Almost a bottle bomb

[jemiller59]

We bottled a batch that we thought was done fermenting and stable over a week ago. We had back sweetened it and sorbated it before bottling. It was tasting good at the time of bottling. It was a batch of welches concord grape wine. It was sweetened and sorbated on August 2 and we bottled it on September 20. We tried a bottle of it tonignt and found out that it had started to referment again. We pulled all the bottles and dumped it back into a carboy. I added k-meta and more sorbate. My question is this, what else do I need to do and how long do I need it to sit before rebottling? I haven't checked the sg of it yet, but should I keep checking it and rebottle when it has stayed the same for 3 days in a row? Thankfully we caught it before it became a bottle bomb. Too close for comfort. Thank you for any help you can give.

Jan

 

[JimmyT]

You did the right stabilization with kmeta and sorbate. Did you use the correct amount of sorbate, how old is your sorbate and do you keep it refrigerated? I usually let my wine settle off the gross lees before adding sorbate then let sit a few weeks on the quick drinking welches stuff.
I'd check your sg and make sure it doesn't move for atleast 3 days or even longer. Did it cloud back up from referm? If so let it sit another month to clear up.

 

[jemiller59]

Thank you for your reply. I don't know how old the sorbate was, I now have some newer stuff and have added it. I did take an sg reading and it did drop a little from the time that we back sweetened it. I am going to keep an eye on the sg for awhile and wait until it hasn't change for a least 3 days in a row.

 

[BeginnerMark]

There is no chance of re fermentation if the wine bottles are chilled in a fridge right? Because yeast can't multiply in cold temps? I don't want bottle bombs in mine either!

 

[menerdari]

There is no chance of re fermentation if the wine bottles are chilled in a fridge right? Because yeast can't multiply in cold temps? I don't want bottle bombs in mine either!

unless you used a lager yeast, most likely not.