instructions for use

1 part of clay is poured with 10 parts of water and left to swell for 12-14 hours. Then more water is added, bringing the resulting lime to a liquid state. The wine in the container is intensively mixed to form a funnel, clay suspension is poured into it and the container with wine is set aside.

Wine clarification takes 5-7 days. Strong varieties clear faster than other varieties. After that, the finished wine is carefully drained, and the clay with sediment is thrown away.

Problems when using

When using cat litter, test lightening on a small amount of product should be done. In order not to accidentally spoil the whole drink.

Bentonite should not be added to dry wine or must. Then a large lumpy substance will simply appear at the bottom of the dishes, and the drink will be spoiled.Clay must first be prepared. The sediment from the wine must immediately be poured out of the container into a plastic bag or improvised container and thrown into the trash. To avoid clogging, do not drain it into the sewer. The wine container is washed immediately, without waiting for the winemaking waste to harden.

The use of bentonite allows you to get at home a high-quality and tasty drink with a rich taste and aroma.

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