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How to stop a fermentation

I have been making wine for almost 50 years and never had this happen.

I have six gallons of blueberry wine that has been fermenting for about nine months. It stopped after about four or five months and appeared to be finished.

About a two months ago, I added 1 1/2 teaspoons of Potassium Sorbate and 2 teaspoons of Potassium Metabisulfite to get ready to bottle. It started working and is slowly bubbling away. It tastes dry and quite good.

I had a refractometer brix reading of approximately 3 when I added the Potassium salts. Our local winery owner told me that a few other people had the same thing happen to them. Is it possible that the Sorbate or Metabisulfite may act as a yeast nutrient of some sort?

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? I want to bottle it.

Reply to
Andie Z
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I usually don't give advice on here but here goes....... I think you will hear from others on this list, that a refractometer is useless for residual sugar readings in wine, Only a hydrometer will do the trick. I believe the alcohol throws a refractometer off. Also did you use 2 tsp of PotMet? Sounds like a bit much to me.

Reply to
jomuam

Andie,

My math is not so good, but here goes........ A teaspoon of sulfite weighs about 6.5 grams.

6.5 times 2 equals 13 grams. 13 grams of sulfite times 0.57 produces about 7.4 grams of SO2. Six gallons times 3.8 equals 22.8 liters. 22.8 liters equals 22,800 grams. 7.4 grams of SO2 divided by 22,800 grams equals 324 milligrams per gram. 324 milligrams per gram equals 324 PPM of sulfur dioxide. That's about ten times the usual amount. Can't you smell the SO2 in the wine?

Lum

Reply to
Lum Eisenman

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