Back sweetening - did I do okay?

[Hedley]

Hi all,

I just made the mistake of bottling a load of wine, THEN tasting, before realising it was too sharp. D'oh!

Anyhow, I added two teaspoons of sugar to a bottle and it tasted okay. I was a bit nervous about adding sugar to the bottles and corking as although I am pretty sure the fermentation had well and truly stopped, I did not want to risk it, so I siphoned all 6 bottles back into the demijohn, added the sugar and a half tablet of campden (only half as I popped a whole one in about a week ago to prepare for bottling). I will leave this a couple of weeks just to be sure, before bottling again.

Did I do the right thing?

Ross

 

[Yooper]

Campden tablets don't inhibit yeast- that's why winemakers use it routinely.

You may pop the corks out before the bottles would blow up, though. You never ever want to carbonate a wine that is corked unless you are using champagne bottles and cages.

If you want to sweeten the wine before bottling, the thing to do right now is to let it ferment out again. you really need a hydrometer. Take a reading today, and take a reading in a couple of weeks. Once there is NO sediment at all in the bottom after at least 60 days in this new vessel, it very well may be ready to bottle, assuming the hydrometer reading is unchanged over that time.

Then, if you want to stabilize the wine, rack it into a new vessel into which 1/2 teaspoon of sorbate per gallon is dissolved in a little water. Let that sit for a few days, then you can sweeten to taste. let that sit for a few days, to ensure fermentation doesn't restart, and check the bottom to see if any sediment is dropping. If both are negative (no signs of fermentation, and no new lees on the bottom of the carboy), it can be bottled at that time.

 

[Hedley]

Cheers.

There are no air bubbles coming out the air lock, and if I see no lees dropping over the next few weeks, can I assume that it has finished fermenting and it is safe to bottle? (I think it had finished fermenting anyway as there had been no sediment for over two months prior to me adding the sugar to back sweeten).

 

[Yooper]

Cheers.

There are no air bubbles coming out the air lock, and if I see no lees dropping over the next few weeks, can I assume that it has finished fermenting and it is safe to bottle? (I think it had finished fermenting anyway as there had been no sediment for over two months prior to me adding the sugar to back sweeten).

No, it wouldn't be a safe assumption. A hydrometer reading would be reliable, though.