Another silly question

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Old Philosopher

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I'm getting ready to order some supplies, and have a question about stabilizing the wine, before bottling.
Is Potassium Sorbate the only stabilizer? Are there other options?

:a1
 
That I know of and should only be added when there is sufficient S02 levels.
 
I thought PS wasn't necessarily needd unless you plan to backsweeten. Of course you would want to be darn sure it doesn't referment before bottling.?

Also if the wine was froze, or brought down pretty cold, wouldn't this KILL the yeast or could it possibly referment after the right temperature is obtained?
 
No it only stuns it Troy.. it can referment if there are still sugars available.

Allie.
 
I have alot of wine in bottles with no sorbate in them, but they were not bottled for over a year from end of fermentation and were filtered to .o5 micros
 
I believe you re using .5 and not .05cause Ive never even seen a .05 filter. A .25 filter is streile filtering so if you truly are under that then you are safe but higher then that and with residual sugar in your wine you are at risk. If you are not sweetening your wines then you also dont have very much to worry about. Sorbate also has anti microbial properties that just adds to the reason of why wouldnt you want to use it?
 
And yet another question....

Okay, don't laugh me off the forum when I describe this situation.
I did my first racking of plum wine today. SG 1.029-1.030. I racked out of a 5 gal bucket into a 1 gallon glass jug. The jug had been washed, sanitized and rinsed many times. When the gallon jug was full, I racked the remaining 1/2 gallon of must into a 1.75l plastic Rum bottle.
Now this rum bottle had just been emptied, and capped. I didn't even rinse it with tap water, because I figured the booze did a pretty good job of sanitizing, and my water is terrible. I was left with only about a 1/32" of sediment in the bucket. I put an "S" airlock on the 1/2 gallon bottle, and a 2-piece airlock on the jug.
Now, the 1 gallon jug is gently gassing away, and you can see the bubbles rising. The 1/2 gallon bottle, however, is acting like I threw dry ice in there!
There's a 1/4" head of foam on the top, and the airlock is popping every 30 seconds.
Why are these behaving so differently?
Possible explanations:
  1. The tiny bit of rum in the bottle is reacting with the must?
  2. The must near the lees had a higher sugar content, or more residual yeast?
  3. Lower volume = more action?
WTF?
 
O.P., run for the shelter immediatelyy!!!!:se


LOL. Sounds like you got a little over anxious. There are differing opinions but normally you want to rack it into the secondary around 1.010 or so. Sounds like it is just doing its fermenting thing. If you racked it to early then you most certainly are going to have that kind of activity. That doesn't mean something is wrong, it means you jumped the gun.

There can be alot of reasons for an agressive activity, temperature of course, yeast, movement(meaning stirring), hunidity, etc. I even heard some wines will get pissed off if they catch you staring at them all night long!

I think you wil probably be fine. There is alot of debate on this plastic bottle thing, and I will not bring it up again. But i don't think it was the rum thing, but be sure to sanitize everything. Whatever sanitizing method you use is still gonna be cheaper than throwing out a nice batch of wine, or beer for that matter.

Keep on keeping on.

In the words of our buddy Upper..."Dig It!"

Troy
:rdo
 
Sugar syrup is heavier than water.

If you racked to a larger bottle and racked the rest to a smaller bottle. The smaller bottle has the greater concentration of sugars, it's at the bottom of the carboy where the heavier sugars are... your wine is still fermenting. Expect the larger bottle to finish early and at a lower abv.

The smaller bottle is going to finish higher in abv.

If you are topping up with it.. adjust your maths accordingly.

Next time..check the Sg of both fermenting wines/bottles when you rack..

You'll be surprised.

Allie
 
You probably drew more yeast into the rum bottle if it was the last to be racked. If you stirred up the lees a bit right at the end there was probably some live yeast cells down in there.
 
Makes sense

Allie, that's pretty much what I expected had happened.
I racked to the smaller secondaries because I wanted to keep air space to a minimum. I also wanted to get it under airlock, and out of the open primary. At the point the must was (SG 1.029), it still has a long way to go. So, if I were to re-rack into my 3 gallon carboy, it should still be producing plenty of CO2 to protect the must, even though it's only going to be half full...right?

:a1
 
Ooopsie

Sugar syrup is heavier than water.

If you racked to a larger bottle and racked the rest to a smaller bottle. The smaller bottle has the greater concentration of sugars, it's at the bottom of the carboy where the heavier sugars are... your wine is still fermenting. Expect the larger bottle to finish early and at a lower abv....
Allie
Well...I was explaining to a friend about this issue, and as I'm speaking, it dawned upon me that it was all wrong.
When I racked into the two different sized containers, I was using a racking cane, and the siphon hose was only a 1/2" off the bottom of the primary.
That should mean that the "heavier" must was siphoned first into the gallon jug, and the "lighter" must, from the top of the bucket, went into the 1/2 gallon bottle last.
Anyway, the question still remains about putting it all into the 3 gallon carboy, and letting it continue even with all that air space. I think I'm right about there still being enough CO2 released that it isn't an issue.
 
oops yes.. I had that back to front... ( must have been multitasking!)

I siphon into the same size carboy usually.. so it all gets mixed up again at the racking. I figure the sugars still settle back down towards the bottom though.

If it's still fermenting.. even if you have a little more space at the top of the carboy.. it'll be protected by the gases.
Allie
 
Next time..check the Sg of both fermenting wines/bottles when you rack..

You'll be surprised.

Allie

I racked both bottles back into the 3 gallon carboy. Took the SG of both, just for chuckles. It had only been two days. The 1/2 gallon was at 1.024 and the 1 gallon was at 1.022.
 

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