Backsweetening instead of degassing - a workable cheat?

(A thought - skeeterpee has taught me so much about winemaking, I feel like it should have a subforum. That thread is way too big to ask questions and find answers in, anymore. Just my opinion.)

So I don't own a long spoon for stirring my skeeterpee, though it's not like I couldn't spare a few bucks and a trip to the LHBS. I have a batch that's dry dry (0.996) and it's slowly offgassing.

so, 1) I know it will clear faster if degassed, 2) I've added granulated sugar to (carbonated) things before and seen the results, 3) The recipe says to let it clear and *then* backsweeten.

I'm wondering how it'd work out if I skipped the waiting and degassed it by chucking in all the backsweetening sugars. Thoughts?

Because the yeast are in suspension they will immediately grab that new sugar and start eating again so not only will will co2 begin to be produced agin but the yeast will not want to drop out of suspension because they will have more to eat.

As to your request for a subsection I do not think skeeterpee has the following of hard cider but a new subsection along the lines of "winecoolers, hard soda, hard lemonade & more" I believe would have a big enough following to support itself. All of these things are not really what one thinks of when they picture a wine and are not cider because of the lack of apples so I think a subsection of the forum is a fantastic idea. To that end I have been trying to get a new subsection created and my efforts and thinking can be seen on the last two pages of this thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f22/new-forum-requests-107098/index6.html

I could use some support in this so feel free to chime in on that thread if enough of us are interested in this sort of sub section I think the administration would be happy to create one, but at this point it seams like I am the only one pushing for it.

Also, Tw0fish, earlier in the month on this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/ev...bout-adding-7up-glass-wine-291272/index2.html
you said you and your brother were making some things along the lines of "winecoolers" and I asked for more details but I am assuming you never saw my post so would you mind going back and looking at it. Almost everything I am currently making is along that lines and I would love to know what you are working on.

#tag#winecoolers, hard soda, hard lemonade & more

Re: pee- ok.. makes sense. The yeasties have to fall asleep and be racked off of before i can sweeten, mm? Guess ill be buyin myself one of those sweet looking long brew spoons

Re: winecoolers- AWESOME. I was under the impression that nothing had/would come of this, but am immensely interested still. Ill be glad to catch up as soon as i get home.. and ill see if my brother is interested in joining in.

just de-gassing and clearing isn't the end all to putting the yeast to sleep. You'll need to add the kmeta and sorbate once it's clear and then add the back-sweetening sugars. Even when the pee has cleared there's still enough yeast alive in there to re-start fermentation unless you've stabilized it.

Apologies - I should have said that: I did add sorbate and sulfite, but I am not using sparkolloid right now. (shoot, maybe I oughta.)

Tw0fish said:

Apologies - I should have said that: I did add sorbate and sulfite, but I am not using sparkolloid right now. (shoot, maybe I oughta.)

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Just an FYI if you are going to add stabilizer, do it after the brew clears other wise it won't do you any good. yeast is sufficient quantities will overrun stabilizers and render them ineffective. Skeeterpee is a perfect example of this. Reallemon has sorbate and other preservatives in it and yet with time and technique we can get a healthy ferment going. Even though you stabilized I would not trust that backsweetining will not cause the fermenting to restart. pasteurization might be a better option so you are not having to add a second dose of sorbate.