This is my first time making apple wine. So far it is racked into it’s secondary. Once ready to bottle, do I add a campden tablet to kill any remaining yeast and then add some sugar to make a sweeter apple wine? I have tried to do some research, but have found myself more confused.

Name: Matt
State: Virginia
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Hello Matt,

First, thank you for such the great question. Sweetening a wine before bottling is a subject that causes great confusion among many novice winemakers.

Most of the confusion surrounds the thought that Campden tablets will kill yeast. For the most part this is true. Campden tablets will kill yeast… so long as it’s a wild yeast! But, if you use a domesticated wine yeast to make your wine – just like everybody does in this century – it’s a completely different story.

Domesticated wine yeast, such as that produced by Lalvin or Red Star, have been acclimated to the active ingredient in Campden tablets, sulfite. In other words, these domesticate yeast strains have been bred to become somewhat immune to effects of sulfite.

This does not mean that using Campden tablets will not kill some of the wine yeast. In fact, it will kill some or even a significant part of the yeast colony, depending on how many tablets you use, but it will not kill all of the wine yeast. This is where the problem comes in for the home winemaker sweetening a wine before bottling.

If you are sweetening a wine before bottling it is essential that the wine yeast be dealt with so that it cannot start re-growing a colony again. Campden tablets will not do this. It may put a momentary dent in the yeasts’ ability to ferment, but it does not take away their ability to propagate and grow back into numbers that can cause a winemaker some grief in the form of a rejuvenated fermentation.

If only Campden tablets are used when sweetening a wine before bottling, then there is a decent chance that a fermentation will occur in the wine bottle. The result is a buildup of pressure from the CO2 gas, and eventually one of two things will happen: either the corks will start popping out, or the wine bottles will fail. Neither one is a good thing.

So Matt, I imagine by this time you are wondering, what are you supposed to do when sweetening a wine before bottling? It’s really pretty straight forward. And, you almost had the right idea.

Sweeten The wine To Taste:
Most home winemakers will use cane sugar as a sweetener, but you can try sweetening the wine with honey, corn sugar, beet sugar, etc. There is room for experimentation. Just realize that regardless of whatever you use, it needs to be completely dissolved and evenly blended into the wine. Don’t skimp on the stirring.

Add Campden Tablets To The Wine:
For sure, you want to add sulfites such as Campden tablets. You can also use potassium metabisulfite or sodium metabisulfite, instead. Both of these work in the same way as Campden tablets. The only difference is that they are in a granulated form. If using Campden tablets, add one per gallon. If you are using either potassium metabisulfite or sodium metabisulfite, add 1/16 of a teaspoon per gallon.

Add Potassium Sorbate To The Wine:
Up to now I have not mentioned potassium sorbate, (aka, wine stabilizer) but it is the real key to sweetening a wine before bottling. Potassium sorbate does not kill or destroy yeast, wild or domestic, but instead, it stops them from reproducing.

Any yeast fermentation thrives on the fact that a single yeast cell can reproduce itself several times before it dies. It does so through a process called budding. A little bud will emerge from the yeast’s cell wall. The bud will eventually separate and become its own yeast cell. This is how a yeast colony propagates throughout a fermentation. If the yeast cannot reproduce, then the fermentation cannot sustain itself.

This is where potassium sorbate comes in. Potassium sorbate interrupts the reproductive process by coating the yeasts’ outer cell outer wall, making budding impossible. If the yeast cannot bud, the colony will not flourish.

The recommended dosage for potassium sorbate is 1/2 teaspoon per gallons.

Additional Thoughts:
One thing you can do to insure the success when sweetening a wine before bottling is to give the wine plenty of time so that it is can drop out as much yeast as possible. Yeast will fall to the bottom when they run out of sugar to feed on, but it takes time for these very fine particles to fall completely out through gravity. To help speed up the process you can treat the wine with bentonite then follow it up with a polish fining agent such as isinglass or Kitosol 40.

Also realize that Campden tablets and potassium sorbate will have little if any effect on an active fermentation, so do not try to use these ingredients to stop a fermentation in progress. Domesticated wine yeast are too immune to sulfites, and the amount of potassium sorbate it would take to coat such a large number of active yeast cells makes the dosage required unreasonable.

That’s pretty much the ins-and-outs of sweetening a wine before bottling. To summarize quickly, you give the wine plenty of wine to drop out the the excessive yeast cells. Even use a wine clarifier. Then sweeten the wine to taste, and then add the Campden tablets, then the potassium sorbate.

Happy Winemaking!

I am making a wine with black and red currants. I mixed everything together and the fermentation started the next day. But now my wine has stopped fermenting too early. It has only been fermenting for about 5 days. What should I do?

Name: Kelly F.
State: GA
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Hello Kelly,

It may very well be that you have a stuck fermentation, and need to figure out how to get it going again. But, more than likely the reason your wine is not fermenting is because the fermentation is simply done. Once all the available sugars have been turned into alcohol by the wine yeast, there is nothing else to do. No reason to add more yeast, etc.

While most fermentations will last anywhere from 5 days to 10 days, I have personally seen wine fermentations be completely done in less than 3 days. It’s all just a matter of how happy you make the wine yeast.

To determine if your wine stopped fermenting too early or if you have a stuck fermentation, you will need to test the wine with a hydrometer. If you do not have a hydrometer, I would strongly urge you to get one. A wine hydrometer is the single most valuable tool any winemaker can have, and it is quick and easy to use.

• If your wine has a specific gravity reading less than .998, then your fermentation is done. All that you need to do is to continue on with any wine recipe directions you are following. This would typically be to rack the wine into a secondary fermenter and allow it time to clear.

• If your wine has a specific gravity reading more than .998, then you have a stuck fermentation on your hands and will need to figure out how to get the wine fermenting again.

There are a number of reasons why a wine might stop fermenting too early – too many to go over here – but fortunately you can go to our Top 10 Reasons For Fermentation Failure. There you will find the mostly likely reasons why you have a stuck fermentation. The reasons are in order from the most to least likely reason. This list was culminated from our years and years of experience with helping home winemakers. Go over them and see if any of the top 10 reasons apply to this batch of wine.

In short, if you have a wine that stopped fermenting too early, it does not necessarily mean you have a problem. In fact, it could mean the opposite – that you had a very good fermentation and it is done sooner than expected. But, if the fermentation is not complete, you need to figure out why, and then address that issue.

Happy Wine Making,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

I have the hardest time with the acid titration kit as far as finding the right color stop (acid level) any suggestions on using an acid testing kit, how to tell when to stop at the right level.

Manuel Q. – NM
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Hello Manuel.

For those of you who have never used an acid test kit: basically what you are doing is taking a measured sample of wine and slowly adding sodium hydroxide to it until the wine permanently changes color. By knowing how much sodium hydroxide it took to get the color change, you can determine you wine’s acidity level.

An acid test kit can be a little awkward to use until you get the hang of it. I sometimes suggest to customers that they practice on some finished wine, first, before they actually need to use it. Here are some additional information for using an acid test kit. These are tips that go beyond the instructions you typically find with a titration kit.

1. Run Through A Quick Test
   When I’m using the acid test kit, the first thing I like to do is go through a test quickly. This is to establish “about” where the color change will occur. Then when doing a second test, I start off by adding enough sodium hydroxide to get close to the point of a color change. Then I add the sodium hydroxide one drop at a time. Adding the bulk of the sodium hydroxide all at once will save you a lot of time and aggravation in the long-run. With each drop you will want to shake the test-tube and see that either a magenta or grey color is dissolving completely away in the sample of wine. Streaks of either color are okay. They just need to be swirled out. It’s when the color stays permanently and alters the color of the entire sample. That’s when you want to take your measurement reading.

2. Use A White Background 
   This tip for using an acid test kit is the one I think is the one that is most helpful. By holding the test tube up to a white background like a wall or sheet of paper you will be able to discern the color change more easily. You are essentially blocking out colors from the room, giving you a cleaner frame of reference when taking a titration of the wine.

3. Use A Second Wine Sample For Comparison  
   Having a second test tube with another wine sample for comparison may be helpful. Put them side-by-side. Expect the color of the sample being tested to get lighter and lighter as more sodium hydroxide is added. That’s okay. You are not comparing the lightness or the darkness between the two wine samples. You are comparing the color hue of the two wine samples. 

4. Dilute The Wine’s Color  
   This tip for using an acid test kit does not apply to every wine. If the color of the wine is too opaque to see a color change, you can dilute it. Some red wines are just to dark for performing a titration. You can dilute it with distilled water. You do not want to use tap water or drinking water. Use distilled water, only. Dilute as much as you need to. This will not alter at what point the color change will occur or the math you use to calculate it. 

5. Make Sure The Wine Is Free Of CO2   
   The wine sample needs to be flat. You do not want CO2 (carbonation) from the fermentation to be in the wine sample. Carbon dioxide will throw off your reading. For this reason, the most opportune times to test your wine is before fermentation and before bottling. The wine must should be free of CO2 at both these times. If you are making your wine from fresh fruit, I would recommend testing at both times. The acidity level can change during a fermentation. The first test is to get the acidity close so that the fermentation can be healthy. Acidity plays a role in how well a yeast ferment. The test before bottling is to adjust for flavor – flat vs. tart flavors.

6. Make Sure The Acid Test Kit Is Still Good   
   Here is the last tip for using an acid test kit. Both the activator and the reagent in your acid test kit will get old with time. This can throw off a titration reading – sometimes significantly. For this reason, it is not a bad idea to store these ingredients in the refrigerator for longer shelf-life. If you are not sure how old your acid test kit is, you can run a test on Welch’s grape juice – not from concentrate, straight Welch’s grape juice off the store shelf. It should have a reading of .67%-tartaric. If you get a reading that is higher than this, it means that your reagent (sodium hydroxide) is old and does not have its full strength.

Using an acid test kit is a great way for controlling your wine’s acidity. Hopefully these tips for using the acid test kit will help to make the process a little easier and an little more accurate.

Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus

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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

Could you tell me how I might control my fermentation temperature? I have been making wine for 15 or so years from real grapes. Many times the wine’s fermentation temperature is too high. What is the best way to control it. Thanks in advance.

Name: Al J.
State: NY
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Hello Al,

Thanks for the great question. This is something that plagues a lot of home winemakers, so I’m glad you brought it up.

For those of you who do not know, a fermentation creates heat. It’s usually not a problem during the cooler months or with smaller batches, say 5 gallons or less. But when the weather is hot or you are fermenting in 15 gallon batches or larger, heat can build up and should be on the winemaker’s radar.

Depending on the type of wine you are making and the type of wine yeast you are using, you would like your fermentation to around 70° to 75° F.  Once you start getting over 80°F. you run the risk of off-flavors and possible spoilage.

There are several ways you can go about keeping a fermentation cool. Unfortunately, most of them are a pain in the behind. For a professional winery it simple. They use fermentation vats with cooling jackets and/or refrigeration coils that keep the temperature stable under computerized control. Sweet! But for us home winemakers we have to use a little more ingenuity to keep our fermentation temperatures stable.

I’ll go through a few of the basic methods you can use if the wine fermentation temperature is too high, but it’s going to be up to you to figure out which one is going to be most practical for your situation:

• Use Smaller Fermenters
  This one is pretty basic. A 5 gallon carboy is not going to over-heat as easily as a 15 gallon demijohn. This is because you have more external surface area per gallon as you go down in size. That means the heat can dissipate more readily from a smaller fermenter than it can with a larger fermenter.

• Blocks Of Ice
  This is the one I hate the most, but is most used by home winemakers. It’s simply using blocks of ice in ziplock bags directly into the wine. I hate this for two distinct reasons: 1) you never know when a ziplock bag is going to fail and empty melted ice into the wine, 2) there is very little control. While it’s designed to help you out when the wine fermentation temperature is too high, you could easily get the fermentation too cool, stalling the fermentation. For these reasons I do not recommend this method, but it could be used in a pinch.

• Evaporation Method
  The basis behind this method is when water evaporates it cools whatever it is touching. By keeping evaporating water against the outside of the fermenter, you can get the fermenter to cool down. A common way of accomplishing this is to sit the fermenter in a bath of water. It does not need to be deep, just a few inches. Next put fabric over the fermenter that drapes into the water. As an example, you could use a cotton t-shirt over a carboy. The water will then wick up the fabric and then evaporates, cooling the fermenter. You an use a fan to blow air across the fermenter to speed up the evaporation. The faster the evaporation, the more the fermentation gets cooled.

• Heat Ex-changer
  This method is done simply by putting a coil of stainless steel tubing in the wine and then running cold water through the tube. This is a great way to cool the wine. The biggest problem with it is that you have to use stainless steel tubing which is expensive. Other metals will corrode which is detrimental to the wine, so stay away from copper, aluminum, etc.

• Dedicated Refrigerator
  This is the ultimate solution for when a wine fermentation temperature is too high. This method involves using a refrigerator as a temperature controlling device. The obvious issue with this method is you need a refrigerator. The second issue is that the thermostat of a refrigerator does not go high enough. For this reason you will need to buy a electronic temperature controller with the correct temperature range to control the power to the refrigerator.

Unfortunately, all these methods involve some effort on your part. As mentioned before, all them work, it’s more a matter of picking out the method that is most practical for your situation.

Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.

I have started making 5 gal of Blackberry wine and I am using your ingredients. One question is in your wine recipe you say after the first day add the yeast with the fermentation bag still in the must and leave it for an additional 7 days before transferring it to the carboy. Should I continue to stir the wine also ? Do I need to add make up water after removing the bag ?

Name: Charles P.
State: SC
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Hello Charles,

Once you add the yeast you will want to stir the fermenting wine must around as much as you can. The goal is to not allow any of the pulp to become too dry during the fermentation. Stirring it around once or twice a day should be sufficient.

In a winery they call this punching the cap. When fermenting grapes there is so much pulp involved that a thick solid cap is formed. The winemaker has to punch it down with a punch down tool that looks similar to a large potato masher with a long handle.

With your fermentation there is much less pulp. I’m assuming you used around 15 pounds of blackberries to make your five gallons, whereas with a grape wine there would be about 40 pounds, so simply stirring the fermenting wine should be sufficient in your situation.

If you have our regular size fermentation bag, just open it up and stir the pulp so as to circulate the dryer pulp towards the bottom. Rotate the pulp. If you have our jumbo fermentation bag, then it should be left open and rolled backwards over the brim of your primary fermenter. All you need to do is give the pulp a quick stir in kind of a folding manner.

The reason you want to keep stirring the wine must is twofold. The first one is simple. When the pulp becomes to too dry for too long of a period, it provides a perfect place for mold an bacteria to grow – damp, nutritious pulp that is exposed to air. The second reason is if a solid dry layer forms it will interfere with the fermentation. Wine yeast needs air to successfully grow and multiply into a large enough colony to support a healthy, vigorous fermentation. If a dried cap forms it creates a barrier that traps the CO2 gas in the wine must and cuts the air off from the yeast.

As you suggested, once your primary fermentation is done and you are ready to remove the fermentation bag, there will be some loss in volume, but it will not be as much as you might think with your blackberries. What you are looking at now is the plump fruit. Once the fermentation gets hold of it, it won’t be so plump. The fermentation will break down the pectin in the blackberries making the pulp just a shell of what it was before.

If you do find your batch is excessively short then you should top up the wine when going into secondary, but is should not be a major issue. Just be sure to get as much liquid as possible when racking into your secondary fermenter — even if some sediment is coming along with it. Also, when you pull the fermentation bag out, wring it as best you can. The more juice the merrier.

Charles, I hope this answers your questions about stirring fermenting wine. Just remember that stirring the wine must daily to keeping any cap from becoming hard and dried is a critical part of having a healthy, active fermentation.

Happy Winemaking,
Ed Kraus
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.