I am making a batch of rhubarb wine and it is near the end of fermentation. Everything seems normal except that it is absolutely opaque, not just hazy but more like milk. Is this normal for rhubarb wine at this stage or do I have a problem? I made a batch last year and was only slightly hazy at the end of fermentation. It smells good, SG started at 1.090 now is at 1.003. There seems to be no cause for alarm except the appearance.
I wouldn’t worry about it. All that haze is flavor and mouthfeel IMO. It’ll clear up, are you on your primary, secondary, tertiary?
Still on primary but I will be racking this weekend.
I’d rack it with some nutrient. I will generally rack fruit wine and Mead twice to get it finished
Definitely rack it and give it a chance to clear. You don’t want to bottle cloudy wine, and at this point it’s full of CO2 and you’ll want to give it a chance to dissipate.
I don’t think there is reason to be concerned at this point. No two fermentations are identical, so just because it’s proceeding differently than the first batch, probably just fine. Two of the main causes of cloudiness are suspended yeast and pectin haze. Suspended yeast just takes time, but if you have pectin haze you’ll need to use some pectic enzyme to clear it. Also, super-kleer KC is REALLY effective at clearing a stubborn wine.
I’d suggest racking it to secondary (add some sulfite if you’re into that kind of thing), give it another month or so, and see if it starts clearing on its own. If you can drop temperature, even by 5 degrees or so, that also helps. If you don’t see any improvement at that point, it’s probably time to consider other options.
