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[Bopadon]

I just added 3-teaspoons of Sodium metabisulfite to my wifes five gallon batch of plum wine....thought it was nutrient.
The recipe called for 5 campden tabs which I'm told is only 1/2-tsp.
Any ideas on how to salvage the batch??

The tree in the back yard was loaded so she thought we should try making wine. She picked 15 gallons of plums and I got a couple recipes off the net.
Seemed rather straightforward at the time.

 

[arcticsid]

BOP, If I were you I'd be out there picking plums before she gets home! Thats an awful lot of Meta, I hope one of the more senior members has a suggestion for you. Good luck.

 

[St Allie]

hello and welcome to the forum,

ooh that is a lot of sulphite..

Thing is .. once the sulphite is in there.. the only way to get it out is to dilute it with another wine that hasn't been sulphited.

there is a similar thread here in our files .. where the same thing happened..

there are a couple of solutions stated.. as yet we don't know if the saving finished bottles of your sulphited mix and adding to unsulphited wine.. was a good solution or not.

the posts are found here.

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3534

Allie

 

[Tom]

Allie,
Do I hear a funeral coming?
R I P

 

[arcticsid]

His or the wine?

 

[St Allie]

It's unfortunately a possibility Tom, unless they are keen to let it ferment out , bottle and try using the over sulphited wine to innoculate other wine batches.

I think blending a bottle of the finished plum into a 5 gallon batch of future wines each time.. could salvage it. After all .. once you get started with making wine it does become an obsession.

Depends on what the Original Poster wants to do with their batch.

At this stage they are using their own fruit.. so should they decide to toss the batch and start again.. at most they are out .. sugar..yeast.. time and sulphite. So not an expensive mistake.

Allie

 

[Wade E]

This will be lots of work and it will take about 1 week to get it fermented. I hope you have a drill mounted mix stir and a spot big enough to keep this chilled. You are going to have to mix this or even splash rack this very vigously from bucket to bucket once or even better twice a day being very cruel to this must. Keeping it chilled will keep it from spoiling. After 4 days of this make a good size starter yeast and add approximately 1/8 the size of the yeast starter of must to the starter while still splash racking the must. evry 12 hours add another 1/8th to the starter to try and get the yeast starter acclimated to the high sulfite and keep splashing that must. On day 6 start getting the must back to a temp of around 75* and once its there add that yeast starter to your must. This has worked for someone else when everyone else said to dump it. This is your only chance but like I said keep the must chilled or it will go bad. I would use Red Star Premier Cuvee or Lalvin EC 1118 for thsi batch as they have better sulfite tolerances. Good luck and keep us posted!!!!!!!

 

[Tom]

I think he can stir the cr_p out of it and see if there is a smell or taste and leave the lid adjar. Can always let it sit for a while and stir again and again. Thing is he did this before the yeast, I think

 

[Tom]

His or the wine?

Smart A$$. Could be both!

 

[St Allie]

well sulphite at that level is probably not going to ferment without dilution.. my initial thought was if they have the primaries and enough plums.. make about 30 gallons and mix it all together...

( ok I know that is highly unlikely! even I don't have that many primaries...)

Allie

 

[Boozehag]

My over sulphited plum was at the finishing stage so maybe not relevant.

I have used this to mix with feijoa wine to dilute it and its been a huge success with the feijoa getting a beautiful apricot colouring and the hint of plum a nice taste. Glad I didnt tip it!

 

[St Allie]

My over sulphited plum was at the finishing stage so maybe not relevant.

I have used this to mix with feijoa wine to dilute it and its been a huge success with the feijoa getting a beautiful apricot colouring and the hint of plum a nice taste. Glad I didnt tip it!

Thanks Coll,

I wondered if that would work.. good to hear it did!

Allie

 

[Bopadon]

Wow...I think this was the luckiest wine I ever screwed up.
I had no idea that there was so much help out there.
Thanks to all of you that took the time to reply.

I'm going to pick up a wine kit and start a new batch.

I'll also stir the crap out of the plum batch for a few days then toss some yeast starter on it. If it ferments; great...if it doesn't I'll freeze some of it for popsicles.
Metabisulfite doesn't prevent freezing does it???

Thanks again
Don

 

[arcticsid]

Don, Don't sweat it to bad. We were all hoping you had enough left on the tree to get another batch going.

Hope you didn't get in too much trouble with the wife.

I like the idea of the popsicles actually, but don't know about the freezing as far as effecting the flavor. Maybe someone else can offer their opinion. You for sure won't need to worry about them fermenting between the sulphite and the freezing! Incidentally, I think most will agree 1/4 teaspoon KMeta is enough for a 5 gallon batch of wine.

Good luck, keep us informed on your wine making progress. Alot of help in here.
Troy

 

[Wade E]

Right now it would taste awfuk as the kmeta really needs to work itseff out of there so before you bother freezing it take a taste of it.

 

[ar_kayaker]

If their crop of plums was anything like mine this year they might have the plums though.

 

[Bopadon]

I'll also stir the crap out of the plum batch for a few days then toss some yeast starter on it. If it ferments; great...if it doesn't I'll freeze some of it for popsicles.

UPDATE
I stirred and stirred...no smell...good taste.
Added a yeast starter...no action whatsoever....as a matter of fact; I think I heard the must laughing at me.
I gave up and poured it.

Don