Hydration of bentonite in wine making

I read a master thesis on wine making where they looked at fining agents. Not sure if I am allowed to post
the link but the main take away is never use gelatin to fine wine as it strips too much and to hydrate your
bentonite above 140 F. The later I found to be true for sure. When I hydrate bentonite at 135F it did not
“dissolve”. At 145 F it turned into a finely divided gray mass. The thesis claimed it is much more effective
hydrated this way.

Not familiar with bentonite. I don’t use any fining in my wine. But i dont make many whites which i read its used for. Wonder of anyone uses it in beer

you can post a link. if its out there and linkable

Some of my red wine kits include bentonite in them, specifically lodi ranch cab, australian cab, and amarone. These wines are full of tannins and I age them at 55 F for 2 years in stainless steel kegs under beer gas (N2/CO2 ). The australian cab has so much tartaric acid in it, that I get some meta tartrate crystals form in the bottom of the keg. Maybe they have so much protein in them that the kit makers are not concerned about over stripping the red wines. I do wonder if the use of calcium bentonite in my australian cab may have helped the meta tartrate crystals to form.

Surprised you don’t fine wines. As for beer, I prefer gelatin. What I read on bentonite in beer is that it is useful in eliminating protein haze. Use at 0.1 to 0.5 parts per thousand.

Links are welcome especially beer/wine related. Spam type links will be deleted but obviously yours would not.

I’ve always been able to get my wine clear. I dont do kits i have a local source for fresh juice not sure if that makes a difference. I just rack it if its cloudy and age till clear. I age in glass covered in black bags so i can monitor it

I have been thinking about fresh juice but I am in Pittsburgh and California is so far away. How do you get good fresh juice?
Do you measure the residual acidity of the wine juice and adjust for it? If so, how do you do both?

I do the kits because this is all handled but yes kits are expensive. I buy the most expensive kits because I have wine snob friends.
That’s also why I age my red wine so long. I age it in stainless kegs at 55F in a old frig with temp control. It takes up less space than
30 bottles. I periodically taste the wine and the high tannin reds really do seem to mellow out with age. They have less of a bite after
2 years.

If I had a good source of juice I would probably look into getting the equipment in to measure residual acidity as well as free SO2.

I only have one glass carboy and only use it as last resort with the carrying straps. I am extremely safety conscious,
perhaps overly so.

I have a place here in CT that every fall a refrigerator tractor trailer of juice and another of grapes. I buy juice and some cases of grapes and blend in. I dont do any testing except taste. I keep my glass carboys in milk crates on a rolling cart so only have to handle when empty. I’ll not use glass for beer. Im not a wine snob but i have some friends who are or should i say think they are.

I’d bet if one looked hard enough, you’ll find that grapes are also sold by the bulk… they’re in like 35 lbs boxes… So then you need to squeeze them…
Sneezles61

The place selling the grapes sets up a crusher and they’ll crush’m for you if you want. We have a huge population of Portuguese people and a big market for the grapes. Actually its my brew store and they also have a brewery attached but they tell me the wine makers are there bread and butter. By the way the Portuguese make the best homemade wine IMO