Brianna blew the corks

[rob]

Bottled 3 gallons of my Brianna 3 weeks ago that was grown in my vineyard last year, I added sugar to back sweeten and let it set for 4 weeks before bottling, I thought after 7 months I did not need to add sorbate, but..... one by one it blew all the corks

 

[Wade E]

So you never added sorbate? Thats a big no-no!!! Unless you have sterile filtered this wine or have exceeded the yeasts tolerance for abv it will referment and almost always in the bottle. You will need to put this back in the carboy, let clear, add sorbate and sweeten again.

 

[rob]

Wade, how in the world could there still be life yeast in there after 7 months

 

[ibglowin]

Bwahahahahahaha.......

R U kidding? Yeast can basically live forever!

Yeast and Cockroaches will inherit the world someday! :>

 

[Wade E]

There will always be yeast in there. We recovered yeast from samples 100's of years old from munks that made beer and briught it back into our world to use on our beers and is available for sale all around the world now. Its a living thing and mother nature knows no boundaries!

 

[rob]

so the sorbate just contains it and won't it???

 

[rob]

sorbate will not kill it

 

[Wade E]

Sorbate doesnt kill it, it prevents it from re starting. You have to wait until it is done fermenting, add sulfite, add sorbate and then sweeten.

 

[rob]

so, you could sorbate before you sweeten and still be ok

 

[Wade E]

You Must use sorbate before you sweeten!

 

[grapeman]

These guys covered it pretty well. For home use, use sorbate and k-meta if you are leaving residual sugars. You will be alright in cold weather, but as the wine warms up, the remaining yeast wakes up if it has any food - AKA sugar. The keep renewed fermentation from happening, you need cold temps, high free S02 and sorbate to keep the yeast from multiplying.

 

[ffemt128]

Sorbate doesnt kill it, it prevents it from re starting. You have to wait until it is done fermenting, add sulfite, add sorbate and then sweeten.

Think of the sorbate as a vasectomy for the yeast. Doesn't kill it, just keeps it from reproducing...

 

[winemaker_3352]

Think of the sorbate as a vasectomy for the yeast. Doesn't kill it, just keeps it from reproducing...

Nicely put!!!