Will small amount of K sorbate stop fermentation?

[zack67360]

Have a carboy of grape/cherry/elderberry going and this morning woke to fine the fine lees off the bottom had floated to surface, and gotten into the air lock, filling it and overflowing. Fermentation is still going on, had racked it at 1.02 from primary into carboy. I used my wine pump vac to suction off much of the fine lees that was floating but now need to top off. I can get some elderberry concentrate, but it contains Potassium Sorbate. Will the amount of sorbate in the concentrate be enough to stop the wine in the carboy from finishing?
Thank you,
zack

 

[seth8530]

I would just wait for the fermentation to finish before you add the concentrate to it. If the fermentation is active, oxidation is not a major concern due to all the dissolved co2.

 

[Thig]

Zack my thinking is that just to top off that probably is not enough to stop the fermentation but I don't think anyone could say for sure. By the way I am not a fan of racking to the carboy that early. I usually wait until it gets down to around 1.000 and have never had a problem waiting until that point. There is enough CO2 still in wine that it is not going to oxidize.

 

[zack67360]

Thanks for the info. Will wait until fermentation stops, just to play it safe. Normally I wait until SG is 1.0 or less to rack into primary, but my first time using elderberries in a wine and one experienced elderberry wine maker said they racked at 1.02 so I decided to go ahead and rack at that point. Mistake for sure, should have been patient and gone with my experience.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Potassium sorbate does not stop fermentation, it prevents yeast from breeding. The concentrate probably doesn't have enough in it to drastically hurt your must but don't add it now.

You would be better off to finish fermentation. Stabilize and clear the wine, add sorbate and your concentrate.

You need head space in carboy to finish fermenting. The CO2 will protect it. In future just snap on a lid with an airlock to your primary and let it finish. Same results, less work.

After you add your concentrate you may have to rack off of any sediment/pulp. A few weeks later is fine.

 

[zack67360]

Just back from Tulsa, the elderberry concentrate had other juices in it plus sugar, sounded more like a medicine when reading the label. But found some black cherry concentrate, no added sugar or chemicals at whole foods and bought two bottles of it to add since it is a grape/black cherry/elderberry blend. Will let it finish fermenting then add as suggested. Thank you,