Potassium metabisulphate

[Griffster77]

Is Fermentation Stopper (like in Youngs or Wilko's) the same thing?

 

[uDicko]

I always thought it was a mix of potassium sorbate and sodium metabisulfite needed together to halt fermentation.

I'd look for both of these things in it.

I'm not the expert tho

 

[BlackIsland]

Just to be clear, kmeta and sorbate won't stop active fermentation, but will prevent it from restarting once it's done and you add a fermentable.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Potassium Sorbate is another home wine making ingredient that many winemakers consider when trying to stop a wine from fermenting any further. There is a lot of misunderstanding surrounding this product.

It is typically called for by home wine making books when sweetening a wine. This is a situation where the fermentation has already completed and is ready for bottling. You simply add the Potassium Sorbate along with the sugar that is added for sweetening.

The Potassium Sorbate stops the wine yeast from fermenting the newly added sugar. So, many winemakers assume Potassium Sorbate can stop an active fermentation as well. But, nothing could be further from the truth.

Potassium Sorbate does not kill the yeast at all, but rather it makes the wine yeast sterile. In other words, it impairs the wine yeast's ability to reproduce itself. But, it does not hinder the wine yeast's ability to ferment sugar into alcohol.

Potassium Sorbate puts a coating on the cell wall of each individual wine yeast in such a way that budding or multiplying is next to impossible.

The idea here is that if you happen to have few cells of live wine yeast remaining in your finished wine, they will be rendered harmless if they are unable to regenerate themselves to great enough numbers to invigorate a fermentation of any kind. This is true even if more sugar is added to the finished wine.

Read in full - How To Stop Fermentation

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

So what does a campden tablet do?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Preserves the wine once bottled.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Preserves the wine once bottled.

Aaah gotcha.

 

[Hagrid]

So what does a campden tablet do?

It can also be used to neutralise wild yeast prior to pitching your wine/cider etc. yeast. Make sure you give it 24-48 hrs before pitching.

 

[Mr_S_Jerusalem]

Yeah I read that it basically ‘stuns’ the yeast or something but doesn’t kill it. Which works well for me because I only ferment to dry. All of you nuts who like sweet wines need a little something extra to kill that bad boy off lol.

but I had no idea about the preservative bit.

I standardly add a campden tablet per gallon to my must 24 hours before pitching unless I’m doing juice wine.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

How to use -

• Add 1 crushed Campden tablet to each gallon of wine at the end of fermentation to prevent oxidation and bacterial contamination during the bottling and syphoning, also aids stability.