how long to wait

[winehomie]

I have a gallon of Afelwen that has been at .990 for the past 3 days, I usually pasteurize before back sweetening but I decided to try sorbate this time, my question is how long do I need to wait after I add sorbate before I back sweeten and bottle?

 

[Johnd]

I have a gallon of Afelwen that has been at .990 for the past 3 days, I usually pasteurize before back sweetening but I decided to try sorbate this time, my question is how long do I need to wait after I add sorbate before I back sweeten and bottle?

Once your wine is clear and degassed, you can do it pretty quickly if you must. Best bet though, is to add your sorbate and let it sit a day or two, then add your sweetener, give it another week or two, make sure it's stable, taste it and bottle it if you're happy with it. Letting it sit will help insure you don't get bottle bombs, and to give the sweetener a chance to integrate before your final tasting. It usually takes a little while after adding sweetener for the character to come out.

 

[winehomie]

OK, I added my sorbate waited 24 hrs then back sweetened, it's been sitting 2 days clearing and this morning I noticed a few bubbles on top of the wine, do I need to worry about renewed fermentation? I know sorbate doesn't kill yeast just makes it unable to reproduce. I didn't take a reading after back sweet so can't tell if the sugar level is dropping again. Should I go ahead and pasteurize after bottling just to be safe?

 

[Johnd]

OK, I added my sorbate waited 24 hrs then back sweetened, it's been sitting 2 days clearing and this morning I noticed a few bubbles on top of the wine, do I need to worry about renewed fermentation? I know sorbate doesn't kill yeast just makes it unable to reproduce. I didn't take a reading after back sweet so can't tell if the sugar level is dropping again. Should I go ahead and pasteurize after bottling just to be safe?

Heating wine can destroy a lot of what you worked to preserve, like flavor and aroma. Give it time, months if you can, to prove its stability.

As far as the bubbles, you finished fermentation less than a week ago, it's probably CO2 escaping from your wine. Don't forget to add an appropriate dose of KMS along with your sorbate.

 

[Arne]

My two cents for what it is worth. Be careful with the apple. If you go back thru the old threads on here about corks blowing, you will find more often than not apple is involved with this happening. After stabalizing, if you let it sit, then let it sit some more, it pretty well stops this from happening. When it happened to me, it was only with a gal. and two of the bottles blew there corks. I put the other three in the reefer got them good and cold and proceeded to drink them. Not all at once, one every few days. They were a really nice sparkling apple. The other two made a nice mess, tho. Anyway, good luck with it, Arne.

 

[winehomie]

I forgot to mention I add KMS with the sobate so good on that front, I'll let it go until clear, clearing over time without clearing agents so that should give me plenty of time to see if I have a problem or not.