How to Stabilise Wine/Mead (stop fermentation to bottle/back-sweeten)

hey welcome to true my name is Jacob and if you've been following this channel for any amount of time remember this is your first time I'll just you would know or you're about to learn and I love making booze cue the Montage [Music] so I've been making Grog my whole life really throwing myself into Fruit wines and Mead in the last five years I'm an amateur I'm not a professional so take this entire video with a grain of salt but I have done my research and I have learned a lot in my journey and that's what I'm here to share today five ways to stabilize your wine the reality is there's probably only two but there's I'll just go I'll explain in more detail in a second here are two to five ways to stop fermentation foreign [Music] why would you stabilize well it's very simple we know how yeast works at least you should buy now yeast eats sugar and poops out alcohol but it also poops out gas CO2 if you want to bottle that and there's still sugars available in your meat or wine the yeast will continue to eat those sugars and create gas that gas that pressure will build up inside a bottle and cause what we call bottle bombs so that could if there's enough sugar the circumstances are right which a lot of the times they are you've got [ __ ] glass spraying across your room this is not a good idea that pressure can really build up before it [ __ ] shatters sprained glass and meat and wine all over your room causing a huge mess but more importantly wasting that precious precious alcohol that you've been making for the last few months there are other reasons why you might want to stabilize let's say your desired alcohol content has reached the desired level so you just say you just want to stop at around 10 or 12 but that yeast strain might want to keep going so you can stabilize so you can get the desired alcohol desired flavor profile and then third main reason why people would stabilize is so that they can backswing see maybe the yeast has run its course but it's too dry now I personally like a dry Mead a lot of my friends and family like things are a little bit sweeter so I make sweet meds if I'm going to keep adding sugar there to make it sweet the yeast is just going to kick off again yes are party animals they are actually quite tricky to stop at any uh [ __ ] rock stars and they will keep going until the party ends and the only way for that party to end pretty much is for you to end it for them tell them all to go home so like I just mentioned if there's no sugar left for the yeast to eat they will stop they will stop doing their thing the problem is if you want to back sweeten you're adding more sugar to it they'll kick off but that's one way to stop fermentation is essentially when they run out of food sugar is food for yeast if there's no more sugar they can't create any more gas the second one is if the ABV the alcohol by volume the alcohol content is too high yeasts won't be able to do their thing all yeasts have a limit to at which they will stop becoming active they will not die again when they run out of food they won't die they'll go dormant if the alcohol gets too high they won't die they'll just go dormant so you can do this by either fortifying so adding hard liquor this is a fortified Mead so this is sitting around 40 there's no [ __ ] way the yeast can be active in this most people aren't doing fortified meds because it changes the flavor it's a strong alcohol most people like to have a nice glass of meat if you have a full glass of this you're going to get pretty wasted some yeasts have a lower alcohol tolerance they might conquer around nine percent 12 percent like a lot of white wine and red wine yeast will sit around maybe 13 but then it's going to be really really dry so you're going to add more sugar it might be okay however if that gets watered down those yeast will kick off again so high ABV will stop yeast it will stop fermentation but it's sometimes you don't have that option depending on what you're going to make the third thing is if it's too cold now this one I really want to stress because I see this all the time yeast have a temperature range too hot they die too cold and then go to sleep cold crashing you see this word thrown around on forums all the [ __ ] time cold crashing cold crashing cold crashing cold crashing does not stop yeast it simply puts them to sleep people I see it all the time on forums they say I'm going to cold crush it and then bottle it well all that's going to happen is when that gets back to room temperature once you take it out of the fridge or whatever the yeast are gonna [ __ ] kick off again remember use the party animals they cannot be stopped or they kind of can but cold crushing doesn't stop them it just slows them down the reason we cold crash is to clarify our meat this has been clarified look how gorgeous that is and the reason I why you do this is you put it in the fridge that's the best way or if you live in a really cold climate I suppose you could put it outside once it gets below a certain temperature about four degrees is pretty good the yeast will fall asleep they'll all settle at the bottom a lot of sediment because you know they're used to also kicking up a lot of other stuff if you're doing a fruit wine there might be bits of [ __ ] floating around in there once the yeast stop carrying on they will settle and everything will fall to the bottom this allows you to siphon I.E rack the remainder of your meat out of that container leaving the sediment behind you do this a number of times you get a really nice clear Mead hole crashing is great it doesn't stop fermentation just remember that cold preserves yeast it does the opposite of killing yeast it preserves it that's why we keep our yeast in the fridge pasteurization hot crashing no one says Hulk crashing pasteurization is when you heat your wine to a certain temperature that the yeast will die but the yumminess and all the alcohol won't evaporate it can be a little bit tricky so you shouldn't just immediately assume this is easy to do it's okay on small batches the most simple way to do it is to boil your bottles not boil but bring the temperature up in water so that the yeast will die a few problems with this one if you don't do it properly the yeast won't die they're just going to keep fermenting two you can lose a little bit of alcohol through evaporation if you don't do it correctly if it becomes too high you're probably going to have a little bit of the bottle sealed it's not such a problem but then you've got to worry about gases being released pasteurization is fantastic half the [ __ ] food you eat pasteurized it absolutely works it gets rid of certain bugs it absolutely kills the yeast so they become inactive but it's fiddly it's a steep learning curve sort of and it's not for everyone it's really hard to do that on a macro scale even if you're home brewing you're really getting into it it's going to be a little bit tricky to do so many bottles and if you don't get the temperature right you're going to [ __ ] it up you're going to alter the flavor I find if you heat honey up too high you lose a lot of those subtle floral characteristics this can happen during pasteurization so pasteurization is brilliant it absolutely works but you have to be pretty clued up about it to get it right the other thing to consider if it's not bottled immediately or once you open it and foreign yeasts can get in there there's yeast all is yeast in my [ __ ] beard there's people who make beer out of their beard yeast there's yeast in other places as well foreign use gets in there [ __ ] the party's on again baby the party never dies on yeast mountains so just remember that pasteurization is great if you do it right it's a little bit tricky which brings me to the fifth which is really the second only true way to stabilize your wine and meat and that is additives now I see this all the time on forums the common question is can I make mead wine blah blah blah can I stabilize can I back sweeten my Mead without using chemicals the simple answer is no water is made up of chemicals honey is chemicals yeast is chemicals your entire [ __ ] but Tim Minchin said it best you know everything chemical is bad ignoring the fact that everything is chemical now I know I'm getting hung up on semantics here I understand that syntax Nuance language changes over time and when people say chemicals they mean artificially created synthetic or toxic chemicals in this context the chemicals used are predominantly a combination of metabisulfate and potassium sulfate potassium sorbate is just a type of [ __ ] salt yes it's synthetic but it is not bad for you okay half the food you buy from the grocery store has potassium sorbate in there you're eating it every day without even knowing about it and I've got a little bit of news for you guys the alcohol in your wine is a thousand times more toxic more detrimental more devastating to your body than the fraction the 0.1 percent of metabisulfate that is going to stabilize your wine I mean you're talking let's say you've got a five gallon batch you're putting a teaspoon or a couple of teaspoons in there to stabilize it by the time that gets into a glass that's got to be 0.01 of that liquid has mattered by sulfate in it yet it might be 12 percent alcohol you're worried about a little bit of salt but not about alcohol alcohol that rots your teeth kills your brain rots your gut I [ __ ] love it alcohol is the best it's not good for you let's not pretend that it is and it is significantly more harmful than metabisulfate and potassium sorbate we got to stop the stigma of thinking that everything that's not natural or that is artificially created is bad for you and like I said you're probably eating metabisulfate or at least potassium sorbate every day every time you buy wine from the store pretty much it's gonna have this in there unless it's pasteurized it's got potassium sorbate in it that is just a fact you're eating it every day and you're [ __ ] fine mate like I said the alcohol is worse for you than the metabisulfate what it actually does though it doesn't kill the yeast either it just prohibits them from being able to continue on their function of eating and [ __ ] and having a good old [ __ ] party so the reason we use additives is because you get consistent constant guaranteed stabilization without too much flavor or if any flavor alteration whatsoever they've done blind tastings where people couldn't tell the difference between one they had metabisulfate some people claim they have it could have changed it in other ways it could have been so many different factors it won't [ __ ] up your Mead it's not bad for your health and it guarantees consistent cheap easy just bang a couple of teaspoons in there wait 40 hours bottle it up you're good to go back sweeten it if you want the issue is like all these things used to [ __ ] Immortal if you water that down the yeast will kick off again so even with additives you won't stop the yeast necessarily if you water it down just like if you water down the high ABV they used to kick off again just like when you pasteurize if you leave it open for too long and foreign use gets in there you can't really stop yeast it's a fungus after all they are awesome they are great survivalists pasteurization 100 if done correctly will kill your yeast but it won't necessarily stabilize your wine if you're not too careful additives will stabilize your wine no amount of yeast that goes in there afterwards will kick off again unless you've diluted your mead with is very unlikely it's not like you're gonna be pouring a whole bunch of water into your meat so in my opinion which is what I do to all of my meds before I bottle it use additives stop the stigma they're perfectly fine for you there's no scientific or medical evidence to suggest that these tiny tiny amounts of these sorbates which are in everything every day like I said are bad for you and they're definitely not as bad for you as the alcohol you are guzzling at an alarming rate This is 40 whoa so I didn't stabilize this with additives I should mention afford to fight it but this is a fortified Mead very [ __ ] heavily fortified mind you it's basically a brandy with a bit of honey in it sorry to get all crazy about this I just people got to stop the stigma of so-called chemicals for one you're using the word incorrectly two they're not bad for you Samar did you know you can OD on water it's called drowning everything in moderation most things in moderation are fine if you want accurate consistent stabilization so you can back sweeten bottle carry on your day get absolutely [ __ ] face in the process I highly recommend a good combination of metabisulfate and potassium sorbate again in a five gallon bash is you know 19 liters you're only putting a couple of teaspoons in there's plenty of information out there I might link some in this video if you want to know how to do this they're pretty cheap especially on a small scale a home scale it's a lot easier than pasteurization cold crashing won't work none of the other reasons will work unless you create a [ __ ] Abomination like this that's my opinion you be you you do whatever you want if you [ __ ] disagree or you want to have a friendly chat leave a comment in the section Below in the comment section let's get a friendly discussion going don't be a dick I've been Jacob the rant machine you've been watching true I love you very much if you found this helpful you've got some comments you're going to tell me I'm an absolute [ __ ] write it in the comment section below share this video around like subscribe all the YouTube stuff and I will see you guys well more accurately you'll see me probably in the next video ah cheers

Channel: Choo Roo

Views: 4,414

Keywords: cold crash, cold crashing, stabilize mead, make mead, back sweeten, back sweeten mead, mead, wine making, mead making, fermentation, stop fermentaion, how to make mead, cold crashing mead, chooroo, choo roo, choo roo food, caprica, caprica chilli sauce, chooroo food, chooroofood, Jakob brunnbauer

Id: KGtjxFn5_7Y

Length: 12min 46sec (766 seconds)

Published: Mon May 29 2023