Backsweetening

[Bossbaby]

I racked a cranberry wine about 2 months ago and added potassium sorbate because the plan was to sweeten and bottle but I put it off til now, does the sorbate lose its effectiveness over time or do I add more to be safe? any thoughts would be great..Thx

 

[Rembee]

Adding it once is all you need to do.
I look at it this way, if you had bottled it 2 months ago after adding the sorbate, would it still be good? Lol

 

[Bossbaby]

Adding it once is all you need to do.
I look at it this way, if you had bottled it 2 months ago after adding the sorbate, would it still be good? Lol

 

[Bossbaby]

Very true, I know I read it somewhere that someone said it wouldnt be as effective but yeh your right once the yeast cells are coated and unable to reproduce it's one and done..

 

[Noontime]

Agree with Rembee, if everything was done properly then the yeast should be neutered. I've had sorbate go bad on me (they have a shelf life) and create bottle bombs, so I always backsweeten and leave in carboy for a few weeks just to make sure there isn't any activity before bottling.

 

[montanarick]

I believe that once sorbate has developed a yellowish color it's time to toss it out

 

[winemaker81]

I buy sorbate in small quantities and toss after a year. It's probably good for longer than that, but I'm not into risking bottle bombs, volcanoes, or whatever colorful names we use for the geysers that are produced by fermentation in the bottle.