Stopping Fermentation

[jonereb]

I started fermenting my 2 one-gallon muscadine wine carboys back in September. Been in secondary airlock since after the first week. I've racked 2 times since and topped with semi-sweet wine. HERE'S MY QUESTION: When I rack wine into dissolved Potassium Sorbate and Campden, should I top with a wine? Will this risk more lees? I've been topping with a semi-sweet, so sugar will be present.

Also, in my notes, one recipe called for racking thru a coffee filter. Do I really want to expose the wine to this much air?

 

[pumpkinman2012]

There's really no reason to rack into a coffee filter, you definitely run the risk of oxidation, if you age the wine several months, it'll clear naturally.
If I'm understanding your question correctly, you want to know if you should rack with a dry wine instead of the semi sweet wine? If you added the sorbate and meta, the sugars from the semi sweet wine shouldn't be an issue, as far as adding more lees, that totally depends on the wine you are using, if you're using a wine for topping I would assume that it would be a wine that has finished aging and therefore free of lees.

I hope that this helps.

 

[jonereb]

Correct...I'm using a commercial muscadine wine to top off after racking. I wasn't sure if sorbate and meta would instantly prevent the sugar from starting a fresh fermenting process.

HYPOTHETICAL: What if I rack into sorbate and meta and fermenting starts again once I back sweeten (I'll wait a few weeks before back sweetening). Can I rack a 2nd time with sorbate and meta?

 

[torilen]

I'll toss my two cents in here, but take it with a grain of salt...I'll explain why.

I currently do not have a hydrometer - hopefully I'll be getting one next month. As such, I do not know the exact ABV of my wines yet. With that said, I have made ginger beer, hard lemonade, and grape wine...and I can bottled all them in quart-sized canning jars (we do a lot of canning preserves, so I had these left over from the summer). These stand up to heat very well, so I put my alcohol in them and stuck the jars in water and boiled them until the internal temp of the alcohol was 160. I then promptly took them out and let them cool on the counter. The tops were off in the water, but I put them on once I took them out and very lightly put the rings on...just enough to keep the lids in place, but not enough to form a proper seal. Once they were half-way cooled off...cool enough to hold in my hand without burning myself, I tightened the lids down. I knew there was no chance of them popping off or busting the jars at this point.

I did not notice a discernible change in taste by doing this, except maybe with the hard lemonade...cooked lemon tastes quite different. I wouldn't say it was a bad change...just different. The ginger beer and the wine tasted the same, as far as I could tell. I don't know if it changed the ABV. I'll be able to comment better on that once I get a hydrometer.

I did find out recently, however, that I really only need to get the internal temp to 140. I will do this next time, and it will be even less risk of changing the drinks.

I suppose doing this ups the risk of oxidation...they were open to the air probably about 20 minutes or so, waiting for the temp to get to where it needed to be to kill the yeast. But as I said, I didn't notice a change in flavor.

 

[pumpkinman2012]

If you add the sorbate and meta the wine will be stabilized and shouldn't start fermenting again, I've back sweetened within minutes of stabilizing with sorbate and meta.

I posted the following a similar basic "tutorial" on another thread, but it is very fitting for this thread as well:

To prevent your wine from starting to ferment once you back sweeten, you'll need to add both sorbate and meta\campden.

Potassium metabisulfite is used to prevent spoilage and further fermentation by removing oxygen, by removing the oxygen it chokes off micro-organisms and will prevent them from reproducing.
It will not stop a current fermentation.

Sorbate is used to keep wines from starting to ferment again after the alcoholic fermentation is completed, it does this by rendering micro-organisms unable to reproduce.
Sorbate will not stop a current fermentation.

Used together, Sorbate and Meta will prevent your wine from starting to ferment again.

I hope that this helps.