sweet wine

[chris2212]

Is there any reason I should not start a batch at 13% potential alcohol and then add sorbate in a few days when it reaches about 2%. I'm thinking this may leave a sweet wine that will retain the fruit taste from which it was made.

What if I use campden tablets instead of sorbate? I'm really trying to keep as much of the fruit taste as possible.

 

[Thig]

Is there any reason I should not start a batch at 13% potential alcohol and then add sorbate in a few days when it reaches about 2%. I'm thinking this may leave a sweet wine that will retain the fruit taste from which it was made.

Sorbate will not stop a fermentation, it only keeps a dry Wine from starting back up.

 

[GreginND]

Actually, a dry wine won't start back up. You need sugar to ferment.

As Thig said, potassium sorbate does not stop an active fermentation. It only prevents yeast from multiplying. So if you have a large population of working yeast cells, it won't do anything to stop them until they die off naturally. So you really should use it near the end when you want to sweeten and bottle.

If you want a wine that is not completely dry in the end, the best way is to ferment the wine to dryness. Let it age and clear as you normally would keeping the sulfite levels appropriate. When it is very clear, add the sorbate and sulfite and however much sugar you want to back sweeten.

 

[Thig]

I guess I should have explained "sorbate stops a dry wine from starting back up" . Obviously I meant if you backsweeten. A dry wine can't start back up if there is no sugar to convert.

 

[salcoco]

save some of the preferment juice to use post ferment for sweetening. place juice in refrigerator with K-meta. ferment wine to dryness , clear and age then add back juice using a bench trial. add to finished wine and then add k-meta and sorbate . let it sit for a few weeks to insure fermentation does not restart then bottle