When to stabilize Muscadine wine?

[bmwr75]

Have got my first two 6 gallon batches of muscadine wine going now. Have read a number of recipes. One recipe says stabilize the wine with Campden tablets the first time you rack it to another carboy. Another recipe says to stabilize the wine right before you get ready to bottle it.

What is the general consensus on when to stabilize muscadine wine?

 

[dralarms]

Don't add campden tabs until you are sure it's finished fermenting. You can cause it to stall.

 

[bmwr75]

Fermentation is done when Sp. Gr. = 1.000..........right?

 

[Turock]

Typically, when you go to do your first racking of the gross lees is a good time to get some more sulfite on it because your sulfite that you used on the must before starting the ferment has become bound up in the wine. Bound SO2 does not offer protection--only the free sulfite does.

Now, I think that all winemakers who are going to stay with the hobby and ferment many wines should think about SO2 testing. It's the only way to know how much SO2 a wine needs. And, of course, you also need to know the PH of the wine to do this. But if you aren't testing, you should have 40-50 PPM of sulfite on the wine. The lower the PH tho, the less sulfite you need. So down the road, you may need another sulfite addition, altho you should be testing in order to know where your at, and how much more you may need.

 

[dralarms]

I agree. I still need an so2 tester.

 

[Julie]

Fermentation is done when Sp. Gr. = 1.000..........right?

technically but most wines will ferment to below that. I would test it for a week and if it has not changed then you are done.

 

[Turock]

The only problem with not being below 1.000 is that there is still slight fermentation going on and that along with all the CO2 can blow the airlock off the carboy when you transfer. This is why it's good to achieve dry stage in the primary.

Technically, it wouldn't matter if you transfer over at 1.000 or a little above and let it finish in the carboy----but the reason you don't do that is because it can be tough keeping an airlock on it at that time, and the wine foaming up into the airlock and over-flowing.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Below 1.010 doesnt cause anything that might "blow anairlock off". Airlocks are used by some on fresh must, at 1.090 or higher.

 

[garymc]

Nobody is going to say anything about using campden to stabilize wine? I thought stabilizing was done with potassium sorbate in combination with potassium metabisulfite (campden.) If I'm keeping muscadine wine in the carboy I use sulfite (campden) every 3 months or so to protect it from oxidization (muscadine wine easily loses it's color, turning brownish) after it's done fermenting. Prior to backsweetening, if I plan to backsweeten, I stabilize it with potassium sorbate. Then backsweeten. Then, if there's no restarted fermentation after a few days, time to bottle!
p.s. If you don't intend to backsweeten (very unusual with muscadine, but I sometimes bottle it dry) then you only need the sorbate if the alcohol is below 12.4 percent.

p.p.s. There is a sticky on this forum about wine terms. Stabilize isn't there, but potassium metabisufite and potassium sorbate are both listed and the word stabilize is used.

 

[garymc]

Water is 1.000. Wine fermented to dry with alcohol in it and no sugar might be .992, or .990, or .998, depending on the alcohol concentration because alcohol is lighter than water. However, if it gets to 1.000 and has alcohol in it, then it obviously must still have unfermented sugar enough to cause it to be as heavy as water with no alcohol. In other words, at 1.000 it's not finished fermenting unless just by coincidence the yeast has died of alcohol poisoning or something.

 

[bmwr75]

One recipe says stabilize the wine with Campden tablets the first time you rack it to another carboy. Another recipe says to stabilize the wine right before you get ready to bottle it.

The recipe actually just said "stabilize". Using Campden tablets was my assumption, since no other similar chemicals were in the list of ingredients. Thanks for all the help.

Here is the Texas Pioneer Woman recipe: http://www.grit.com/animals/how-to-make-muscadine-wine.aspx

 

[Turock]

Well, some of you might think this is just a matter of semantics but......... the use of sulfite or sorbate is not REALLY what stabilizes wine. If you think sorbate is a stabilizer, than what happens in dry wine where you DON'T use sorbate?????

Stabilization of wine is allowing enough time in bulk aging to remove haze,precipitates, and sediments which are unstable compounds. Get them off of a wine----and the wine is now stable.

Sulfite is for preservation. Sorbate is to prevent re-fermentation when sugar is added for sweeten. But to say they stabilize wine is not correct.

 

[Thig]

I think when most people talk of stabilizing a wine they mean 1. It is stable enough not to spoil, and 2. It will not re-ferment. Sulfite and sorbate in the right quantities and at the right time will accomplish this. That is probably where the idea of stabilizing with sulfite and sorbate comes from.