doing wine for a friend and need some help please

[sputnam]

I homebrew and when a friend said he had some wine kits that were about to go bad but he had no time/room to make them, I said I'd lend a hand. I have fermented a merlot and an applewine (1 from a can, 1 from a bag). I racked them once about 6 weeks ago. I'm wondering what the next step is. I asked my friend and he said add campden tablets and potassium sorbate. long story short, it's easier to ask here than get an answer from him.

So, how many tablets do i add? do i crush them? stir or shake? why add them, what do they do? I add them to water to remove chlorine before brewing beer.

I also just read that pot sorbate gives a weird flavor after a period of time. How long a time. He already has wine thats 3 years old. What else can i use to stabilize it?

btw - i am planning on backsweetening as well....what are your recommendations on that?

what else should I do before bottling?

 

[roachvaliek]

1) 1 campden per gallon, crushed and mixed thoroughly. They add so2 to the wine and kill any remaining yeast. The sorbate stabilizes by inhibiting any yeast reproduction.

2) the weird flavor from the sorbate is caused by a bacteria that metabilizes it producing a chemical that I cant think of the name of, possibly geranium. The use of the campden should prevent this.

I hope that helped

 

[bernardsmith]

Not sure that campden tabs dissolve well in alcohol. You may want to dissolve the tabs in a small amount of water and add that solution to the wine.

The geranium smell produced by K-sorbate is the result of MLF. In other words, there should be no problem with K-sorbate if you are not inoculating the wine with bacteria to convert malic acid to lactic

 

[pumpkinman2012]

Did these kits come with instructions? If you know which manufacturer they're from, you can download the instructions on their website.

 

[jensmith]

I homebrew and when a friend said he had some wine kits that were about to go bad but he had no time/room to make them, I said I'd lend a hand. I have fermented a merlot and an applewine (1 from a can, 1 from a bag). I racked them once about 6 weeks ago. I'm wondering what the next step is. I asked my friend and he said add campden tablets and potassium sorbate. long story short, it's easier to ask here than get an answer from him.

So, how many tablets do i add? do i crush them? stir or shake? why add them, what do they do? I add them to water to remove chlorine before brewing beer.

I also just read that pot sorbate gives a weird flavor after a period of time. How long a time. He already has wine thats 3 years old. What else can i use to stabilize it?

btw - i am planning on backsweetening as well....what are your recommendations on that?

what else should I do before bottling?

So, you fermented for about a week and racked into a carboy with an airlock about 6 weeks ago? And nothing seince then? I am gonna asssume so...

Now every 2-3 months or whenever there is 1/4" of lees or more rack into a clean carboy, airlock. Every other time add one crushed and disolved campton tab per galleon. (Disolve in water and put in clean carboy first, rack wine ontop of it. All mixed!) you can give the wine a small stir to mix in if not racking/forgot to add first. The campton protects the wine from oxidization and a few odd bad things.
When the wine is crystel clear and no longer dropping any leese add another campton tab and sorbate. Let sit a day, then backsweeten. If you decide not to backsweeten no need to add the sorbate.
Campton and sorbate together keep the sleeping yeast from reproducing/waking up. They don't kill the yeast. This is why you must wait to backsweeten untill after the wine is clear and not dropping leese. This means most of the yeast has died or gone dorment due to starvation. (No suger left to eat).
You can hurry up this proccess with clearing agents. This is what most kit instructions have you do. If you still have the box, go to the kit manufactures web site. They probely have the kit instructiins online.
Wine is much simpler then beer! Its a pitch and leave it kinda deal


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[Texconsinite]

I've always used clarifying agents. Waiting for wine to clear on its own is tedious, especially with dark colored wines where it can be hard to tell if stuff is done dropping out. Wine takes longer than beer, but on the plus side, you are less likely to mess up a wine by leaving it in the fermenter and extra week or 3, since it'll need to age anyways, whether in the carboy or in bottles.

You can hurry up this proccess with clearing agents. This is what most kit instructions have you do. If you still have the box, go to the kit manufactures web site. They probely have the kit instructiins online.
Wine is much simpler then beer! Its a pitch and leave it kinda deal

I prefer the term "Dump and Stir" to describe winemaking, but I agree that its easier than beer.

Being able stop fermentation and backsweeten to taste is fantastic! Yes the flavor will change over time in the bottle, but not like beer where the yeasties are still chewing away in the bottle

If you can make beer, you can definitely make wine. I find it helps to make both, so you can hide the bottled wine and have beer to drink while letting the wine age for several months. Hardest part of winemaking= patience/waiting to drink it.

 

[jensmith]

I've always used clarifying agents. Waiting for wine to clear on its own is tedious, especially with dark colored wines where it can be hard to tell if stuff is done dropping out. Wine takes longer than beer, but on the plus side, you are less likely to mess up a wine by leaving it in the fermenter and extra week or 3, since it'll need to age anyways, whether in the carboy or in bottles.




Being able stop fermentation and backsweeten to taste is fantastic! Yes the flavor will change over time in the bottle, but not like beer where the yeasties are still chewing away in the bottle

Not to nit pick, but.... You really can't stop a fermentation. However you can let it finish, and keep it from starting back up, then backsweeten.


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[mgonbrewlab]

It is funny how many sources that seem otherwise reputable teach as process to use sorbate and sulphites to halt fermentation at the desired
sweetness. Either wine yeast was once less hardy, or a legit experiment needs to be conducted