I have just started making wines after several years of beer making. So am new to it. I am wondering though about stabilizing wine and how to do it without sulphites. I don't really want to use chemicals to do it and would rather do it naturally if possible. However, if I have to use a chemical, I am wondering if this can be achieved with Potassium Sorbate as opposed to sulphites.
Any advice? Suggestions? Thanks.
gemery
you could always wait a very long time for the wine to stabilize on its own before bottling..but I'm an impatient person so I always use one crushed campden tablet and a half teaspoon of Potassium Sorbate and let it sit a couple days before botting...this is per gallon btw. It's just to be on the safe side..but if you just wait the long time, then you can get by with just the sorbate I suppose. They ( campden tablet and sorbate) just seem to work better together. Some books even say you don't have to add sulfites at all if you are sensitive to them, just make sure everything is really clean, and make sure the wine has truly stopped fermenting.
Gemery:
To me stabilizing means stopping the yeast. Metabisulphite will not stop the yeast. Potassium sorbate will stop the yeast if it is inactive, ie basically finished fermentation. HOWEVER, if you add sorbate you MUST add metabisulfite or run the risk of a geranium odour in your wine. If you will NOT be sweetening the wine, then the sorbate is not necessary.
Metabisulphite is an anti-oxidant and gives your finished wine shelf life (ie it's a preservative of sorts). If you leave it out, your wine will oxidize more quickly. How quickly? Don't know.
Personally, add the metabisulphite. Leave the sorbate out if not sweetening.
Now, when are you going to ask about clearing or fining agents????
Steve
If you try to stabilize with sulfites it will take more than you want to use. If you try to do it just with sorbate, again, it will take more than you want to use. Used together you can stabilize with a reasonable amount of each. They work together very well.
If you really do not want to use any chemicals then invest some money in a good filtration system that will remove all yeast. They are not cheap. Then expect to drink your wine young as without the sulfites it is not going to keep more than a couple of years. (Unless you do not mind a bit of oxidation.)
Ray
You are mixing up different processes here. Stabilizing wine usually refers to hot and cold stabilization to prevent haze. Otherwise Steve's description of sorbate to stop yeast reproduction in sweet wines, (rarely used in reds) and sulfites to prevent oxidation are correct. I suggest you look at Lum's chapter on Clarification and Stabilizing or possibly another chapter if you find out you are looking for some other process besides stabilizing.
I probably shouldn't have said sorbates are rarely used in reds because I think they include them in most kits, and probably some wineries use before bottling, but rather that they are usually unnecessary in wines fermented to dry (and not resweetened).
They are worse than unnecessary - they change the taste and can give you the geranium off smells mentioned by Steve, especially for reds. There is no reason whatsoever to add sorbate to dry wines.
Pp
I want to apologize to everyone since after looking at other sources I see that stabilizing can refer to lots of different processes including stopping refermentation as Steve suggests. I learned the term stabilization to mean preventing haze, but it makes sense that it would mean anything to keep the wine stable.
Miker
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