Ascorbic acid or Camden tablets?

[jerjones99]

About to bottle my apple wine. Would anyone recommend one over the other prior to bottling? Is neither okay? Do I just stir it in the big jug before bottling? Thanks

 

[jerjones99]

went with ascorbic lol

 

[Ohio Bob]

Common practice is to add potassium metabisulfite (Kmeta). If back sweetening then also add sorbate. I’ve not made apple wine but I’ve not heard of using ascorbic acid as a preservative.

 

[BigDaveK]

Ascorbic acid is an antioxidant often used in white wines. I think apple qualifies. I find this interesting: It turns free oxygen into hydrogen peroxide but the hydrogen peroxide will cause oxidation if the SO2 level (from kmeta!) is off. In other words, use both.

There's also some buzz that it affects the flavor. Haven't used it yet so I don't know.

 

[jerjones99]

Crap

 

[jerjones99]

The recipe didn’t call for anything.. Realizing I know much less about this than I originally thought

 

[BigDaveK]

The recipe didn’t call for anything.. Realizing I know much less about this than I originally thought

We all knew nothing or close to nothing on the day we first decided to make wine.

You could re-cork. For a 1 gallon batch, for example, crush and dissolve a Campden tablet in 10 ml of water or wine and then add 2 ml in each of the 5 bottles. (Assuming you bottled 5.) Then re-cork.

Don't sweat it, wine making is supposed to be fun. Live and learn.

 

[winemaker81]

The recipe didn’t call for anything.. Realizing I know much less about this than I originally thought

Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.

Ascorbic acid is very acidic, it can easily make a wine sharp. But if there is a problem with the wine, it's fixable.

K-meta is not an absolute requirement, but IME wines without it have a significantly shorter shelf life. Free SO2 binds to contaminants, rendering them harmless, so without it, wine spoils faster (everything spoils eventually).

What to do depends on the wine. Do you like the taste? If it's not too sharp and you'll use it up within a year or so, do nothing. Simply enjoy it.

If it's sharp (acidic) tasting? You can unbottle, stabilize with Sorbate + K-meta, backsweeten, and rebottle. OR add a bit of sugar by the glass when you serve it. The sugar will balance the acid, so with the right amount of sugar, the wine will not taste overly sweet.

Remember that hard work pays off in the future, but laziness pays off now. I suggest the path of least effort that produces a good result, and count this as a relatively inexpensive lesson in wine making.

 

[Rice_Guy]

you basic question is how much shelf life do you want?

Ascorbic acid breaks down fairly fast so will not be measurable in a month. Oxidation reactions are like spending money in your wallet so you will have some protective effect simply because you have pushed the mixture to a lower redox state.
Free SO2 binds with a variety of molecules in the wine, and will have a measurable quantity longer. If treated to recommendation (50ppm) most is quickly consumed and then it can hang at 10ppm for months.

Risk? Traditional French cider/ 100 year old technology (no K meta) is a vintage product that can have acceptable flavor for five years. On my part if I planned to drink this on a year I would let it go. Low levels of acetaldehyde have an apple like taste, when the wine develops sharper apricot like notes have a party to use up the batch.

 

[jerjones99]

Excellent advice guys, thank you much