I am making an apple pie mead which is stalled out at 1.08. I made a major mistake and accidentally racked it into potassium sorb ate/metabisulfate before realizing it wasn’t done. I brought up an active 1/2 gal starter of Lalvin 1116 and pitched it at peak activity 24 hours later. Seemed like it might get it going again but now slowing down and flocking out still around 1.08. I oxygenated well and did staggered nutrient additions over first 3 days. My impression was the potassium sorb/ metabisulfate should not stop active ferment so rep itching active yeast should work. Any suggestions? Mead tastes great just way too sweet. Thanks!
Maybe make a second small batch that ferments dry and blend? I was under the impression that once Potassium K is present you are pretty much stuck. From what ive just read it looks like the Potassium Meta inhibited the active yeast and the potassium K kept them from reproducing.
I’m not really sure what you can do… Possibly blending it with another batch already in an active fermentation would dilute the KMeta and K Sorbate enough to allow for continued fermentation? That’s all I really can think of.
What was the OG on this?
Og was around 1.13
Ok. You didn’t happen to measure FG with a refractometer?
- Sent by my R2 unit
Nope, only have hydrometer. What would you learn with fg reading using refractomter vs hydrometer?
To use a refractomter for the FG you would need to also use a calculation to estimate the true FG because a refractomter doesn’t account for alcohol properly.
and even then, when the OG gets up there things start to get wonky. still a neat tool. I wouldn’t own one except I snagged a cheap one of amazon for ~20 bucks
Back to OP, I read that if you heat your mead to 170+ it should denature the Sorbate. The problem is it becomes a sulfur compound and that may stick in your mead… Id start working on a batch to ferment dry to mix.
You may want to be careful while heating it as well… I think the boiling point for alcohol is like 173F?
Doing a little reading and I believe wine makers add these chemicals preferment to their grape must to kill off all the wild yeast/ bacteria before adding yeast of interest. I am going to wait some time for the chemicals to de gas and then try pitching a huge active yeast slurry
Well… They add KMeta at the start to knock out most of the wild yeast and bacteria but not potasium sorbate. That’s your preservative. It’s the one that is the problem.
The KMeta is mostly gone after 24 hours.
In theory, since potassium sorb ate inhibits yeast growth but not kill active yeast or fermentation, would it be possible to still ferment must with potassium sorb ate if enough yeast are pitched?
Dan is right, Winemakers do indeed use a small amount of PMeta to inhibit Wild yeast until the selected yeast strain takes over in sufficient amounts that the Wild yeast cant play a significant factor if present. How much PMeta did you drop in how many gallons?
After reading this it sounds like Degassing your mead could help, but im really not sure how that will end up. ON your own head be it if you do this:)
I also found this.
"If using peroxide, do take care. It takes the oxygen out of the SO2. Use too much and it will take oxygen from the wine as well. That will remove all protection and the wine will be undrinkable.
As a guide …
Test the SO2 level. Then,
For every 10-PPM of sulfite to be removed in 6 gallons of wine, add 4.2 ml of hydrogen peroxide (get it from a drug store). Use a new bottle of 3% USP-grade hydrogen peroxide. Measure it out very carefully so you use exactly the right amount. Leave for a day before re-testing.
Bob1 … would it be possible to lower the SO2 just a bit and then use a high-tolerance yeast? Peroxide scares me."
The only problem is this is with wine making. the concepts are the same and PMeta is a powerful antioxidant so it should protect your mead from most oxidization issues. As i understand it the PMeta bonds with disolved oxygen and forms SO2, so any unbonded PMeta should bond with any new oxygen you introduce with the degassing. IF you can get all the Pmeta attached to Oxygen you should be able to drop a large Yeast Pitch and hopefully renew your fermentation.
But that doesn’t address the fact that he used the sorbate as well. That’s what I think would continue to be an issue at this point.
Also known as “wine stabilizer”, potassium sorbate produces sorbic acid when added to wine. It serves two purposes. When active fermentation has ceased and the wine is racked for the final time after clearing, potassium sorbate will render any surviving yeast incapable of multiplying. Yeast living at that moment can continue fermenting any residual sugar into CO2 and alcohol, but when they die no new yeast will be present to cause future fermentation
From Potassium sorbate - Wikipedia
This is why i said a large active slurry pitch may work.
Thanks for all the input, I did try pitching large amount of champagne yeast and it has been fermenting, I’m crossing my fingers…