Pomegranate Wine

[kenk175]

I have a one gallon batch of Pomegranate Wine in Secondary and its almost time to rack. My question is can I use pomegranate juice to top with since I don't know of any pomegranate wine to use. What to do?

 

[Kraffty]

Sure, it would be like an Fpac, as long as you sorbate the wine first so it can't referent.
Mike

 

[kenk175]

Sorry Mike i'm not quite fluent in wine speak yet fpak sorbate referent?

 

[BernardSmith]

I think it can still ferment the juice. Adding sorbate to a large colony of active yeast will not prevent that yeast from converting the sugar to alcohol. That's like shutting the barn door after the horse has left.
People add Potassium Sorbate and Potassium Sulfate to wine to stabilize the wine. The idea is that these chemicals together prevent the wine from refermenting any residual sugars but in fact what these chemicals do is to prevent any laggard living yeasts from reproducing. The bulk of the yeasts have been racked off over several rackings over many months and the few that are left when exposed to these two chemicals stop reproducing and the wine stabilizes. However, if you simply add these chemicals to an actively fermenting wine where there is a large colony of viral yeasts the chemicals are not going to do what you hope they will do and those yeasts will convert the sugar to alcohol ..

 

[kenk175]

Thanks since it is only the first racking thats what I was thinking there will be enough active yeast to ferment the juice.

 

[RegionRat]

If you add juice and it starts to ferment no big deal. It will run its course and would still be better then topping off with water. The little bit of sugar in the juice would add a small amount of alcohol, where water would only dilute your wine. There will just be a little more lee on your next racking.

RR

 

[kenk175]

I racked it yesterday and took a sg reading before topping and after one month it read 0.990 my starting reading was 1.130 so now i'm wondering if this is going to dilute the wine or is there still enough yeast to ferment the added juice. Not sure what the next step is.

 

[Jericurl]

If you were just adding enough to top it off I don't really think that is going to be enough to significantly dilute the wine.

What was your OG and what yeast did you use?
If your yeast can handle higher alcohol % then it will likely ferment again. If it is topped out then you probably won't get any more fermentation and your wine will just be on the sweeter side.

 

[garymc]

That wine should be about 19% alcohol if the sg readings are correct. I take it you don't have access to potassium sorbate to stabilize it. If it has cleared and you've racked it off the lees enough you're not getting any sediment, you might rack it, top it up with pomegranate juice, and stick it in the fridge. The worst thing that's likely to happen is it would restart and ferment the new juice. At 19%, that wine could use some dilution with juice.