Vineco Too much sulfite too early. Anything to be done?

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

jsiddall

Junior Member
Joined
Oct 28, 2013
Messages
296
Reaction score
73
I was racking two different kits today and inadvertently added the sulfite from a kit that needed it into another that was just 6 days old and should not have had any.

The kit that got it was a Passport Pinot Noir using the included RC-212 that had fermented fast and was down to an SG of 0.997. Unfortunately the problem is even worse because I had split the kit into a 5 gal and 1 gal carboy and 4.8 g of sulfites were added to the 5 gal. This is equivalent to a 5.8 g addition, or about 3/4 tsp, in a 6 gal batch.

So... is there anything that can be done about this? Although the kit is almost dry I suspect with a bit more time it would have gone lower than 0.997 without the sulfites. I am in no rush to finish this and planned to leave it bulk aging for another year anyway. Assuming the free SO2 eventually drops to something sane will it ever finish fermenting or is the yeast toast?
 
Splash rack, maybe even a few times and all will be good. BTW, sulfites don't harm wine yeast, that's one reason wine makers use sulfites.

Do you have a free SO2 measurement tester?
 
At least it was added dry. Have you calibrated your hydrometer with distilled water to see how accurate it is? Always good info to know. Why not combine the two back to a bucket (at some point) and stir well then move back to 5G and 1G containers? Problem solved!
 
At least it was added dry. Have you calibrated your hydrometer with distilled water to see how accurate it is? Always good info to know. Why not combine the two back to a bucket (at some point) and stir well then move back to 5G and 1G containers? Problem solved!

Yes, hydrometer reads exactly 1.000@20 C in plain water. I will check to see how low the 1 gal jug goes to see what fermentable sugar might be left in the 5 gal. I don't plan on combining the two because the 1 gal is unoaked and I would like to keep it that way.

If I plan to give it a long time bulk ageing is there any benefit to splash racking now?
 
Plain water is not distilled water. You need to calibrate with distilled water. Splash racking always helps as the free SO2 will react with oxygen and then be used up.
 
Plain water is not distilled water. You need to calibrate with distilled water. Splash racking always helps as the free SO2 will react with oxygen and then be used up.

I checked with distilled water and it read 1.001@20 C so pretty close.

I realize splash racking will help lower the SO2 sooner, but is there any disadvantage to just leaving it in the carboy and letting the SO2 drop on its own while bulk aging?
 
No, it will never drop down to a reasonable level unless you splash rack though. You have to add lots of O2 to do that.
 
So I splash racked twice yesterday and checked the SG. Both the over-sulfited carboy and the non-sulfited jug are still at 0.997 (actually 0.996 since the hydrometer apparently reads 0.001 high) so it looks like it finished there and won't go any lower after all.

This is the first pinot noir kit I have done and was expecting it to have a pale color. Not this one. It is as dark as any other red I have done.
 
Smells and tastes like any new kit would (i.e.:not great). There might still be be some sulphur there but it's not strong. I expect it will turn out fine. I'll rack in a few weeks and then let it age a long time.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top