How do you know, if you want to keep the wine at a certain alcohol level,
when to rack the wine? How do you prevent the wine from fermenting further?

John,
The best way is to work out what your starting SG needs to be to achieve a
given abv. That will then ferment to dryness below 1.000. and you will have
the abv you want.

If you then want to sweeten the wine you must add potassium sorbate to
inhibit refermentation. ( the sorbate is a sort of chemical condom that
prevents the yeast reproducing!). If you like your wines dry, as I do, then
there is no need to add sorbate. It is considered by some people that
sorbate detracts from the flavour of the wine. I haven't used sorbate in
years.

"John Fouts" > wrote in message
m...
> How do you know, if you want to keep the wine at a certain alcohol level,
> when to rack the wine? How do you prevent the wine from fermenting
> further?
>
>

If you can, it is easier to plan ahead and just add the sugar that is needed
for the alcohol level that you want. Let it ferment dry and clear. Then
stabilize it with sorbate and sulfite and sweeten it to the level you want.

Stopping a fermenting wine is not easy. Sorbate will not stop a ferment.
It will prevent it from restarting. One method is to put it in a fridge or
freezer for a week or two to stop it. Then rack it off the sediment and
stabilize it and hope it does not restart.

When do you rack and put it in the fridge? You need a hydrometer. If you
start with a hydrometer reading of 16% (or the equivalent in SG or Brix) and
you only want 11%, then when it drops to 5% you need to stop it. In fact I
would try to stop it a little before that, maybe 5.5 or 6% figuring that it
will not stop instantly.

Ray


"John Fouts" > wrote in message
m...
> How do you know, if you want to keep the wine at a certain alcohol level,
> when to rack the wine? How do you prevent the wine from fermenting
> further?
>
>