Stabilized Too Early

[justsomedude]

Looking for some advice…

I recently racked my cab during primary since primary was taking longer than expected and I wanted to let the wine finish fermenting in a clean carboy. When I racked it at ~1.3SG. After I had finished I put in 1/4 tsp Kmeta. The thought was that it will sit in secondary for a month plus so I wanted to protect the wine. However, I completely missed the fact that this will stop fermentation.

My question is, how bad will this mess up my wine? Am I stuck at 1.3SG or will the wine still continue to ferment, albeit much slower? Is there any way to salvage the wine? Any advice helps, I’ve definitely learned a valuable lesson already. Thanks!

 

[Johnd]

Looking for some advice…

I recently racked my cab during primary since primary was taking longer than expected and I wanted to let the wine finish fermenting in a clean carboy. When I racked it at ~1.3SG. After I had finished I put in 1/4 tsp Kmeta. The thought was that it will sit in secondary for a month plus so I wanted to protect the wine. However, I completely missed the fact that this will stop fermentation.

My question is, how bad will this mess up my wine? Am I stuck at 1.3SG or will the wine still continue to ferment, albeit much slower? Is there any way to salvage the wine? Any advice helps, I’ve definitely learned a valuable lesson already. Thanks!

Kmeta will rarely stop fermentation, though it may stun your yeast and slow things for a while. Keep the yeast happy in all other factors (temp, food, pH) and let the sulfite dissipate. I’m assuming that the SG you are referencing is actually 1.03 and not 1.30, otherwise, we have a different problem!!

 

[Rice_Guy]

* low levels of metabisulphite does not stop the yeast from fermenting. It produces a stress or fence that selects for strains which are tolerant of free SO2. When you racked you likely had free SO2 levels in the five to ten ppm range/ organic molecules soak up meta. ,,, also the act of racking introduces several ppm oxygen into the wine so there is something for meta to attach to.
* patience, I would wait at least a day before reacting.
* future note, I will rack at 1.020 or 1.030 or 1.010. It is actively producing CO2 so is protected from the worst of oxidation. I also would add meta and when racked at this point would put it under air lock.

 

[justsomedude]

Kmeta will rarely stop fermentation, though it may stun your yeast and slow things for a while. Keep the yeast happy in all other factors (temp, food, pH) and let the sulfite dissipate. I’m assuming that the SG you are referencing is actually 1.03 and not 1.30, otherwise, we have a different problem!!

Thank you for the info! Yup, I meant 1.03 but was typing in a bit of a panic this morning when I finally realized what I had done the day prior and how it may have impacted this wine.