Wine making help!

[Robert10]

I have a problem with my wine this season.
What can I do if my wine gets carbonated (fizzy) after we added sugar andbottled the wine?
I added campden tablets when I added the sugar. Is the addition of sugar restartingfermentation? . What can I add to stop this?

Any suggestions would be appreciated?

Regards,
Robert
Novice Home winemaker in NY

 

[Dend78]

robert,

carbonation is a result of fermentation, so make sure you degas before bottling, if it starts to ferment again after back sweetening you need to add 2 things, sorbate and k-meta or camden these things will help to keep the yeast dormant.

 

[Robert10]

I am testing (trying to fix) a single bottle that is re-fermenting. I added sorbate and camden tablets but is continues to foam up when I shale the bottle. Do I need to add more? What else can I do?

Any other thoughts?

Robert

 

[Julie]

robert, open all the bottles and get them back into a carboy. you did not mention sorbate in your first post, so I am assuming you did not use it. You do have an active fermentation going and you will need to let that ferment out, then add k-meta and sorbate and backsweeten again only after the current fermentation is done.

 

[Runningwolf]

Great advice from Julie. As she posted ensure your fermentation is complete before adding the proper amount of fresh sorbate and meta. Never add sugar without the addition of these two things at the same time or a few days before.

You cannot stop an active fermentation with these alone and thats the reason for letting the fermentation complete first.

 

[Tom_S]

I second what Julie said. You're just going to end up with a bunch of bottle bombs that will blow their corks. I know from experience when I obviously forgot to add potassium sorbate to a batch of blackberry wine. Luckily it was just a 1 gallon batch so only 5 bottles were affected, but if you've got a large batch they will all pop the corks. Metabisulfite alone won't prevent refermentation, you need potassium sorbate too.

 

[grapeman]

To supplement what they say, you will need to let the wine clear again as it will create more sediment doing this additional fermenting. Whe the SG is consistently around .994, rerack it off the yeast that settles out again. Be sure it is degassed, then add the k-meta. I like to give it a day or so and then add the potassium sorbate. Let it sit another day or two and then sweeten to taste. Let it sit another few days to make sure it doesn't begin again and bottle it if it is still.

 

[Robert10]

I would like to thank everyone for the excellent feedback!

Thank you,
Robert