Stopping fermentation??

[magpiemini]

In the past I have always allowed the wine to ferment until it stopped on its own as long as it was at least down to 0 Brix (1.000 sg). I wanted to stop my current Syrah at 0 Brix. I pressed the wine at 1 Brix and added the sorbate (3tsp in 6gal) when it reached 0 Brix and stirred the heck out of it for about 10 minutes. 12 hours later it was still gassingl so I added 2 more tsp of sorbate and stirred again. 24 hours later it is still gassing and has drooped to .995 sg which is about -1.5 Brix.

How much sorbate is too much? All of my readings are temp corrected.

I have lost my goal to produce wine that is not as dry as my BoarDoe blend which is pretty dry. Oh well I do like dry wine.

 

[Julie]

well trying to stop an active fermentation can be tough and sorbate will not stop it at all. You needed to add k-meta (potassium sulfite) and there would have been still no guarantee that it would have stopped.

Sorbate does not kill yeast it stops the yeast from multiplying.

Since added the sorbate, add k-meta and backsweeten your wine to 1.000. By the way when adding sorbate normal dose is 1/2 tsp per gallon.

 

[magpiemini]

Thanks for the info. 3tsp for 6 gal is 1/2 tsp per gallon.

 

[honeybadgerman]

Would boiling it work?

 

[rjb222]

Do not boil your wine. This will change the flavors drastically plus the aromas will be mostly gone. Stopping a active ferment is actually very hard to do. At home almost impossible to do. Ferment to dry then stabilize add kmetta then sorbate now add your chosen sweetener to the level you desire. Allow that to sit in a carboy at room temperature for a couple weeks just to make sure there is not a re ferment that starts in the bottle and then Bottle.

 

[Julie]

boiling would also evaporate your alcohol.

 

[Rocky]

boiling would also evaporate your alcohol.

Absolutely, and it will begin boiling off long before the water boils. Alcohol boils at about 172 degree F, water, of course, at 212 degrees F.

 

[BobF]

Get a dose of k-meta in there ASAP! If MLF is allowed to start now that you've added sorbate, you will end up something aweful and unrecoverable. I would add 150% the normal first SO2 addition and check/adjust again in a couple of weeks.

 

[winemaker_3352]

You can cold crash it to stop it - proper SO2 levels "might" keep the yeast at bay until you can use an absolute filter to get rid of the yeast.

Sorbate should be added at 1/2 tsp per gallon...

 

[mustangzrule]

I have found a way that has worked for me each tim so far that does not use k-meta or campden. In the past all of my wines were also dry because without a way to kill the yeast, it will simply keep doing its job which is convert sugar to alcohol. There are 3 ways to do this.

1. Add something poisonous to the yeast (k-meta, capden, etc)
2. Allow to ferment dry so there is no food left and stabilize with a reproductive inhibitor (sorbate) and wait 6 months before adding sugar again (no guarantees, but so far has worked for me)
3. Allow the ferment to go to an alcohol content so high it kills the yeast (produces a very strong wune, almost unpleasnat to drink)

Most winemakers use a combination of 1 and 2 which is very effective. Since I am making organic wine and am very sensitive to sulfa and sulfite, I use only method 2. My experience has been good, but you do have to wait an extremely long time bulk aging compared to traditional methods where sulfites are used. If interested, I can post my racking, aging, and bottling techniques in more detail. The sweet wines are more problematic than one would think, especially if there is still a trace of live yeast.

 

[BeerAlchemist]

You can cold crash it to stop it - proper SO2 levels "might" keep the yeast at bay until you can use an absolute filter to get rid of the yeast.

Sorbate should be added at 1/2 tsp per gallon...

Perfect, this is what I have been wondering about as brewers use cold crashing to put the yeast into dormancy which gets them to drop out of suspension to clear the beer at the end of fermentation. Obviously, if the temp goes back up some of the yeast will live and kick off fermentation again if there is still sugars available. So, reading this thread, got me wondering if cold crashing, racking, then K-meta would be adequate to terminate a fermentation or if it would still ultimately require filtration?

 

[mmadmikes1]

Trying to stop an active fermentation without sterile filtering is a real tough to almost impossible task. If you ferment a wine dry use methods 1 and 2 then backsweetin it will work.It will not stop fermentation that is active. I don't do that . I let yeast reach max ABV levels and kill itself then backsweetin. Need to pick yeasts with alcohol tolerance that matches wine you are making No need for any chemicals.

 

[Wade E]

People dont usually cold crash beer. They use adjuncts and unfermentables and low tolerance yeasts to end up with beer with that is sweeter.

 

[BeerAlchemist]

People dont usually cold crash beer. They use adjuncts and unfermentables and low tolerance yeasts to end up with beer with that is sweeter.

Technically, while not common practice nor something I have ever considered doing, one could cold crash a beer to hold a desired finishing gravity which would work fine as long as you kept it cold enough to keep the yeast dormant. I think that is what you thought I was saying; however, I was speaking in terms of using it to clear a beer after hitting terminal gravity. So, my thought process is that since cold crashing significantly lowers the cell count of the yeast in suspension, would combining that with meta act as an effective tool to stop fermentation to allow for some residual sugars if desired? But, it sounds like by what 3352 said that it would only be a temporary solution.

 

[winemaker_3352]

Technically, while not common practice nor something I have ever considered doing, one could cold crash a beer to hold a desired finishing gravity which would work fine as long as you kept it cold enough to keep the yeast dormant. I think that is what you thought I was saying; however, I was speaking in terms of using it to clear a beer after hitting terminal gravity. So, my thought process is that since cold crashing significantly lowers the cell count of the yeast in suspension, would combining that with meta act as an effective tool to stop fermentation to allow for some residual sugars if desired? But, it sounds like by what 3352 said that it would only be a temporary solution.

Yes - keep in mind my comment in no way is full proof - in theory it sounds good. I have never attempted this - i usually do what Mike said above.

Maybe in the future when i get my absolute filters i might experiment with something along these lines...

 

[wineon4]

Would boiling it work?

I think this could be a BAD thing can we say "Shine".