Doh! Added wine (sulfites) and stopped fermentation

[Setesh]

I've been adding 2-3 cups of a locally produced Cabernet Sauvignon to my Flanders Red style beers because I love the character it adds. I got the bright idea to try a store bought wine that I also like to compare the difference. The thing is that the local winery's doesn't add sulfites because the owner's wife is sensitive to them. The store bought cab does, of course, have added sulfites. Sure enough, fermentation came to a screeching halt in the one I added the store bought wine to. No more tiny bubbles being produced, no airlock activity, nothing. The other 6 gallons (split batch) with the local wine is happily fermenting away. Same culture, same dregs added, was fermenting fine before, so it has to be the sulfites. Can I do anything to save this batch? Maybe I can make a few more batches of Flanders and blend 1/3 of this batch into each? Would I just be retarding fermentation in the new batches? I hate the idea of dumping the batch. I know I could get rid of the sulfites by oxygenating the beer, but that doesn't sound like a good idea. Any thoughts?

 

[The_Bishop]

You sure that wine doesn't have sorbate in it? Metabisulphite in small amounts should not stop fermentation.

 

[Setesh]

Maybe, but it makes no mention on the bottle if so.

 

[Yooper]

Unless the wine had some much sulfite it in to make it undrinkable, it wasn't that that stopped the fermentation. It could be that the beer yeast reached it's alcohol tolerance (?) or that fermentation was nearly finished so that fermentation isn't obvious.

Wine yeast and beer yeast are amazingly tolerant of sulfites- that's why winemakers use them, plus sulfites are a natural by-product of fermentation so even "sulfite free wines" have sulfites in them.

 

[Setesh]

I didn't realize that about brewers yeasts being tolerant of sulfites. I have no idea what happened then. I'll let it sit and see what happens. Thanks for the opinions!