Potassium Sorbate Necessary?

[roberto188]

I have a batch of pineapple wine that has been racked 3 times over the course of 4 months and has sat in a refrigerator for about 2 months at about 37 degrees. I sampled some yesterday and added 3 grams of sugar to 6 fl oz of wine and it was AMAZING! My question is, after 2 months in a fridge, do I need to add potassium sorbate to stabilize or can i just back sweeten and bottle? Will the POT SORB add a lot of flavor to the wine? It tastes so perfect right now, I don't want to screw up the flavor.

 

[dmtaylor]

Yes, the sorbate is a good idea if you don't want carbonation or gushers. It doesn't have a lot of flavor, and is not unpleasant in the recommended dose.

 

[Yooper]

I have a batch of pineapple wine that has been racked 3 times over the course of 4 months and has sat in a refrigerator for about 2 months at about 37 degrees. I sampled some yesterday and added 3 grams of sugar to 6 fl oz of wine and it was AMAZING! My question is, after 2 months in a fridge, do I need to add potassium sorbate to stabilize or can i just back sweeten and bottle? Will the POT SORB add a lot of flavor to the wine? It tastes so perfect right now, I don't want to screw up the flavor.

You'd still want to rack onto potassium sorbate and campden. You wouldn't add the sorbate and campden to the wine currently, as since it's been sitting in the fridge it probably has some lees. You'd want to rack off of the lees into a solution of k-sorbate and campden (k-meta).

It does impart a slight flavor that some people can pick up, but most people don't taste it.

You don't want to overdo the amount, and it should be fine.

 

[roberto188]

Yooper, there are currently virtually no lees int he carboy as it was racked 3 times previously. A TINY dusting maybe but next to nothing. It is still worth it to rack the whole thing on the dissolved sorbate, sugar and K-meta and THEN bottle or can i just dissolve the ingredients in some warm water and dump into the carboy and simply bottle from that?

 

[Yooper]

Yooper, there are currently virtually no lees int he carboy as it was racked 3 times previously. A TINY dusting maybe but next to nothing. It is still worth it to rack the whole thing on the dissolved sorbate, sugar and K-meta and THEN bottle or can i just dissolve the ingredients in some warm water and dump into the carboy and simply bottle from that?

Yes, it's worth it to get it off of the lees- as the lees contain yeast. In order for sorbate to work, there needs to be very little yeast in the wine, as well as the wine being totally clear.

The reason is that sorbate inhibits yeast reproduction; but it doesn't kill the yeast. So, if you have hundreds of billions of yeast in suspension or in the lees, fermentation will restart when you sweeten the wine since the yeast don't have to reproduce. If you have so little yeast in suspension as to be 'not enough' to ferment again, the sorbate will be effective since the yeast can't reproduce. I hope that makes sense!

 

[roberto188]

Thanks. I think I may actually Keg the 5 gallons I have right now. I'll make a simple syrup, dissolve the sorbate and K-meta and simply rack from the Carboy into the Keg. Is there any downside to keeping the wine in a kegerator for a couple of months as I drink it? I think any sort of acid changes with tartaric acid crystallization would have already taken place after 2-3 months in a fridge right?

 

[IslandLizard]

The only downside of kegging, actually being able to dispense the wine, is it will get carbonated.

 

[Yooper]

The only downside of kegging, actually being able to dispense the wine, is it will get carbonated.

Unless you don't put any pressure on it, just to push it. I don't drink my wine cold, though. I have whites in the cellar (high 40s) and reds in the main part of the house (mid 60s), and put just enough gas on it to push it when I want it.

Keeping the wine cold will slow the aging process significantly, so if it's perfect now and you want to preserve that and you like to drink it cold, I don't see any downside to keeping it in the kegerator at 0 pressure.

 

[roberto188]

Excellent thanks. Yes, the wine is definitely one of my best RIGHT NOW and is very good chilled. Definitely opens up with decanting. Taking it out of the keg cold and decanting will not only open it up but bring it to better temp for drinking. Thanks for your help Yooper!

 

[roberto188]

So I dissolved my sugar and K-Sorbate in some warm water and racked the Wine into my keg last night. I had already done a free SO2 test and my molecular SO2 was 48 ppm @ 3.42 pH so I didn't add any K-meta. But I tasted it this morning and now it tastes bitter. I think the K-Sorbate has made the wine taste bitter. Maybe I'll use half that amount next time. Anything I can do to remove this bitter taste? I added 2.5 TSP for my 5 gallon batch.

Maybe I'll just throw some more sugar at it, and sweeten it up a bit more. Right now it's only got 15grams/liter of sugar.

 

[roberto188]

Never mind. After the first bottle, for whatever reason the bitter taste went away. Maybe it was residuals in my keg line, but all is well now. Thanks!