Did not stabilize my wine prior to bottling...

[chipdouglas415]

Did not stabilize my wine prior to bottling... Should i uncork and add then re-bottle? This is my first batch i have ever done and i guess i was a bit excited and jumped the gun. After bottling corks have risen a bit is this due to lack of head space? Fermentation is no longer active. If i should add stabilizer what amount and should it sit for a certain time before bottling again? Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome to WMT!

Can you tell us a bit more about your wine? The most important question is: What was your specific gravity (SG) when you bottled it?

 

[chipdouglas415]

My Sg is less then 1 .9 ish fermentation definitely not active.

 

[cmason1957]

If your sg was below .9 when you bottled, then there probably is no need to unbottle and add potassium sorbate. The odds that you would get a referment are very, very low and most of us leave out the sorbate at that level. You might have some excess CO2 that is escaping, pushing the corks up. I think what I would do, in this case is keep them chilled, drink them sooner, rather than later.

 

[chipdouglas415]

Should I store in a fridge or do you think a cool basement will be good?

 

[abrewkat]

One way I could tell I had a referment happening is that when the bottles were open, they fizzed, and the wine was quite carbonated. Have had this happen twice- my first time making mead, the SG didn't move for weeks, so thought I was good. Bottled it, and suddenly the yeast started going again. The SG hadn't been too high, either, about 1.015, but enough. Second batch I thought I had stabilized, back sweetened it, and then had to uncork, mix, restabilize, filter and rebottle. Flavour changed, and then my filters were apparently stored with something scented so we ended up with 23 bottles of floral soap scented/flavoured wine

 

[chipdouglas415]

Yes my Sg is def under 1 and no fizzyness I think my headspace is causing the corks to move upwards

 

[pete1325]

If in doubt don't lay them on their side, the corks could blow. a S.G of 1.9 seems like it still had some fermenting to do. I normally wait until the wine hit S.G. of 1.000 before racking from PF. Was it 1.9?

 

[chipdouglas415]

Sorry no it is at .9 not 1.9

 

[sour_grapes]

Sorry no it is at .9 not 1.9

I agree with Craig (@cmason1957 ) that you will be fine with a SG of less than 1.000.

BTW, citing a SG of 0.9 is not accurate. It is most likely 0.99x, with "x" being somewhere between 0 and 7 or so. This is vastly different than 0.9, i.e., 0.900, which is essentially not possible in winemaking.

 

[chipdouglas415]

Thanks understood

 

[pete1325]

What size corks did you use?

 

[chipdouglas415]

#8 i think next time will use #9

 

[billybigcreek]

How old is the wine and how long has it been since you added potassium metalbisulfite?

 

[chipdouglas415]

I have had the wine aging since October I believe the only time is used potassium metalbisulfite prior to adding yeast

 

[KCCam]

It’s important to learn to read and report your SG accurately. In another thread a lot of time was spent advising a member about his wine that was stuck at 1.08, then we found out later it was actually 1.008. Huge difference. Made all the advice he got completely opposite to what it should have been. It helps if you report it with all 3 decimal places, like 0.990 Instead of just 0.99.

 

[billybigcreek]

I have had the wine aging since October I believe the only time is used potassium metalbisulfite prior to adding yeast

I would guess it is more than likely to blow the cork under a temperature change. Its also possible that it won’t. You could reopen one, sprinkle a little sugar in it, if it starts gushing out like a volcano you will know if it’s alive. I would have re-added metabisufite after 90 to 120 days just for preserving and then bottled. That’s still not a guarantee for wine less that 18 to 24 months old. But it helps.