My 1st gallon

[Jeffrey the Skier]

Hello Everyone,
So I am trying my hand a making some wine. I have not used potassium metabisulphate yet. Did I ruin the batch, will the batch be ok and drinkable. I tasted some last night and it tasted good to me.

Here are the details:
This is a one gallon batch started on 5/5/19
I used Wegmans 100% White Grape Peach Juice
2 tsp Acid Blend
1 tsp Pectic Enzyme
.80 lbs Sugar
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
3/4 tsp wash of Lavin D47 and Premier Blanc yeast - the yeast was opened and in the refrigerator since January. So I doubled the amount of yeast that I thought was needed only because the yeast was opened already and not "fresh".
My starting gravity was 1.100 at about 65 degrees
It was bubbling good and lasted I think about a week that I can recall.

Just racked it yesterday (7-20-19) I know I should of racked it way sooner but I well. Specific gravity was 1.010 at about 73 degrees.

Right now there is about 4 inches of airspace in the bottle. The wine was racked last night. I was thinking I should add more juice into the bottle to eliminate the airspace. I think I should add potassium sorbate since I am adding new juice to the batch so that no fermentation occurs.
Did I mess up by not adding potassium metabisulphate?
Can I bottle it now?
What's everyone's thoughts. Thanks

 

[Blacksmith1]

Since the juice was fresh the lack of K-meta should not be a problem.
One of the things I am learning is to wait till bottling for additions such as acid, tannin, etc. since the taste of the juice changes during fermentation.
Sorbate along with K-meta won't stop fermentation. Just yeast reproduction.
I have had no issues even adding sugar when using them. As in add them, dump in sugar to backsweeten, bottle, with no time between steps.
YMMV.

 

[bernardsmith]

Sorry, Blacksmith1, but while I agree that there was no need for K-Meta the reason is not because the juice is "fresh". Fresh juice is just as likely to contain indigenous yeast and bacteria as whatever the opposite of "fresh juice" might be. But if you use commercially produced juice that juice has been pasteurized or sterilized in some way to prevent or inhibit natural fermentation. If the juice was expressed by the OP then if he wants to be sure he knows which yeast is at play and he wants to be sure that no bacteria have added their notes to the wine then he may want to add K-meta about 24 hours before pitching his yeast (the 24 hour period, Jeffrey_the _Skier, is important to allow the the sulfur dioxide to blow off (and that tells you that you do not want to add K-meta if you are sealing the fermenter with a bung and airlock during those 24 hours..) the SO2 kills bacteria and yeast as long as the colony size is small and the strain of yeast is not relatively acclimatized to the SO2 which some lab cultured yeasts in fact are)

That said, one thing we need to be careful,about when we use commercially sold juice is that the manufacturer has not added certain kinds of preservatives to inhibit fermentation. If they add sorbates then all bets are off because sorbates cripple yeastr and prevent the cells from reproducing. Heat pasteurization is OK (although it may cook the fruit) UV pasteurization is better, but added preservatives raise a red flag that forces us to read the ingredients carefully. This for the OP, Blacksmith1. I know you know all this.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Meant fresh from the bottle. Sometimes I think it and forget to type it.....

 

[bernardsmith]

But it still needs to be commercially made and distributed. If I pressed and bottled grapes and sold the juice out my garage that juice may self ferment in a couple of days. Welch's juice is presumably shelf stable for months if unopened because of their processing. And it is that stability that suggests that you do not need to further inhibit fermentation at the gitgo.

 

[Jeffrey the Skier]

Here is the ingredients of the juice:
Grape and Peach Juices from Concentrate (Water, Grape Juice Concentrate, Peach Juice Concentrate), Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C).
So do you think I Should still stay with my plan then?

 

[bernardsmith]

I would. Ascorbic acid is added as a preservative and that is a preservative that will not harm the yeast.

 

[Blacksmith1]

This for the OP, Blacksmith1. I know you know all this.

Never hurts to hear it again. And had I heard it a few days ago I wouldn't have my current sulfur problem......

 

[bernardsmith]

Never hurts to hear it again. And had I heard it a few days ago I wouldn't have my current sulfur problem......

Whoa Nelly. Sulfur hydroxide is caused either by a yeast strain with a propensity to produce a great deal of H2S (and there are a number- see lab specs) or a yeast under stress. That has nothing to do with yeast "struggling to out-compete competitors for the sugars or nutrients and much to do with temperature, under-pitching, inadequate degassing to name three things that quickly come to mind. (and under-pitching often occurs because of poor rehydration protocols rather than simply assuming that a half an open pack of yeast is fine for less than 6 gallons).

 

[Blacksmith1]

I belive I over did the K-meta, and pitched too soon, causing my pitched yeast to stress. Got a thread going for that already.

 

[JimRausch]

Actually the reason to add metabisulphite after fermentation is complete, at racking time, is not to sanitize the wine, but to scavenge oxygen that one inevitably introduces during the racking process. Oxygenation is a real problem with wines, ciders, and meads, and a little Camden goes a long way to prevent it.
And yes, you do want to add enough liquid to eliminate as much head space as possible. Also to cut down on oxygen exposure. I usually have a pint or so left over at my 1st racking which I save in a mason jar in the fridge and use that to top off. If I didn't have that I might use a similar type wine, juice, or even water.

 

[Bubbles2]

1" of air space
campden or sulphite is 1/16 tsp to a gallon. Keller has a good article to understand that regime
https://blog.eckraus.com/add-campden-tablets-to-wine

Yes to top off, even if it is a like wine, red/white.

Bottle juice is forgiving and prob pasteurized and air tight hence no ferment until consumer opens and free yeast enter.

I just topped off a 1.5 liter jug as my brew was large enough to almost accommodate the extra 1.5 so I added 1/3 cup sugar, 5oz h20 to top off, and added an airlock as I am sure it will gas off slightly as the yeast go for a midnight snack and get me the c02 I desire in that last inch of head space.

Fridging really arrests a lot of the challenges except 02 exposure.