I'm going to buy regina juice buckets of red wine, I keep getting different info. There website says to add 1 gram of potassium sorbate and one gram of potassium metabisulfite per gallon after fermentation. And that's it. No more before bottling.
I was told not to do either.
I was told only use the metabisulfite.
Then I was told to add metabisulfite every time I rack.
I did it last year and it turned out good. But I'm doing alot more this year and I'm hopeful to get some consistency in advice.
OK, let's try to make this simple.
1. Ferment your wine in the bucket until the specific gravity is around 1.010 (a hydrometer is a great investment at 10 bucks)
2 Transfer (rack) to a sanitized carboy, install an airlock and let it sit until the SG doesn't change for 3 days in a row.
3 Rack your wine to a sanitized carboy, leaving the lees behind. If your wine has fermented dry, indicated by a specific gravity of .996 or lower, and you do not intend to ever add any sugar to it, you do not need potassium sorbate. The sorbate is simply birth control for yeast and once added prevents the yeast from multiplying and fermenting sugar. If you have no more sugar, you don't need it. You
do need to add potassium metabisulfite. KMS will protect your wine from both unwanted organisms and bacteria as well as providing a level of protection from oxidation. Typical dosage is 1/4 teaspoon per 6 gallons every three months.
4. As your wine sits in the carboy and ages, it will naturally release the CO2 in it (from fermentation) and will also begin to drop sediment and clear. As this process evolves, you may feel the need to rack if the sediment layer gets to be an inch or so and your wine is looking clear, so go ahead and rack it, leaving the sediment behind. If it's been a month or month and a half since your last racking, add 1/8 teaspoon of KMS to the nice clear wine after you rack. If you've waited 3 months, use the full dose of 1/4 teaspoon.
5. Rack every 3 months if there is sediment to rack off of, also adding the 1/4 tsp KMS dose.
This is a very simple explanation, and there are other interventions available to remove CO2 quickly and to clear your wine quickly, but time and patience will work every time.
The protection provided by the KMS degrades as it becomes bound in solution within your wine, that's why we add the dose of 1/4 tsp per 6 gallons every three months. This is just a rule of thumb if you don't have the equipment or testing supplies to test for free SO2 in your wine. So if you aren't testing for it, follow the rule of thumb and it will keep you and your wine out of trouble.