Stabilising and bulk aging

[braziliain]

Looking for some confirmation from the collective mind that what I am planning is good practice or if not then any suggestions.

I have 1 gallon of a cider in a demijohn that has fermented out completely. I'd like to stabilise it then bulk age it before transferring to a keg at a later date for force carbonation. I have never attempted to stabilise anything thus far.

My plan is to place 1tsp of Wilko wine stabiliser into the bottom of an empty sanitisd demijohn (instructions recommend 1tsp for a gallon of wine) and then syphon the cider on top.
I was then planning to top the demijohn up right to the top with unfermented apple juice before popping a bung and airlock in and popping in the shed for aging.

Is there a risk here that fermentation will start up again with the addition of the juice or does the stabiliser work immediately? Will syphoning ontop of the stabiliser mix it sufficiently or is there a better way?

After aging, when kegging I intend to add another litre of unfermented apple juice to sweeten the cider which is the real reason for wanting to stabilise.

Thanks very much

 

[Chippy_Tea]

If you are sure it has finished then stabiliser will work but below is an explanation of what stabiliser cannot do (it may be interesting for newer members as well as us old uns)



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.

https://eckraus.com/wine-making-stop-fermentation/