My girlfriend has made some wine from a kit and after fermentation, when it gets to a certain level of dryness, she stabilises it. I'm having a go at some fruit wines (redcurrant and also blackberry) but the recipe doesn't say anything about stabilising. It's left to ferment out then racked then racked again 3 months later and nothing else is added. Is this correct or have I got he recipe wrong?
If you are fermenting it dry and leaving it to bulk age, there is no need to add stabilisers. Keep an eye on S02 levels and pH though.
charles
Probably not, that's up to you. Up until this past June, I let all my fruit wines finish without adding any stabilizer. And I was very lucky - none of my bottles popped. And then there was this watermelon-rhubarb wine, I thought it was done, but it wasn't, and 4 bottles popped (it is a mess, believe me). So then I decided to try stabilizing with sorbate with a few batches. The next few batches I will try stabilizing with sodium benzoate. From what I've read, there are pros and cons to both. Anyway, if you can let the wines finish and age without adding stabilizer, then go ahead. If you're like me and have some concerns about popping bottles, then you might try the stabilizer. I would go to Jack Keller's site and read up on how to finish a wine, and then decide what you'd like to do.
If you ferment it dry (SG=0.995 or less) there is no need for stabilizers. If you sweeten it back up you will need to stabilize.
Ray
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