Stabilization Of Wine

[jbullard1]

What does this mean and how do I go about it?


I may need to order some more chemicals

 

[Sacalait]

To stabilize or stop a fermentation it must be refrigerated. Bring the temp. down to the mid 30's and fermentation will stop. After it has stopped give it a few days and add pot. sorbate at 1/2tsp/gal of wine to prohibit the yeast from restarting.

 

[cpfan]

Well that's one way to do it. Not sure how many winemakers actually do it that way.

Kit makers and many others, allow the fermentation to complete, then add potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate. The metabisulfite stuns or slows the yeast, and the sorbate acts as birth control stoping the yeast from reproducing.

Depending on the wine, sorbate should not be added without sulfite.

If you allow the wine to fully ferment, are not planning to sweeten the wine, and have very good sanitation practices, the sorbate is not really necessary but then that wouldn't realy be stabilization.

Steve

 

[oldwino]

To stabilize or stop a fermentation it must be refrigerated. Bring the temp. down to the mid 30's and fermentation will stop. After it has stopped give it a few days and add pot. sorbate at 1/2tsp/gal of wine to prohibit the yeast from restarting.

YIPES!!!!!!If you follow those directions your wine will taste like crap in a few weeks. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER add potassium sorbate without adding campden. Your wine will take on a geranium flavor i.e. taste. That is in Jack Keller's wine 101.

 

[Sacalait]

YIPES!!!!!!If you follow those directions your wine will taste like crap in a few weeks. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER add potassium sorbate without adding campden. Your wine will take on a geranium flavor i.e. taste. That is in Jack Keller's wine 101.

I don't know about yours but mine has never tasted likecrap! But you are right, I always add camden when I sorbate. However, cold stabilizing and adding sorbate will stop an active fermentation.

 

[arcticsid]

Steve, I'm confused. I added sulfites at the begining of my batch, Some say don't use juice with sulfites. Now your saying add more sulfites at the "end".? While I am at the subject, I have been sterilizing with a " one step sanitizer",but I have been hearing use a sulfite solution. What gives?
Greetings
Troy

 

[Luc]

YIPES!!!!!!If you follow those directions your wine will taste like crap in a few weeks. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER add potassium sorbate without adding campden. Your wine will take on a geranium flavor i.e. taste. That is in Jack Keller's wine 101.

The reason is that Sorbate will prevent yeast cells to multiply. So the few yeast cells still alive after finishing the wine can not multiply and a refermentation is not likely to happen.
Now Sorbate acts on yeast cells but not on bacteria.
That is why you need to add sulphite. It will kill all bacteria and so prevents the wine from spoiling.

Now the good part is that if you do not add sulphite your wine might come out just good.
The bad bacteria are not always present. And alcohol itself is a good conserving material that will kill most bacteria.
So there is just a chance that the wine will get the Geranium smell.
But why take that chance. Why play Russian Roulette with your wine. So just add some sulphite as a precaution.

Luc

 

[Wade E]

Troy, we add sulites in the very beginning before we add any yeast to kill off any wild yeast that might ferment our juices into something less desireable then what we wanted. We add sulfites after fermentation is done to prevent our wine from getting oxidized.

 

[Johnny A]

Stabilizing Wine

I have to tell you that I'm in process of racking my wine now. I began the wine making process the beginning of October 2008. I have gotten lots of input from many sources, including advice from this message forum. But at the end of the day. I have decided to listen to some old time Italian gentlemen. They said if you need to add things like sulfites and yeast, you might as well just go to your local wine shop and buy your wine there. I'm doing a second racking tomorrow and about a month or so after, I plan on bottling and storing in 750 ml bottles and keeping it in a wine refrigerator at 57 degrees F. So far I have no foul smells coming from the wine. I even tasted some and although you can tell it is very young. It tasted pretty good. I used nothing but Merlot grapes from California that appeared to be of good quality. I figure in the next 3 to 6 months I'll either have 17 gallons of good Merlot or vinegar (maybe worse) but at least I know there are no preservatives or chemicals. Just my 2 cents. Stay tuned. I will let you all know how things go. One way or the other.

 

[Wade E]

I have a friend who said the same thing but wasnt happy when hi whole basement turned purple from wine bottles exploding and the next year he ended up with vinegar. All in all he wasted 210 gallons aprox(he didnt lose every bottle) and now he does things mostly our way! he doesnt use any fining agents which is fine but he does use k-meta to begin with and at the ned and sorbate and he does use wine yeast which is much more predictable. He has now had 2 years with doing this after 4 years of doing it the old fashioned way and has the best wine he has ever made. There arent too many wineries that still ues the old fashioned ways for a reason but to each their own.

 

[Manimal]

I've got to agree with Wade, here... although I'm a fan of somewhat minimalist winemaking, to avoid the use of sulfite entirely and to rely exclusively on natural yeasts means that you'll have very little control in your winemaking endeavours. Sometimes it might work out well, other times it may spell complete disaster. Personally, I'm not willing to lose an entire batch of wine due to completely preventable disorders. I expect and enjoy variation from one batch of wine to another, but I want it to come down to the differences in the vintage, grape variety or region rather than bacterial spoilage, stuck fermentation, uncontrolled MLF or an excess of volatile acidity due to wild yeasts. What I would recommend is to experiment... if you're making 17 gallons, why not ferment in two or three batches, using different methods for each and assessing the results??

 

[Johnny A]

You know I have yet to rack one of the carboys. It probably will be ready in a week or two. Since you guys talked me into it, I will add sulfites to that batch just to see how well that wine holds up against the rest. I tasted some today (no sulfites) and it seemed just fine. You mean that even after it's bottled and stored in a wine refrigerator at 57 degrees F it can still spoil? Even if you kept everything sanitary? Wade and Manimal thanks for the input.

 

[cpfan]

How long do you plan to keep the wine? As I understand it, eventually oxygen will leak around the cork and through the glass resulting in oxidized wine.

Sulfite is not about today, it's about six months, and next year, and the year after.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

No matter how sanitary we are there are still microbial contaminants in there, either from the water we use or something that just didnt get sanitized enough. These contaminants can eventually spring into life once S02 level lower, just so you know fermentation itself produces S02 in your wine. Not adding sulfites can result in a Malo fermentation in your bottles like Manimal said above. there are things in life that should have been left alone and then there are things that we have made much better then what used to be.

 

[Luc]

Johnny,

I will give you a reason to use sulphites:

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2008/04/een-ongenode-gast-uninvited-guest.html

Sending 6 gallon of dandelion wine down the drain just ain't my
kind of fun.

Luc

 

[Wade E]

Luc, my wine making flag is at half staff!

 

[TheTooth]

Wow, Luc. that's awful. Thanks for sharing that story so we can all hopefully benefit from your experience.

 

[Johnny A]

It's done! Gentlemen I have acquiesced to your wisdom and sulfited my wine today. I still have one more carboy that will be ready in about a week or two and I will sulfite that upon it's initial racking. My thanks to all. Let's see how this turns out. I will keep you all posted.