When to use Potassium Sorbate?

[kirton]

When would be the correct time to use Potassium Sorbate?

I intended to make some sweet elderberry wine but it has fermented down to .990. The original brew stared off the scale of my hydrometer, so >>1.120, and I am using Youngs Super Yeast Compound.

I have been getting my recipes from C.J.Berry's book, which says for sweeter wines, use more sugar and expect the ferment to finish around 1.010 or so. Am I missing something as my wine has shot straight passed my intended finishing gravity and is now very dry and very strong (nice though :P )?

I have read that you should add Potassium sorbate after clearing and prior to bottling to stop any further fermentation. Could you do the same to stop the fermentation at the desired point or would this affect the clearing process or effect the taste?


PS, if anyone out there could calculate my starting SG I'd be very interested and would appreciate it. I used 3lb elderberries and 3.5lb of sugar.

Thanks

 

[Moley]

If that's one gallon (4.5 litres) your OG would have been around 1.140 so I'm rather impressed with your final gravity, as I make that 20.4% abv :party:

When CJJB was writing those books he would not have been using yeasties with that sort of alcohol tolerance, so would have finished with a sweet wine.

I usually add sorbate after first racking, so before clearing, but you could add it after clearing and 2nd racking.

Sorbate wouldn't stop an active fermentation at your desired gravity. CTs might if fermentation is already slowing down, then sorbate prevents any surviving yeasties from budding (making more yeasties).

PS: Never use sorbate on its own, always CTs followed by sorbate.

 

[kirton]

Thanks Moley, with a little watering down to top up after racking that's still a pretty impressive ABV. This stuff is going to be good, touch wood!!!

 

[Moley]

Unless you particularly want to keep this as a dry wine you may like to consider topping up with red grape juice, after racking and stabilising.

Try to show some restraint with this one, and stash a few bottles away, elderberry needs time to mature.

 

[kirton]

Will the grape juice effect the flavour much and how much would i need?

 

[Moley]

The grape juice would have hardly any effect on the flavour, it's just that I try to avoid topping up with water where possible.

How much depends on personal taste, but for example, 250ml would bring it back from dry to medium-dry.

 

[kirton]

Thanks

 

[screamlead]

Just had a great result.
Turkish mate popped round to pick up my 120 Ltr FV to go fill it with Grape juice from his village!.
Got chatting over a brew and he said i just got some potassium sorbate - he ordered it from a turkish online company. The turks here dont do anything by half so they always sell liquids and powders either by the kilo or litre.
So he ordered 1Kg of potassium sorbate!! for 40 TL = £18.00 - anyway they sent him 100 grams so he rang them to complain so they resent his order - he got 2KG Ha Ha.

So he said did i want any!!! So i got 250 Grams free!!
Plus cost for 120 ltr grape juice - 1 wine corker from UK! all the hardware out here is mega expensive.
We are also looking into going into AG brewing as Barley and Wheat are dirt cheap here - just need to get some decent ale brewing yeast from UK. Containers FV's etc are cheap too, as are 40-50 ltr cook pots and we use a thing called a Sorba to heat with. Its an indoor heater - cooker that can run on either wood or coal - no messing with dodgy kettle elements for boiling.