Fermentation Operation when Making Wine

In a number of cases you might find it best to stop the fermentation operation before it comes to a stopping by itself. The most frequent reason for wishing to cut off the fermentation process would be that you've determined the wine has already the right amount of sweetness which you want and you do not want it to progress any further.

Through halting the fermentation at that point, lots of wine makers feel that they can maintain the amount of sweetness that the wine has currently achieved and if you want a very sweet wine, such as a dessert wine, then this is quite understandable. The idea with stopping the fermentation process is that if you were to let the it to continue fermenting it'd lose less sweetness over time. As the wine turns totally dry, the fermentation process eventually stops by itself with no interference from you.

So consequently, there are many different techniques which home winemakers apply when trying to halt the fermentation process so as to preserve the sweetness but none of these methods work especially well, though.

One of these methods is using either Campden Tablets or Sodium Bisulfite but it should need to understand that fermentation won't completely stop using these techniques. You ought to additionally be conscious that the prospect does exist for some live yeast to be left within the wine, making way for the opportunity for the fermentation procedure to start again. In fact, it is not impossible for the process to start again even after you have bottled your wine and stashed it away, but obviously, that couldn't be a pleasant occurrence and could result in some really poor wine.

Yet another common option used by certain winemakers is Potassium Sorbate that is commonly employed for the purpose of making the wine sweeter. When it's utilized for that objective it's frequently after the fermentation process has been finished and you're ready to bottle your wine. The Potassium Sorbate is then added along with sugar and in this instance, it is to prevent the yeast from fermenting sugar that has just been introduced. When added prior to the end of the fermentation process, however, Potassium Sorbate will not terminate the yeast, rather it merely makes it sterile. This means that it stops producing but it doesn't stop the fermentation.

If your purpose is to preserve the magnitude of sweetness that's already in the wine, the best way to do this is to actually go ahead and allow the fermentation continue on its own until such time as it is completely completed. Once the yeast has been given a chance to settle through a period of several weeks, you'll then have the option to siphon the wine off and then drop in some Potassium Sorbate with sugar.

Try to remember that it is very important to allow the fermentation process complete before you add anything like Potassium Sorbate or more sugar. If you're not clear on whether or not the fermentation rpcedure has ended, you can check it using a hydrometer. Don't forget that this is the tool that you employ to determine the alcohol level of the wine therefore if the process has completed, there will be a reading of no greater than one on the gravimeter.