Backsweeting / topping off question

[cooknhogz]

I made an apple wine that just finished in the secondary and I plan to stableize and rack one more time this weekend. The question I have is, after I rack and add meta and Sorbate, because I will be backsweeting, can I top off the carboy with fresh (pasteurized) apple cider right away or wait some time for the chemicals to take effect?

 

[Johnd]

I made an apple wine that just finished in the secondary and I plan to stableize and rack one more time this weekend. The question I have is, after I rack and add meta and Sorbate, because I will be backsweeting, can I top off the carboy with fresh (pasteurized) apple cider right away or wait some time for the chemicals to take effect?

As long as the chems dissolve well and are mixed in, I’ve always gone ahead and done the sweetening at the same time, but always allowed several days to a week before bottling....just to be safe.

 

[Arne]

Should be ok, but might cloud the wine back up and you will have to wait for it to clear again. Arne.

 

[salcoco]

I would wait at least a month or more for the wine to degas and stabilize before adding anything other than K-meta. add K-meta now let wine clear then in about a month do your sweetening add sorbate and k-meta wait a week to insure no fermentation then bottle.

 

[Scooter68]

Add in apple juice at this point and there is a pretty good chance your will become cloudy or hazy even if that juice appears crystal clear.

Be prepared to have to wait for the wine to clear again.

 

[cooknhogz]

Thank you all for the replies I have 5 gallons of Apple, Merlot, Riesling, Mead and Blackberry going right now and will be slightly backsweeting all of them. Again, thanks for the info.

 

[BgWine]

Question myself on the process. Going to be backsweetening andadding an F-pack to my peach wine. To do this will be adding kmeta and sorbate then the fpack. The fpack is going to really cloud my wine. Should I add in a clearing agent along with the fpack, wait a month, then bottle? What is the federal rule of thumb and if you do add a clearing agent which should I use during this stage? I typically add bentonite during the primary fement.

 

[WinoDave]

Question myself on the process. Going to be backsweetening andadding an F-pack to my peach wine. To do this will be adding kmeta and sorbate then the fpack. The fpack is going to really cloud my wine. Should I add in a clearing agent along with the fpack, wait a month, then bottle? What is the federal rule of thumb and if you do add a clearing agent which should I use during this stage? I typically add bentonite during the primary fement.

I just let mine clear naturally. It will probably clear out in 2-3 weeks.