Stabilizing & Sweetening

[Big Port]

Well, I have a couple of gallons of wine that have been in the works for about 3 months now and seem to have stopped dropping lees. I have stabilized and bottled a couple of kit wines but never any of my fruit wines. Anyone care to walk me through the process? I am just going to need to add Potassium Metasulfite and a <?amespace prefix = st1 ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficearttags" /><ST1:CITY wt="on"><ST1LACE wt="on">Camden</ST1LACE></ST1:CITY> tablet and stir the crap out of it, then sweeten? How long will I need to wait to bottle?<?amespace prefix = o ns = "urnchemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><O></O>Edited by: Big Port

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Eric - this is what I've been doing:

If the wine is clear, rack off of any sediment. Since you plan to sweeten
the wine you'll be adding potassium sorbate along with Campden tablets
(you mentioned adding potassium metabisulfite and a Campden tablet,
which are the same.) Your K-sorabate bottle should give you the
recommended amount per gallon. This is an important additive since you
plan to sweeten the wine.

Since you have gallon jugs, you can either somehow stir or simply shake
them with your sanitized hand over the top to degas.

Then it is advisable to wait several weeks to see if anything more falls out
due to removing CO2 from stirring, rack again if needed and sweeten,
then bottle. If you plan to filter it, adding a little more K-meta would
probably be a good idea since fruit wines tend to need months of aging,
even more than a year, depending. Best of luck with it!

 

[Big Port]

Thanks Bill. One more question, would sweetening be the last step before bottling? Baiscally, I would sweeten to taste and bottle it the same day?

 

[MedPretzel]

I wouldn't sweeten and bottle the same day.


I usually let mine sit for a week or so in the carboy after sweetening. Just to make sure that it's not going to referment. Getting wine off of a ceiling due to popped corks is not fun - especially when it's a red.

But that's just how I do it.


Yes, I think sweetening is the last step:

1. 
   <LI>Rack it off any sediment you may have
   <LI>Shake/stir the wine
   <LI>sorbate it.
   <LI>let it sit a few days/a week
   <LI>sweeten it
   <LI>let it sit a few days/a week
   <LI>bottle.</LI>

Hope this helps!





M.Edited by: MedPretzel

 

[PolishWineP]

And then there's those like Poor Bert and me who like to live dangerously

and we bottle the same day we sweeten. But, by the time we get there we're pretty sure it's not going to blow any corks.

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

If you ARE going to filter, that would be your last step. Make sure to filter
into a container that has the aging dose of K-meta in it.

 

[TNFISHRMAN]

Bilbo are you saying to filter after sweetening. I alway filtered stabilized, sweetened and bottled in the same day. But, from what I am hearing you all don't recommend doing so. I was always afraid the filtering process would remove some of the sugar??

 

[Waldo]

If the sugar was well dissolved TN the filtering should not affect the sweetness

 

[Big Port]

Nope, not filtering, If I had a filter I might.

I just finished up all of my wine tasks for the day. I stabilized 2 gallons of cherry wine, stabilized a gallon of clementine wine, racked a gallon of banana (which, by the way, tastes excellent!) and racked 3 gallons of grapefruit wine. Been a busy day already. I think I am going to bottle my gallon of garlic cooking wine tomorrow.