Sorbate

I know a lot of people use sorb ate to stop fermentation but is it needed?

brewsterbud said:

I know a lot of people use sorb ate to stop fermentation but is it needed?

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Not strictly speaking, no. Lots of Time, and racking your wine to remove the yeast will also work.

If you mean, 'how do I stop fermentation in the middle of the process' then that's VERY different.

Sorbate will not 'stop' fermentation. That's a very common misconception. It only stops the yeast that are present from reproducing.

brewsterbud said:

I know a lot of people use sorb ate to stop fermentation but is it needed?

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The way sorbate is used is it is added to wine that has completely fermented, completely clear, and backsweetened. The sorbate prevents fermentation from restarting. It is used with k-meta. Always use both when adding to backsweetened wine.

If your wine is dry, no need to add sorbate.

It is usually not possible to stop an active fermentation. It is best to let it ferment out, the backsweeten.

novalou said:

It is usually not possible to stop an active fermentation. It is best to let it ferment out, the backsweeten.

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Pasteurization will stop an active ferment. Not sure that's something you want to do to a wine but for the cider crowd it works well.

LBussy said:

Pasteurization will stop an active ferment. Not sure that's something you want to do to a wine but for the cider crowd it works well.

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True, and I wonder if this is where 'mulled wine' got its start. They may not have known what they were doing to the yeast, but they liked the result!