Hi bruce, typically you would stabilize with potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite, then back sweeten to taste, then bottle. Even though the wine has been stabilized it is not recommended that you leave it in a carboy. It’s best to get it under the protection of a cork or alternative closure.

Back sweetening can be a bit of a trick. I’ve made the mistake of forgetting the sorbate and wound up re-starting fermentation. If you’re looking for some experienced minds to pick you’re welcome to join the Winemaker’s Academy Facebook Group. Just send me an email and I’ll get you an invitation to join. We’ve got almost 450 winemakers you can talk to in there.

Contact Page: http://winemakersacademy.org/contact-3/

Thanks Matt. Airlock still bubbling, so we’ll see. I think I’ll abandon the back sweeting for now – at least until I pick a few more experienced brains on the subject. My dry wines have turned out awesome.

I’m very sorry to hear that your wine started fermenting again. It can certainly be challenging to get the stabilizer just right so this doesn’t happen. I’ve done the same thing.

Unfortunately the only way to safely stop a fermentation is to filter it with a sterile filter pad. These will remove the yeast from your wine. Otherwise you’ll have to let it ferment out.

Depending on the alcohol and sugar levels you’re dealing with there’s a possibility that the alcohol will get too high for the yeast before all the sugar is used up. Then you would be left with a stable and sweet wine albeit high in alcohol.

If you used a yeast strain that has a high alcohol tolerance then there’s a chance that you could wind up with a high alcohol dry wine.

I wish I could offer you a more conclusive guess as to how this will turn out but as you can see there are quite a few factors at play here.

Nice! Let us know how it goes and how it tastes.