A Little Advice/Assurance Needed

[arh13p]

So the more I read threads on here, sometimes I think I am getting more confused. I realize there is alot of opinions on methods and what not. I have been making wine now for about 6 months and have about 50 gallons under my belt. I have learned a lot on this forum and I thank everyone who has answered much of my questions. Because of the varations in what people do when it comes to clearing their wines, sweetening and bottleing I thought I would just state my method that I though has been working well.

1) I ferment until about 1.01-1.00.

2) Transfer to Seconday. I do not add anything.

3) Once it stops fermenting for the most part (usually about 2-3 weeks)..SG 0.995-0.990 I transfer again into seconday with K-meta and Sorbate. I degas and have been adding my clarifier to it.

4) Once it looks clear (1 week), I transfer again to a seconday. Now I let it sit.......This is where I get the questions.

5) I let it sit about a month and backsweeten, let is sit a week and then bottle.

In the past I have bottled within 3 months so I never add more K-meta. Should I before bottling if it is around the 3 month time since I added last?

Do I ever have to add sorbate again if it was several months since I added it before I backsweeten?

I have about 25 gallons right now that is clear and needs to be backsweeted and bottled so I thought I would throw this out there and see if my methods are OK.

Thanks!

 

[John Prince]

1). I always ferment to dry, but I'm lazy.
5). Kits wines like Summer Breeze I bulk age for a month as well. It works for me.

Do I ever have to add sorbate again if it was several months since I added it before I backsweeten?
This scares me too. I use sorbate before I filter and bottle it. I think the filter takes some of sorbate out. Also the wine conditioner has some sorbate in it.

 

[arh13p]

Just another note....all my wines have been fruit wines....fresh or frozen fruit or juices.

 

[botigol]

Offhand I would say that you are racking one time more than necessary, but other than that your method looks solid. From everything that I have read, potassium sorbate does not dissipate with time so there is no reason to add more than one dose. I don't know if filtering would remove sorbate, but even if so, the filtering also removes the leftover yeast from the wine which would negate the necessity of something to prevent refermentation.

 

[arh13p]

Can you actually rack too much? I figured if I was motivated one night, what can it hurt to rack off what already settled? Unless I am not leaving enough time for everything to settle out....anyone know the best time to wait, regardless of what the directions say on the clarifier?

 

[botigol]

Each time that you rack you introduce the possibility of adding oxygen, bacteria or yeast, so in a general sense racking too often can be a problem. That said, I am sure that plenty of people rack more often, I just think that limiting exposure is the way to go. It is really only your step 3 that I would even question. Unless you have a really thick layer of sediment it seems like it could easily stay for the extra week until step 4. That extra week would also allow the sediment to compact more; not saying that it will necessarily have a huge effect, just more time to compact.