We made some wine years ago when it was all the craze, quit and then
started again a year ago (plenty of time to forget everything!), and
made some apple wine that we started in Oct. 2002. We bottled it in
late Feb. of this year and all looked good, sediment wise. The problem
is, it is still is throwing off sediment (we didn't fine or filter). A
couple of months ago we did a half-baked filter job on two bottles so
we could rebottle it to look decent as a gift for the people who gave
us the apples. Those bottles have gotten a filmy sediment that seems
to coalesce over time into little 'clumps' or 'flakes' of brownish
unsavory in appearance, very light weight sediment.

One thing I will mention: (remember, we're 'restarting' any winemaking
knowlege here!) we had trouble getting the fermentation started in the
primary. So we added another packet of yeast (this is a 5 gallon
batch) and that didn't work either. It turned out that we needed to
raise the temp to get the fermentation started but by the time we
figured that out, we may have added a third packet of yeast.

So, did adding the extra yeast cause this long sediment production or
is it because of the nature of apples, or is there another cause? We
made a batch of apple years ago and do not remember this kind of
problem with sediment. Plus, we have a 5 gal. batch of apple and a 6
gal. batch of pear, apple combo going and could use some advice on
getting this sedimentation problem under control for these batches. I
know we bottled a bit (maybe a LOT?) early. What advice can you more
experienced folks give us? By the way, the apple wine is quite good
(we think) and we're solving the sediment problem for these bottles by
doing a crude coffee filter filtering when we open the bottle for
drinking.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Chuck