Blackberry wine Stabilizing

[winefan]

The day has come to rack my blackberry wine into a clean carboy to stabilize and degas. I forget how much k-meta per gal and what if I have no Potassium Sorbate. I could go get some from George in a couple of day's would that hurt?

and how much of the sorbate should I use per gal. Thanks for any help.

 

[Wade E]

Definitely wait till you have some sorbate and add at the rate of 1/2 tsp per gallon. For the meta, if you have campden then its 1 per gallon. If its powder then its 1/4 tsp per gallon.

 

[winefan]

Great, Thanks Wade. The wine has so far is lokking, smelling and tasting wonderful. Now we'll add some time to it.

 

[Wade E]

A great addition to any wine!

 

[winefan]

Would you clear use a clearing agent or will it clear by its self and a couple of rackings?

 

[Wade E]

Could do either. Time will almost always clear a wine with a few exceptions such as Peach wine and others which typically need help. Make sure you degas well so that either time or fining agents can do their thing as suspended gases will prohibit their job.

 

[Doober]

Did you backsweeten the wine? is this why you are using potassium sorbate?

 

[winefan]

No and I'm not sure if I am going to or not. It taste's good now, considering it is very new wine. My understanding of the sorbate is that it prevents any yeast from reproducing? . I know that they both are provided in a kit. What are your thoughts on this.

 

[Doober]

i by know means am very experienced, but i thought that you used the sorbate after backsweetening to prevent the yeast from reacting with the sugar added since they already ate up all the sugar in the wine.

 

[winefan]

Yes this is true. I guess we still put it in to stabilize a wine because there is still enough sugar to start up again.

 

[Wade E]

It is a good idea to stabilize a wine even if not back sweetening as sometimes there is still residual sugar left in the wine. You would add meta and then sorbate and then back sweeten in that order.