How do I Safely Bottle Young Wine ?

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kevinstan

kevinstan

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I usually make wines from frozen concentrates to drink young. I have 6 one gallon batches that just finished and it is more than I can drink at one time. I have a corker and want to bottle some of this, but I don't want bottle bombs or any suprise explosions. I have heard to use campden tablets at 1 per gallon, and then I have heard to use several other things like wine stabilizer, or conditioner. Can someone tell me how I can safely make this young 2 month old wine ok to bottle up ? I don't want it to restart fermentation and blow any corks. I read so many different things I figured I would ask here for some straight answers. Thanks in advance!
 
Check your gravity, if it's completely fermented I wouldn't worry. If you want to back sweeten with sugar you will have to use campden and sorbate to kill off the yeast. If you plan on storing it a couple years I would add campden tablets. If you are going to drink it right away then just bottle it.
 
It is close to finished, but not fully. I do need to take some sort of precaution to not make bombs. It will be consumed within 3 to 6 months but I want to cork it. These are all one gallon batches. Are you suggesting 1 campden tab per gallon and that's it ? Please specify.
 
kevinstan said:
It is close to finished, but not fully. I do need to take some sort of precaution to not make bombs. It will be consumed within 3 to 6 months but I want to cork it. These are all one gallon batches. Are you suggesting 1 campden tab per gallon and that's it ? Please specify.
Click to expand...

So, the phase you speak of is called stabilizing.

If you have no plan to backsweeten this once it is dry and fully degassed then you only need to add one Campden(use the potassium based ones, not sodium) tab dissolved in a bit of water per gallon. You can even dissolve the Campden in a bit of your wine. Just make sure it is dissolved fully.
If you plan to backsweeten by using a fermentable sugar of some sort, after the wine is dry and fully degassed, then you add one Campden tab per gallon along with 1/2 teaspoon potassium sorbate per gallon.
BUT, you want to make sure your wine is clear, no longer dropping sediment after it is clear/did what you hope was the last racking and fully degassed before you bottle. If you do not do these very important steps you will have sediment in your bottles and the gassy wine may cause corks to pop, or the wine can even be slightly fizzy. This is why you will rarely find people bottling at such an early stage, the wine still needs to clear and dega
 
kevinstan said:
It is close to finished, but not fully. I do need to take some sort of precaution to not make bombs. It will be consumed within 3 to 6 months but I want to cork it. These are all one gallon batches. Are you suggesting 1 campden tab per gallon and that's it ? Please specify.
Click to expand...

If fermentation is incomplete you either have to wait for it to finish then clear, or hit it with a campden tab and sorbate to kill the yeast. Do you want to keep the residual sugar for added sweetness or are you just being impatient?
 
saramc said:
So, the phase you speak of is called stabilizing.

If you have no plan to backsweeten this once it is dry and fully degassed then you only need to add one Campden(use the potassium based ones, not sodium) tab dissolved in a bit of water per gallon. You can even dissolve the Campden in a bit of your wine. Just make sure it is dissolved fully.
If you plan to backsweeten by using a fermentable sugar of some sort, after the wine is dry and fully degassed, then you add one Campden tab per gallon along with 1/2 teaspoon potassium sorbate per gallon.
BUT, you want to make sure your wine is clear, no longer dropping sediment after it is clear/did what you hope was the last racking and fully degassed before you bottle. If you do not do these very important steps you will have sediment in your bottles and the gassy wine may cause corks to pop, or the wine can even be slightly fizzy. This is why you will rarely find people bottling at such an early stage, the wine still needs to clear and dega
Click to expand...

Good post
 
Inner10:


I am being somewhat impatient. The frozen concentrate wines I make in 1 gallon batches usually clear and taste best with some residual sugar after about 2 months. I want to bottle some but don't want bottles exploding or corks going through the ceiling. With my larger batches I use wine stabilizer and check FG for a few days in a row to make sure it's done, but that's also after about 6 months. But for these quick 1 gallons I am scared to make bombs. I want to safely cork and preserve some though. Just not sure the best way how.
 
I am going to bottle this weekend. Should I use both the campden tab and wine stabilizer both ? And will they alter the flavor of my wine at all ? Also, can I add them at the same time if I use both ?
 
kevinstan said:
I am going to bottle this weekend. Should I use both the campden tab and wine stabilizer both ? And will they alter the flavor of my wine at all ? Also, can I add them at the same time if I use both ?
Click to expand...

If the wine isn't done, you WILL have bottle bombs. Campden and wine conditioner won't stop an active fermentation. Sorbate will prevent yeast reproduction, but since there is plenty of yeast in an active fermentation, it will do nothing. Wine conditioner has both sorbate and campden (sulfite) in it so you don't need both at the same time. And yes, it has a distinct flavor.

If you're going to bottle, you really should make sure (via a hydrometer) that fermentation is finished. Bottle bombs are serious. If you're lucky, the corks will just pop out before the bottles explode. But if you're not, someone could really get hurt.
 
Yooper said:
If the wine isn't done, you WILL have bottle bombs. Campden and wine conditioner won't stop an active fermentation. Sorbate will prevent yeast reproduction, but since there is plenty of yeast in an active fermentation, it will do nothing. Wine conditioner has both sorbate and campden (sulfite) in it so you don't need both at the same time. And yes, it has a distinct flavor.

If you're going to bottle, you really should make sure (via a hydrometer) that fermentation is finished. Bottle bombs are serious. If you're lucky, the corks will just pop out before the bottles explode. But if you're not, someone could really get hurt.
Click to expand...

The one time I made that mistake the corks just pushed out...what a freaking mess that was.
 
Inner10 said:
The one time I made that mistake the corks just pushed out...what a freaking mess that was.
Click to expand...

I had two bottles pop corks last year. I'm still finding sticky wine stains... :(
 
So if I were to do this 100% right - I would add wine stabilizer, then check the FG for 3 days in a row to make sure it is the same, then bottle. Is this correct ? The wine fermented in secondary for a little over 2 months now. I already back sweetened like I always do after 30 days. It appears to be done but with the added concentrate to sweeten I am sure the FG is probably around the 1.015 mark. If I check the FG and it is the exact same for a few days after adding stabilizer is it ok to bottle and cork ? It is sitting at room temp around 65 degrees right now. I am afraid that when it starts to warm up more it may start fermenting again. I am being a little paranoid but I dont want bombs. But I do want to bottle. Thank you everyone for the help and info so far. Also I forgot to mention. It's been racked twice and is no longer dropping any sediment. (Past few weeks). I would be racking it one more time over the wine stabilizer before bottling.
 
kevinstan said:
So if I were to do this 100% right - I would add wine stabilizer, then check the FG for 3 days in a row to make sure it is the same, then bottle. Is this correct ? The wine fermented in secondary for a little over 2 months now. I already back sweetened like I always do after 30 days. It appears to be done but with the added concentrate to sweeten I am sure the FG is probably around the 1.015 mark. If I check the FG and it is the exact same for a few days after adding stabilizer is it ok to bottle and cork ? It is sitting at room temp around 65 degrees right now. I am afraid that when it starts to warm up more it may start fermenting again. I am being a little paranoid but I dont want bombs. But I do want to bottle. Thank you everyone for the help and info so far. Also I forgot to mention. It's been racked twice and is no longer dropping any sediment. (Past few weeks). I would be racking it one more time over the wine stabilizer before bottling.
Click to expand...

No, not exactly.

Wait until the FG is stable for at least three days, and the wine is clear. Then add stabilizers, and then sweeten.

If you've already sweetened, that sugar should ferment out, but if it's at 1.015 that means you've got over about 18% ABV depending on which wine yeast strain you used. That's a very high FG, and normally people don't push the yeast so far first. If it's true that it's been at 1.015 for a couple of mines, then it might not ferment any more.

It's really hard to do this- sweeten, but then stabilize, as you really don't know for sure when it's done.

For next time, I'd definitely let the wine finish, then stabilize and then sweeten. Then you absolutely know when it's done, and when it's safe to bottle.

At 1.015, but not stabilized, it's hard to say if it's done or "stuck".
 

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