Anyone bottle without stabilizing?

[brewskiez]

I made some fruit wine and mead last September and it’s been bulk aging in glass carboys. I have racked it several times and vacuum filtered/transferred through my all in one wine pump using a 1 micron. I would like to just bottle it instead of adding a bunch of sulfates anyone do this?

 

[jgmillr1]

If you don't plan to back-sweeten it, then given that amount of time you may be fine without adding sorbate. But you need to add the proper level of sulfites to protect it from oxidation and spoilage. Though if there is any chance of residual sugar, you should add sorbate just to be safe or you risk refermentation when the weather warms. I've had a wine I thought was dry and put through a 0.45um filter manage to referment the following summer.

I only bottle dry reds that have been in the barrels for a year without sorbate.

Note, the pad filters will not remove ALL of the yeast, just most of it. A 1-um filter is good enough to remove nearly all (99%) of the yeast. However you can't assume it is free from yeast. The only way to be reasonably sure is to put it through a membrane filter of 0.45um. Even these are guarantee only 99.999% blockage of particles .45um and larger. Plus, there is risk of re-introducing yeast later with non-thoroughly cleaned hosing/equipment. By adding sorbate and putting my sweet wines through the membrane filter on the way to the bottler, I've managed to prevent refermentation issues.

 

[A_McG]

I generally make all my wine in the fall. It sits in carboys all winter and usually I rack 2-3 times. Come spring I bottle up without adding anything to the wine. In years of wine making I've never poored a bubbly bottle or had corks pop out.

Of note I usually push my abv to 14-16%, and bottle mostly dry wines

 

[georgeburgin]

Like what's already been stated, I too never add sorbate if I'm fermenting dry. If I'm going to back sweeten then I do. Like A_McG, I've never had a cork pop out...

 

[z-bob]

I've made wine without using sulfites. It degrades in the bottle with age instead of getting better. (so I add Campden tablets when I rack to the secondary now) I almost never use sorbate stablizer.

 

[DoctorCAD]

Once...still have the stains in the carpet.

 

[Yooper]

I never use sorbate these days- BUT I like dry wines and so I don't sweeten them. I always, but always, use sulfites as antioxidants in the amount of approximately 50 ppm at every other racking and at bottling.

It's far less than commercial wines contain, but still enough to inhibit microbes and oxidation.