Questions on post-fermenting practice...

[Christenstein]

Hey guys, just had some general questions which have arisen; having got underway the fermenting process, with my brews sitting bubbling away (mead, ginger and WOW), had a couple of questions regarding the next steps.

As I understand it, keeping things simple, the aim of the next bit is to clear (for taste and asthetics) and make it stable i.e. no chance for re-fermentation. The Clearing seems simple enough, just racking at particular times at recipe dependant intervals, to remove lees, yes? Anything I might be missing from this process please let me know.

The second part is stablising it i.e. airbounre-cork-wine-covered-floor-evasion-manouvre. It seems to me that if I want a completely dry wine, this becomes no problem; just a waiting game of getting rid of sugar. But as I want to back sweeten, or stop fermentation at a particular gravity, how can i be sure there is no remaing yeast? I know i can use a potassium sorbate (is the right chemical? the one to stop yeast reproduction) to stop more yeast entering the equation, but what of the yeat remaining? If i back sweeten, these few remaining particles will still produce gas. Is there a system of knowing how long the yeast will remain active before expiring and adding to the lees? Or is the only way to keep adding sugar after racking to dry until fermentation doesn't restart?

Sorry for long winded question, just want to be clear with what I mean.
Thanks guys
C&L

 

[Aleman]

The clearing process is not really recipe dependant . . . .any time you have a significant deposit rack the wine off of the lees, generally 1 month / 3 months/ 12 months following trasnfer to demijohn.

If you want to back sweeten your wine you could try using Xylitol which is non fermentable and about the same sweetening power of Sucrose . . . . With none of the potential nastiness of aspartame etc . . . Should be able to get it from Holland and Barretts.

This means that you can forget using sorbate

 

[Moley]

Clearing is indeed simple enough, and just a matter of racking off the lees and waiting a while. Firstracking would normally be done around the end of week 4. Your next options are patience or finings. If you leave things to nature, most wines will usually completely clear in a further month or two.If you use finings, most wines will completely clear within a week or two. You then rack again and decide whether to bottle or to leave to mature in bulk for a while longer.

I would usually stabilise at first racking. By that point, most of the yeasties will already have died and fallen to the bottom of the jar. You should always add a crushed Campden tablet when racking, that will guard against infection, minimise oxidation, and will also kill off most of the sleeping yeasties. Potassium sorbate stabiliser prevents any survivors from reproducing and starting fermentation up again if you add more sugars. Leave it under airlock for now, especially if you are using glass DJs.

By the time of second racking / bottling it should be pretty obvious if there is or has been any further activity. If you have back-sweetened after stabilising you should have taken another gravity reading and written it down somewhere. Suppose you have sweetened from 0.990 (dry) to 1.000 (medium) - when you come to bottle it, if your gravity is still 1.000 your wine is stable.