Stabilizing and Sweetening - When?

[Chopper]

Some recipes say to stabilize and sweeten a wine as soon as fermentation has stopped. Other recipes say to stabilize and sweeten just before bottling. And others say that no matter when a wine is stabilized, another month should pass before sweetening.
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Opinions?
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Thanks,
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Chopper

 

[Tom]

You should stabilize soon after fermentation. This should always be done before any sweetening.

For those who use a f-pac you need to do this before clairifing thus the extra time needed before bottling.

For those who just backsweeten that depends on what is used. Some additions need extra time before bottling to clear.

Confused yet?

Bottom line, take your time and you will produce a great wine.

 

[Chopper]

OK, can you please explain exactly:


1.What is in an F-pack


2. The reason(s) for using an F-pack


3. When in the process an F-pack should be added to the wine

 

[Tom]

1
F-Pac is a "flavor" pac. Some of us make it for our fruit wines. It also comes with some kits as well. What it is is concentrated fruit juice.
2 &amp; 3
F-Pac is used to add more flavor to your wine after fermentation and after K-meta and Sorbate.


Backsweetening is adding simple syrup to add sweetness. Its a 2-1 mix of sugar and water.

 

[Wade E]

An F-Pack is added flavoring like taking some fruit and simmering it in some a little bit of water and adding that juice to your wine to give it more flavor. The reason for doing this is to make your wine more flavorful as lots of times you will lose flavor from fermentation and may want to bring some flavor back. You should add this f-pack to a wine before clearing but after adding both k-meta and sorbate to prevent re fermentation.

 

[Chopper]

This is interesting because fruit wines are all I plan to make. A lot of different fruit wines, but fruit wines only. And I like a lot of flavor, so I'll probably be adding an F-pack to every batch. And I like sweet wines, so I'll always back-sweeten.


Below are the post-fermentation steps as I understand them. Please correct me where I'm wrong:


- Fermentation ends (SG reaches appx 0.995).


- Immediately sulfite (campden) and stabilize (sorbate)


- Over the next 3 months, rack about every 3 weeks. Add sulfite (campden) at every other racking.


- After the 3 months have expired, add F-packandsweeten with syrupat the same time.


- Wait a month. Degass and add clearing agents if needed. Then bottle.

 

[Tom]

Looks good except I would add k-meta every 3 months.

Also might want to add a little more Sorbate since you will be adding more sugars with the f-pac and backsweeten.



I would degas when going into the secondary and every other racking "just in case"

How much f-pac and amount of backsweeten is up to YOUR taste.

 

[PeterZ]

Chopper, be sure that you have racked off the gross lees and have a pretty clear wine before back sweetening with either a F pack or sugar. Sorbate does not kill yeast nor prevent fermentation. It prevents yeast from reproducing. (Birth control for yeast.) If you still have a lot of live but dormant yeast in the wine (like in a big pile of lees on the bottom of the jug) they can become active again and ferment the added sugar.

 

[Chopper]

Well, I can't thank you all enough for the replies, advice, etc.

I've been reading everything I can on modern home winemaking. I'm a "by the book" engineer, so I want an exact, no doubt perfect road to making wine. And there isn't one. Arg!

But I guess there's beauty in that. If it were just a cookie-cutter operation, what fun would that be?

Opinions sure do vary. For example, I've been reading the very fine print on Jack Keller's web site. And he says (rather emphatically) that when SG reaches 1.010-1.040 in the primary, the must (pretty much all of it) should be transferred (not racked) into the secondary. By "transferred", he means poured (not siphoned). And that the lees should be stirred up good before the transfer, so it (and all the yeast it contains) will be transferred to the secondary as well. Only the massive fruit pulp is to be left behind.

Of course, this contradicts everything I've read elsewhere, but it makes me wonder because Keller is a very successful and well-respected winemaker.

Maybe by the time I'm 83 I'll have this all figured out. That will be 37 years from now.

 

[hannabarn]

NOPE!!!! I'm 81 and I haven't figured it out yet!!

 

[vcasey]

Chopper you will find that there are a lots of ways to make wine. You'll figure out what works best for you, just have fun.
VPC

 

[jcnoren]

Can you stablize and sweeten at the same time? As in on the same day?


Fermentation is done, degassing is as good as I can do. I use the stablizers supplied with the kit . Since I always sweeten the same amount is there a problem sweetening adding sorbate now? I have been doing this and had no problems with my wine clearing.


I have also wondered, since I am adding the sweetner (in the form of a frozen consentrated juice (can), almost immediately after stablizing do I still need to add the sorbate that I am adding??


JC

 

[Tom]

Mix the K-meta in a small amount of water to dissolve and add, Then do the same with the Sorbate.
I mix them seperately.
Make sure they are well mixed in the wine.
Now you can backsweeten. After about 2 weeks add the clearing agents. wait 2+ weeks and rack. You may need 1 or more rackings for it to clear.