Help Please Added Potassium Sorbate to early

[JimT]

First time making a batch of wine with the Vintner's Harvest Fruit Wine Base. Followed all directions and let set overnight as directed. Added yeast to Must and 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of Potassium Sorbate. Discovered a few hours later that the Potassium Sorbate was supposed to be added several months after fermentation. Can anyone tell me what I should do now?

 

[Wade E]

I am very sorry but I dont think this stands a chance now of fermenting. I would consider this a lesson learned and dump this cause anything at thois point like trying to add this must to another 1 that is going could stop that 1 early also multiplying your cost lost! Sorry to meet you on the forum this way!

 

[Tom]

Oh my.. Time to let this one go
Shall we have a moment of silence...

 

[JimT]

Thank you for the advice, It was a 3 gallon batch so live and learn. Nice to meet you and thanks again.

 

[Leanne]

Stay with us and let us help you with the next one. Good to have you with us.

 

[Dugger]

As Wade says this is considered a " fatal" error and cannot be corrected - the sorbate is like birth control to the yeast and prevents them from multiplying and doing its fermenting thing. That's why it is used as a stabilizer at the end when you don't want any fermentation to get going again.

Wade (or others) - can you safely drink this juice as is ( with the bentonite, yeast and sorbate in it) - I've never tried it but often wondered if anyone has ever done this? Also, could you add alcohol to this to preserve it and perhaps it might be drinkable - just kinda thinking out loud what you possibly could do with 23 liters of juice?!

 

[Wade E]

Yes you could drink it as it contains the same amounts of stuff we add to our wine and we drink that. If you used bentonite thats also fine also but Id let it settle out and that will hapen pretty fast!

 

[JimT]

Again thank you everyone for the great advice. I'll scrap this batch and start again next week. Only one wine supply place here in Mobile AL and they are only open a few days a week. It's really great to meet such wonderful people. I'm looking forward to my new winemaking hobby.

 

[Mud]

I wonder how hard it would be to make jelly or jam with it...

 

[Green Mountains]

Welcome aboard Jim. There's a thread on here somewhere about our own mistakes......you might read it and feel better about everything.

 

[sjo]

How about boiling it down to use as f-pac? Could freeze it after it is reduced.

 

[cpfan]

JimT:

Do you have a hydrometer? If so, have you taken a reading? Although I suspect that the sorbate will stop or seriously slow fermentation, I would not be in a rush to dump it. Keep it warm (74F), cross your fingers, and check the sg again after a few days.

Who knows? It might ferment.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

Crap, good idea sjo!!!!!!!

 

[Torch404]

I seem to recall Jack Keller saying something about adding a robust starter to over come Potassium sorbate. So much of the yeast "uses up" the sorbate and then the rest go on to ferment the juice. Get some more yeast and get a good strong starter going. Only cost you a buck for the yeast if it fails. You might want to add some starter one day and more the next.

Here's a link to Luc's site for making a starter. You'll want to use some other juice and not your must to get the starter going.

http://wijnmaker.blogspot.com/2007/08/gist-starter-yeast-starter.html

 

[JimT]

Added the starter and it is working very well. Might be able to salvage this after all. Thank you to each and every reply and thought.

 

[Dugger]

Well, maybe we ( me for sure) can learn something from this - I thought this was hopeless. Keep us informed of the progress of this batch and how the smell/taste turns out.

 

[Wade E]

I dont see this finishing, you will be able to get it started but sorbate is supposed to prevet it from multiplying and thats where the problem lies, I surely hope this finishes but Im betting that this will get to around 1.040 and then die off.

 

[JimT]

Point well taken on the finishing. Let me be a bit more specific on where I'm at so far. Smell and taste is good not rancid at all. Started out with a SP of 1.090 sat in fermenter for 6 days. SP on the 6th day was 1.040. Removed fruit and transfered to Carboy, airlock is slowly bubbling. Kit calls for letting it sit in Carboy for 4 weeks. Maybe this will work huh?

 

[skiboarder72]

Point well taken on the finishing. Let me be a bit more specific on where I'm at so far. Smell and taste is good not rancid at all. Started out with a SP of 1.090 sat in fermenter for 6 days. SP on the 6th day was 1.040. Removed fruit and transfered to Carboy, airlock is slowly bubbling. Kit calls for letting it sit in Carboy for 4 weeks. Maybe this will work huh?

Woohooo! It's alive!!

 

[jdaniels9]

So once you add the stabilizer the SG stops changing? So if I wanted my wine to have more alcohol content I could just wait before a perform the third step of degassing and stabilizing?