Back sweeten Question

[chris889671]

I need to backsweeten my concord.It quit fermenting about a week ago and i racked into a carboy. the alc. is about 12% and the sweetness is gone. I forgot to buy sorbate, can I use Camden tabs(potassium metabisulfite) to stop any activity? I plan to backsweeten with welches 100% juice. witch should be done first?

 

[Arne]

Order or stop by the brew store and get some sorbate. The sulfite will stun the yeast a little, but you need the sorbate to stop them from reproducing. Add the sorbate and sulfite, wait a week or two, then backsweeten. If you do not use the sorbate, you have the makings for bottle bombs. Good luck with it, Arne.

 

[Rocky]

You definitely need Potassium Sorbate before back sweetening. The Campden tablets are still needed (or Potassium Metabisulfite) but will not protect against restarting fermentation. You need to add 1/2 teaspoon of K-sorbate per gallon and mix well before adding the grape juice. Bench test the sweetness before adding it to the batch. If you over sweeten, it is difficult to impossible to correct without a lot of additional work.