sorbate after campden?

I have a gallon of some cherry-vanilla mead on which I would like to stop fermentation. I mistakenly took several people's word and added campden thinking it would stop it. I may have added two tablets, though I'm pretty sure only one. My question is whether I can add sorbate now without adding more sulfites.

campden/sorbate does not stop fermentation. it simply stops the yeast from multiplying.

need to stop the yeast, usually by letting it ferment out or cool it right down (tho it can be hard to get it to stop where you want).
then rack it off the yeast. you want as little yeast left over as possible.
then add campden and a short time after add the sorbate. you need to add the sorbate before the sulphites cease working.

If you added the sulfite recently, you can add the sorbate without more sulfites. You want to maintain about 50 ppm or so- usually guestimated at 1 campden tablet crushed- that will last for a while. But if fermentation continued, the sulfites would be more likely to disipate faster. If it's been more than a few weeks since you added the campden, I'd re-add it with the sorbate.

I usually only add sorbate and campden only once, at first racking. Once in secondary I just leave it bulk aging till bottling time. Do I need add them again at bottling? Trying to minimize amount of chemicals I throw in my meads

paraordnance said:

I usually only add sorbate and campden only once, at first racking. Once in secondary I just leave it bulk aging till bottling time. Do I need add them again at bottling? Trying to minimize amount of chemicals I throw in my meads

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No. But using sorbate "too early" like at first racking means it's ineffective. You want to add it later- once the yeast are finished, and the mead is clear, and there is very little yeast in suspension- then add it before bottling.

Yooper said:

No. But using sorbate "too early" like at first racking means it's ineffective. You want to add it later- once the yeast are finished, and the mead is clear, and there is very little yeast in suspension- then add it before bottling.

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To minimize on rackings I only rack when fermentation is over and primary spends 3-5 days in serving fridge below 40F to drop the yeast and other solids out. Its usually very clear going to secondary except may be some stubborn melomels. I add sorbate + campden to secondary and rack on top. Is this still too early?

paraordnance said:

To minimize on rackings I only rack when fermentation is over and primary spends 3-5 days in serving fridge below 40F to drop the yeast and other solids out. Its usually very clear going to secondary except may be some stubborn melomels. I add sorbate + campden to secondary and rack on top. Is this still too early?

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I don't know, as it depends on the amount of yeast still in the mead.