sulfites

[juventude]

I'm reading a lot of posts which focus on the sulfites, what they are for real and I have to add something to the wine as from what I could understand they have an effect on the preservation but I cannot understand exactly what to do....

 

[Deezil]

Sulfites, potassium sulfite, k-meta... One in the same

In the beginning of the winemaking process, k-meta is used to prevent wild yeasts or bacterias from competing with your chosen yeast strain - it basically shocks everything into temporary submission, which is why its recommended to wait 12-24 hours before adding your chosen yeast so that it doesnt get shocked too.

When wine is bulk aging, k-meta is used to keep oxygen away - oxygen will ruin/spoil the wine. When you add k-meta to wine, half of what you added becomes "bound" within the wine, while the other half is ready to dissipate at the first chance you get - this is why wines that are bulk aging still have airlocks that bubble.

When you're bottling, you want to check your k-meta levels within the wine in question so that while in the bottles, theres enough k-meta to keep the oxygen at bay, because corks are porous and do breathe, albeit slowly.

If you opt out of k-meta additions, it comes down to being sterile in every step of the winemaking process & not violently stirring/racking/agitating the wine to introduce oxygen... This is pretty tricky for the home winemaker, and is a bit of a gamble unless you're sure of your methods & cleanliness.. Even then, its still a gamble for most.

 

[juventude]

Thanks a lot for the help

 

[mmadmikes1]

I don't find it a gamble. I do use K Meta to prevent oxidation but not at the levels most here do. Yes you need to be clean, but that is no differnt than when you make wine using sulfites. I never use K Meta in the beginning of wine(don't add it to the must). When I drive to California or Eastern Washington to get grapes. They will be crushed and de stemmed at source. I will have a real strong working yeast starter with me and add it before I start home. it has worked every time to date. Cars smells by time I get home from California. Before diving in to wine making without sulfites you will need to get an understanding of what nature is doing when fermentation happens. Can't beat nature but you casn work with it and make your project the winner. BTW I was always under the belief that micro oxidation was an important part of wine aging

 

[Deezil]

I don't find it a gamble.

This is a matter of perspective though - i was just answering the question with the information a beginner should understand... I dont find it much of a gamble either from my perspective now, but i know i thought it was when i was new to this and the methods in my madness at the time would have given me proof had i tried

Before diving in to wine making without sulfites you will need to get an understanding of what nature is doing when fermentation happens.

I was just assuming they were still in that part

To the OP... i will say, what mike does, does work - its pretty much how i do it.. but he has a good understanding of whats going on & i wouldn't recommend it if you're still anxious/nervous/excited & figuring out the basics. Just these 2 cents

 

[Wade E]

The problem with not using sulfites in the must is that you are competing with mother natures yeast (wild yeast). Making a good starter before starting your wine should do the trick fine but if you wait too long to get that in there the wild yeast can start and typical once a yeast takes hold it will become the stronger yeast and that is an unpredictable yeast where you have no idea of its abv tolerance. If you have a winery then typically if you go wild all the time and dont have problems then you have a good yeast culture available in that area but dont confuse that with picking some fruit a few miles away and thinking it will work the same! Many commercial wineries have actually dumped there spent grapes in their vineyards and actually conditioned their vineyard to a certain strain, not sure how long something like this would take to happen. Just be aware that wild yeast can leave you in a predicament where you have fermented 3/4 of the wahy and then get stuck and at that point even making a starter yeast is very difficult!

 

[mmadmikes1]

If your new, buy a kit and fallow the directions. When I was new , it was my grandpa showing me and they had no kits. I lived in Grapeview, Washington and wine was what they did there then. Puget Sound water front property is to valuable for grapes to grow on now

 

[juventude]

The problem is not that I'm new at this, I already had made some small batches of fruit wine and with the last one which was fig wine I had a verry good resoult... Now I'm experimenting with strawberry wine and I hope to get even better... And apart from books and other info. Inflation
These post support a realty good information.....

 

[Wade E]

I must say that with Strawberry wine Id actually stay lower on the sulfites anduse Ascorbic acid in replacement of some of that sulfite. Reason being that sulfites will strip color from Strawberry a lot of the tim, not sure why on this one or if it does it to other winez and we just dont notice but I do know this one for a fact. You could use some food coloring or blend a darker wine into this to achieve better color and keep the same dulfite levels.

 

[Arne]

Didn't see anyone else mention it, but campden tablets are sulfites too. Many recipes call for them, but you can use the powder whenever you see the campden called for. Arne.

 

[bldinspector]

Will possotasium metabisulfate disapate from the bottles? I needed to sweeten some wine before bottling and added potassium meta bi. And pot. Sorbate as directed. I tasted the last bit that did not complete a bottle and I got flushed from the sulfates. Will the other bottles settle down or did I over do it?

Thanks in advance.
Richard B.

 

[sour_grapes]

So you drank a fraction of a bottle of young wine, and you got flushed. What makes you think it was from the sulfites?

How much k-meta did you add, exactly? And was this a kit or from fruit/grapes?

 

[bldinspector]

This is a fresh fruit grape wine, it did not have a full flavor so I wanted to sweeten it.
Most directions to sweeten just before bottling call to kill the yeast with k-meta then sweeten just before bottling . I used 3/4 tsp per gallon, plus potassium sorbet.

I hope it will fade with age. I have 41 bottles of it.

 

[sour_grapes]

I used 3/4 tsp per gallon, plus potassium sorbet.

I hope it will fade with age. I have 41 bottles of it.

Uhh, yeah, that is a lot of k-meta. Roughly 20x more than the usual recommendation.

I honestly don't know how long that will take to dissipate. I think I might open a bottle the day before I wanted to drink it, and aerate it a good bit.

You could, of course, open all 41 bottles, pour them into a large bucket, and splash rack or otherwise aerate it, then rebottle.

 

[RegarRenill]

I used 3/4 tsp per gallon, plus potassium sorbet.

Generally one would use 1 campden tablet per gallon, or 1/16 tsp per gallon. I typically use a 1/4 for a 5 gal batch, simply for ease of use (I don't have a 1/16 tsp spoon, lol). You have ALOT more kmeta in there than you need, than may be healthy, even. I would definitely uncork and splash rack them and let it bulk age a bit. Anyway you can beg/borrow/buy a SO2 kit to test how much SO2 you have in the wine?


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