Dragons blood issue

[TommBomb]

Starting SG of 1.082
Finished SG of 1.004

Had to leave to work (camp) so I added 3 teaspoons of potassium sorbate into the freshly racked carboy, degassed it thoroughly and mixed in sparklloid. 4 days later my wife informed me that the airlock is bubbling away, so obviously it hasn't stabilized. My question to u guys out there is, what's the next step? I get back in 3 days, shoukd I add more potassium sorbate? If so how much? Is the sorbate going to affect the wines flavor?

 

[CBell]

Don't add more sorbate. It sounds like you jumped the gun and stabilized before your ferment was through. Sorbate will not stop a ferment, it will just prevent the yeast from reproducing, allowing you to backsweeten. Your next step is to be patient and let your wine ferment dry, probably to below 1.000 closer to .994. Also did you add KMeta or just sorbate?

It is possible that the airlock bubbles are just from further degassing and not a ferment, though, so take a hydrometer reading and see if you have decreased from last time

 

[TommBomb]

I did add kmeta... I thought the sorbate would kill the yeast off completely.. I'm guessing ill have to wait till its completely dry then, rerack. But I'm confused what if any chemical additions I shoukd do from here on out.

 

[CBell]

None. You're done. You added K Meta and sorbate. Unless you are bulk aging your dragon blood for months. You do, I guess, have the option of adding sorbate again a few days before you backsweeten, but make sure the wine is DRY first, meaning you took the hydrometer reading 3 days in a row and saw no change.

 

[dangerdave]

It was worth a try, Tom. You'll have to let it finish up now. I don't stabilize mine early anymore, for just this reason. I let all my DB go completely dry before I touch them. Three days with stable SG readings, then stabilize.

I am sorry if I misunderstood your time constraints. I would have advised against early stabilization if there was any other alternative. The next revision of the DB recipe text will eliminate any reference to stabilizing prior to completely dry. I'm going to work on that right now...

 

[TommBomb]

No problem Dave, I appreciate you guys chiming in on it. I guess ill wait till dry for 3 days and then back sweeten accordlingly. Hope i didnt mess it up with the early sorbate addition. As Cbell said early ill probably just backsweeten without the addition of sorbate again. Did you do that when you tried stabiliing prematurely?

 

[dangerdave]

Stabilizing early is a crap shoot. It may work, or you may get refermentation. It's just not worth it if you have the time to wait. I had one of my early batches turn into DB champaign. IMO, it was not good. Let it sit and finish. It will be fine. Since you have not back sweetened yet, the yeast won't have much to chew on. Give them time to finish their thing, then proceed. Adding more sorbate might affect the taste, so I would avoid that. I know the DB is supposed to be fast and good, but a certain level of patience is still required.

 

[TommBomb]

no doubt, in the mean time ill make more wine and labels!