Vintner's Apple Wine - add Campden Tablets?

[Surefoot]

I am making the 3 gallon recipe of Apple Wine using Vintner's Apple Wine Base. I added all of the ingredients per the recipe to the bucket on 1/26. On 1/28, the 1/28 the sg was 1.078 and I added the yeast (Red Star Cote des Blancss yeast. On 1/29 the sg was 1.072; I stirred the top half of the must. I stirred again on 1/30 and 1/31. On 1/31, the sg was .990. I racked the wine today (2/1); sg is .990. The instructions on the label said to rack at 1.040 but I missed that...the sg seemed to drop fast.

The next step says to rack the wine again in 3-4 weeks when the sg reaches 1.010 and 1.000 and then add 1 crushed Campden tablet per gallon of must. Since the sg is already below that, should I add the tablets now or should I wait the 3-4 weeks? Did I ruin this batch?

 

[vschlaff]

I was told by the wine supply store that you don't add campden tablets to a kit. Not even when racking. So I followed that advice. You may want to see if you can do something to fix the wine. It changes something in the wine. I'm a wine newbee so I hope this helps some.

 

[Sammyk]

I have made 5 of the Vinters Harvest fruit wines, peach, blueberry, red raspberry, plum and black current. They all called for campden tablets.

 

[Julie]

No you haven't ruin your wine, it is fine and yes you can add the campdem, and if you are planning on backsweetening you can go ahead and add the sorbate as well and backsweeten now.

 

[Wade E]

Absolutely add the camden! Apple wine is very susceptible to browning (oxidation) just like an apple with a bite out of it so add it now! I hope you had an airlock on the primary or it might have already have browned a little. Smaller batches almost always ferment faster. Vslaff, the reason the brew shop said not to add campden is because the kits come with powdered sulfite, these canned wine bases dontcome with any of these ingredients.

 

[vschlaff]

Thanks Wade I understand the difference now!

 

[vschlaff]

And i also miss read the thread. Apologies!

 

[Surefoot]

Thanks! I racked and added the tablets a few days ago. It's still pretty cloudy. I was thinking I'd like to backsweeten with Apple Juice concentrate. What's the best way of doing that? Can I do that at any time now while I wait for it to clear? I did have an airlock on the wine at all times.

 

[joeswine]

apple wine

do you have any pectin enzyme? if so add 1/4 teaspoon it will help in the clarification process,ad- let it sit for a week see what happens ,don't add anymore concentrate until then ,be patient..

 

[Surefoot]

So...I added 1/4 teaspoon of the pectic enzyme about a week ago. I have not added any sweetener at all. It's still cloudy. Should I degass at this point? Or should I just continue to be patient?

 

[joeswine]

time in a bottle

being patient is a hard item to learn in this hobbie,how cold is it were your at ? let it set ..be patient.