back sweeting my mead

[Mtman]

Hi All I am at the point of being ready to back sweeten my mead. My question is when and how and if I should use potassium sorbate and or Potassium metabisulfite to kill any remaining yeast before I back sweeten. It has been in the secondary about 4 weeks hydrometer reading was .098 all the way down showing no sugar left when I put it in the secondary. It is a beautiful clear amber.
Thank you
I also put the coffee wine in the secondary yesterday and the skeeter pee I started on Tuesday has started to ferment in the primary I thought it would never start but now its really working.

 

[cmason1957]

Neither potassium metabisulfite nor potassium sorbate week "kill" any remaining yeast. The sorbate acts like a birth control for the yeast and keeps it from reproducing. K-meta acts to protect the wine from oxidation. K-meta will keep many wild yeasts from growing, but not commercial wine yeast.

Also, you probably aren't reading your hydrometer properly. It did not get down to 0.098, maybe 0.98x and has eaten alp the available sugar that was in your must.

Now to answer the question you are trying to ask. When do I add potassium sorbate to prevent a refermentation. I wait until it has cleared (which it sounds as if your wine might be) and you are ready to bottle it. If you are bulk aging for any significant amount of time, you need to add 1/4 tsp of k meta about every three months, assuming you are making 6 gallons and can't test your So2 levels.

 

[sour_grapes]

To be explicit: Yes, you should use potassium sorbate before you backsweeten. And you should use potassium metabisulfate now, to protect it from oxidation.

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi and Welcome Mtman. Four weeks in the secondary sounds too short for the colony of yeast to have given up the ghost. Seems to me that they may be dormant - hibernating until they can locate more sugar. I would rack the mead and allow the mead to age another two or three months and see if you have any signs of more yeast falling out of suspension. If there are no additional lees then you might think about stabilizing and back sweetening. Another trick you might try is to place your mead in refrigerator and see if the yeast drop out of suspension because of the cold temperatures. Again, I would rack if they do and so what you are in effect doing is removing more and more of the yeast before you stabilize your mead.