Sodium Benzoate or Potassium Sorbate
 

SWMBO likes the blackberry sligtly sweeten. Just enough to smooth it
a bit. So I need to stabilize and sweeten some before bottling.

I have read the archives threads and have DAGS on sodium benzoate and
potassium sorbate.

One site recommends sodium benzoate over potassium sorbate, but there
is really precious little written up about it. It is not used ni the
wine industry, overdose can cause a salty taste. OTOH postassium
sorbate can impart a 'bubblegum' ? flavor if overdosed and caN cause
geranium smells if MLF is not halted by potassium metabisulfite.

Any have experience with both for home made wines, what do you use now
and care to share why?

Sure appreciate any insight.

Steve - Noobie
Oregon

Hi Steve

I ran my own tests on this some years back by splitting small batches of
dry clear wines and treating each half with these chemicals. I feel the
results were notable. While I cannot really detect sorbate in a wine, I
_can_tell the difference when these wines are compared side by side.
The Benzoate gives a somewhat "brighter", cleaner tasting wine. While
I still sometimes use Sorbate on "sweet" wines (eg end SG >1.007),
I now have a large preference for Benzoate in "off dry" and "medium"
wines. No real science here, simply an empirical determination.

The "commercial" world has rules, and one of those rules is that Benzoate
cannot be used. As always, rules don't have to make sense but they_do_
have to be followed. Home winemakers are not bound by these rules
and can therefore do as they think best.

If nothing else, Benzoate does have one advantage: No geraniums.

Both chemicals are effective, so I suggest that you split a batch of wine
just as I did, and make your own determination which one you prefer.
Sugar tends to "cover" this difference, so I suggest that you try it
on an "off dry" wine. HTH

Frederick



"spud" > wrote in message
...
> SWMBO likes the blackberry sligtly sweeten. Just enough to smooth it
> a bit. So I need to stabilize and sweeten some before bottling.
>
> I have read the archives threads and have DAGS on sodium benzoate and
> potassium sorbate.
>
> One site recommends sodium benzoate over potassium sorbate, but there
> is really precious little written up about it. It is not used ni the
> wine industry, overdose can cause a salty taste. OTOH postassium
> sorbate can impart a 'bubblegum' ? flavor if overdosed and caN cause
> geranium smells if MLF is not halted by potassium metabisulfite.
>
> Any have experience with both for home made wines, what do you use now
> and care to share why?
>
> Sure appreciate any insight.
>
> Steve - Noobie
> Oregon
>
>

Hi Joe:

Thanks for the response, I appreciate the help.

Steve - Noobie
Oregon

> "Joe Sallustio" > wrote:

>I use potassium sorbate and sulfite to 0.8 molecular on sweet whites.
>I have never used anything else. No issues.
>
>Joe

Hi Frederick:

Thanks for the response. This is very helpful, as my better half
would like the blackberry with some added sugar, but not a /sweet/
wine. I'm really new to this, but off-dry sounds like the right term
for her taste.

Experimenting and keeping notes is part of the fun, so we'll try some
trials using both as you suggest.

Thanks

Steve - Noobie
Oregon



>"frederick ploegman kindly wrote:

>Hi Steve
>
>I ran my own tests on this some years back by splitting small batches of
>dry clear wines and treating each half with these chemicals. I feel the
>results were notable. While I cannot really detect sorbate in a wine, I
>_can_tell the difference when these wines are compared side by side.
>The Benzoate gives a somewhat "brighter", cleaner tasting wine. While
>I still sometimes use Sorbate on "sweet" wines (eg end SG >1.007),
>I now have a large preference for Benzoate in "off dry" and "medium"
>wines. No real science here, simply an empirical determination.
>
>The "commercial" world has rules, and one of those rules is that Benzoate
>cannot be used. As always, rules don't have to make sense but they_do_
>have to be followed. Home winemakers are not bound by these rules
>and can therefore do as they think best.
>
>If nothing else, Benzoate does have one advantage: No geraniums.
>
>Both chemicals are effective, so I suggest that you split a batch of wine
>just as I did, and make your own determination which one you prefer.
>Sugar tends to "cover" this difference, so I suggest that you try it
>on an "off dry" wine. HTH
>
> Frederick