Backsweetening and Stabilization Question

Hello,

First, Just want to say thanks for all the great informaiton that has been provided on this forums and to Yooper for an easy to follow Hard Lemonade Receipe (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f79/hard-lemonade-68144/).

Currently in the process of making Yoopers Recipe (mentioned above) and just wanted to make sure I'm understanding the Backsweetening with Cane Sugar and Stabilization process of wines, beings I'm new to brewing, currently batting 1 good beer and 1 bad beer recipe, with Lemonade being #3. I followed the directions provided but double pitched the EC1118 as recomended in the thread, and racked to secondary (did not top off with water on account of lack of knowledge to prevent oxidation) on 5/31/12 and allowed to go flat (airlock activity stopped approx 6/10/12). I've been gone most the time since airlock activity stopped so its been able to sit for over a month. I'm anctiously waiting to bottle this and give it a try because the tasting during racking was very promissing

What I'm confused on with Stabilization, is do I rack from my current carboy into another container with Sorbate (1/2 tsp per gal) and crushed Campden (1 per gallon) at the bottem. Do I need to retrieve some of the Lemonade mix it with Sorbate and Campden and pour back into current carboy without racking? Just trying to figure out if I need to rack to my Bottling or Primary Bucket (6.5 gal) while clean my Carboy than put back into the Carboy with the Campden/Sorbate Mixture (assuming top off with water). After the Campden/Sorbate is added I allow the mixture to sit for 24hrs before backsweetening it.

As far as Backsweetening I can just add Cane Sugar till reach the gravity of 1.02 as mentioned or to taste without fear of creating Bottle Bombs. Also, going to add artificial flavoring to taste on about 1 gal of lemonade, done to taste.

Thanks for any an all help provided in clearifying this process for me.

First, just because there's no airlock activity doesn't mean your yeast is done. Having said that, if your current product is what you want it to be, ABV-wise, then what you need to do is stabilize. You can rack or not rack--that's up to you, but lots of people just want to get the wine off the lees, so they rack. You can stabilize at the same time--just toss the campden and sorbate in after you rack (or during, it's no matter), just mix it up. If you only have a bucket and a carboy, and your lemonade is in the carboy, then yes, you will probably want to rack to your bucket and then back to your carboy. My advice: get yourself a second carboy.

Rack...never hurts to rack, helps in clearing and can get rid of off tastes from sitting on dead yeast cells for an extended time.

And, yes, rack into a clean carboy that has the chemicals (dissolved in 1/4 cup of warm water) in it, makes mixing them in much easier. Instead of a second carboy, racking into a cleaned and sterilized primary bucket and then back into your now empty (cleaned and sterilized of course) carboy is an easy way to do it.