cold crashing and storage

[kduqs]

hey,
ive been researching the ins and outs of making wine out of a store-bought juice bottle for quite some time now. I've never made any type of brew before and decided id finally give it a shot and start with something simple like that. I feel pretty confident about executing the fermentation process but the details are a little fuzzy for me on the storage aspect.
my question is: exactly how effective is cold crashing when it comes to killing off the yeast? I am worried about some of the yeast coming back to life when the temperature comes back up.
Another thing, should i even worry about cold crashing at all? Ive read that some dont consider it necessary. how do you guys personally store your finished wines?
feel free to go into heavy detail. the more information the better. I love to read about all of you perfecting your art.

cheers.

 

[lumpher]

I've made wine hooch a few times with store-bought juice. I'm drinking a VERY dry glass of it now. Cold crashing slows it down, but it does not stop fermentation. It will continue till there is nothing left to ferment, even at 34 degrees; it just takes longer. Your best bet is to use K-meta and Potassium Sorbate to stop the multiplication of yeast and kill it off, then back-sweeten it. After you use that combination and let it do it's job, then back-sweeten it, you can store it however you want.

 

[passedpawn]

hey,
ive been researching the ins and outs of making wine out of a store-bought juice bottle for quite some time now. I've never made any type of brew before and decided id finally give it a shot and start with something simple like that. I feel pretty confident about executing the fermentation process but the details are a little fuzzy for me on the storage aspect.
my question is: exactly how effective is cold crashing when it comes to killing off the yeast? I am worried about some of the yeast coming back to life when the temperature comes back up.
Another thing, should i even worry about cold crashing at all? Ive read that some dont consider it necessary. how do you guys personally store your finished wines?
feel free to go into heavy detail. the more information the better. I love to read about all of you perfecting your art.

cheers.

Cold will not kill the yeast. Even freezing won't do it. Cold WILL speed up the clearing process, where yeast and other materials fall to the bottom. That sort of clearing is done for aesthetics and flavor purposes, and won't remove all of the yeast.

In wine making, yeast is mostly removed through several rackings. Between each racking, clarifiers are added (optional) and time is allowed for the yeast to fall to the floor of the fermentor. Finally, when the wine is considered mostly clear, potassium sorbate is added to kill the yeast (well, it doesn't actually kill it, but further fermentation is stopped). Given ample time, the sorbate isn't strictly necessary because there just isn't anything left to ferment in there. One time it must be used is if you intend on "back-sweetening" the wine after fermentation. Saving some of the original juice, then adding after fermentation, is how sweet wine is made. But no matter how clear that wine looks, there will be live yeast and that yeast will ferment newly-introduced sugars. By adding sorbate, those new sugars will not be fermenting.

 

[passedpawn]

KMeta (potassium metabisulfite) is more of an anti-oxidant. I don't need it because I drink that stuff fast, but if you've got some patience and are wanting to store wine for more than 6 months, you need KMeta or your wine will taste bad after a while.

 

[kduqs]

I've made wine hooch a few times with store-bought juice. I'm drinking a VERY dry glass of it now. Cold crashing slows it down, but it does not stop fermentation. It will continue till there is nothing left to ferment, even at 34 degrees; it just takes longer. Your best bet is to use K-meta and Potassium Sorbate to stop the multiplication of yeast and kill it off, then back-sweeten it. After you use that combination and let it do it's job, then back-sweeten it, you can store it however you want.

Cold will not kill the yeast. Even freezing won't do it. Cold WILL speed up the clearing process, where yeast and other materials fall to the bottom. That sort of clearing is done for aesthetics and flavor purposes, and won't remove all of the yeast.

In wine making, yeast is mostly removed through several rackings. Between each racking, clarifiers are added (optional) and time is allowed for the yeast to fall to the floor of the fermentor. Finally, when the wine is considered mostly clear, potassium sorbate is added to kill the yeast (well, it doesn't actually kill it, but further fermentation is stopped). Given ample time, the sorbate isn't strictly necessary because there just isn't anything left to ferment in there. One time it must be used is if you intend on "back-sweetening" the wine after fermentation. Saving some of the original juice, then adding after fermentation, is how sweet wine is made. But no matter how clear that wine looks, there will be live yeast and that yeast will ferment newly-introduced sugars. By adding sorbate, those new sugars will not be fermenting.

this was very helpful and cleared a lot up. thanks guys!

 

[Coffee49]

Cold crashing or cold stabilization is a step that can be omitted if desired. In the northeast just before 2nd racking (Feb.) The weather is perfect for a 2 week cold exposure outside with a vodka filled airlock . I have done this procedure in the past but since I go 11 months in the carboy prior to bottling I just let time do its thing.