I have a strawberry wine that I made this summer and would like to get it into bottles after stabilizing and sweetening. I know I need potassium sorbate to inhibit any fermentation of the back-added sugar, but is it absolutely necessary for me to add metabisulfite to stabilize?
My problem is that I added K-meta prior to the fermentation and found out I seem to have a low taste threshold for "free-SO2". It seems like I can still taste the residual sulfites in the wine.
It seems to me that if I can leave beer bottle for a year using my current practices that a wine should be fine for that long too without going bad (turning to vinegar) after not adding sulfites. Now I know that hops have antibacterial properties, but I can't see how sulfite would be such a necessary addition in a wine that has a bunch more alcohol than beer.
Any thoughts?
My problem is that I added K-meta prior to the fermentation and found out I seem to have a low taste threshold for "free-SO2". It seems like I can still taste the residual sulfites in the wine.
It seems to me that if I can leave beer bottle for a year using my current practices that a wine should be fine for that long too without going bad (turning to vinegar) after not adding sulfites. Now I know that hops have antibacterial properties, but I can't see how sulfite would be such a necessary addition in a wine that has a bunch more alcohol than beer.
Any thoughts?