Not Sure if I've Screwed Up or Not

[RickD]

I've got a gallon + 750ml of Blackberry wine. I'm trying a modified Dangerdave Dragon's Blood process (modified by addition Bentonite after primary). What I've done so far:

• Primary fermentation to 0.993
• Strained lees (mesh bag), added Bentonite, racked to carboy, airlocked

So the wine has been sitting now for 5 days. It looks and smells great. Was I wrong for not having added K-meta and sorbate after racking? Is it too late?

My next planned steps:

• Rack off lees
• try to degas
• add K-meta, Sparkelloid and sorbate
• rack and airlock.

Thanks.

 

[sour_grapes]

You can add k-meta now. I wouldn't sweat the 5-day delay.

You do not need to add sorbate unless you are planning to backsweeten. Are you?

You do not need to degas or to use sparkalloid if you are going to let it age for a long time; it will clear and degas naturally if you wait. However, you can choose to do those things to speed it up if you want.

 

[RickD]

You can add k-meta now. I wouldn't sweat the 5-day delay.

You do not need to add sorbate unless you are planning to backsweeten. Are you?

You do not need to degas or to use sparkalloid if you are going to let it age for a long time; it will clear and degas naturally if you wait. However, you can choose to do those things to speed it up if you want.

Thank-you!

My plan/desire is to bottle asap and age in bottles. I DO intend to back sweeten.

Just to be clear, when you say I can add K-meta now, am I correct in assuming you mean AFTER my planned racking?

 

[sour_grapes]

Thank-you!

My plan/desire is to bottle asap and age in bottles. I DO intend to back sweeten.

Just to be clear, when you say I can add K-meta now, am I correct in assuming you mean AFTER my planned racking?

It doesn't really matter which. The important thing is that it goes in there about now. Personally, I often do WHILE racking, i.e., start the siphon from one vessel to another. Meanwhile, add the correct amount of k-meta to a cup, throw some wine from the siphon into the cup, dissolve the k-meta, add the cup to the vessel that is receiving the wine. But the order is not so important.

 

[RickD]

OK. If I do it now, i.e., prior to racking and degassing, do I need another dose prior to bottling?

 

[sour_grapes]

It depends on how long you wait before bottling! If you wait three months, then yes. If you wait 2 weeks, then no. In between, well, you pays your money and you takes your chances!

 

[Scooter68]

Is your wine clear already? If not, while not critical, bottling "asap" will lock all the sediment in the bottle. Also it's going to be tough to figure out how much back-sweetening to do for a new wine. Blackberry most times needs a little bit of sweetening to bring out the full flavor. I'm not talking about turning it into a sweet wine or even semi-sweet but just a bit, perhaps only up to about 1.000 will get good results.

That's one of the biggest drawbacks to bottling a fruit wine asap, it's a lot harder to know what that wine will taste like in 9-12 months or whenever you drink it. (Hopefully you don't plan on drinking any of before at least 9-12 months. You've only got 5 bottles worth of wine there and I can tell you from my personl experience that it won't last long unless you end up hating the wine. My first 3-4 batches were 1 gallon batches and I had to almost lock away a bottle of each in order to have something to open 2 years down the road. Waiting at least 6 months to bottle will give you a much better chance of having a really good wine to enjoy and share with friends.

 

[hounddawg]

my first batch was 39 gallons, to date,, when i try a new wine i make 20 gallon which finish at 18 gallon or 3# 6 gal carboys, just the way i started and continue to do so, on blackberry i like it to taste like good blackberries off the briar patch, so mine finish at a FG of 1.040,, now in grape that would be sweet, but not in blackberry, strawberry i go for a FG of 1.030,,, each fruit comes off differently, but that's just me,,,
Dawg