High Level of Free SO2

[Dom Lausic]

Hi All!

Hope everyone is getting ready for this seasons harvest!

I've made strawberry wine that i am getting ready to bottle. The wine was backsweetened and treated with sulfite and potassium sorbate to stop re-fermentation. But i am getting ready to bottle and am doing some tests, and my free SO2 levels are sitting at 140ppm. The wine sample as cold, as I cold crashed the wine to settle out any solids from backsweetening, as I used a strawberry juice reserve. Not sure if this would affect my test readings?

Quick question: Am i ok to bottle the wine with such a high level of free SO2? The high level of sulfites does not seem to be percepatable to my palate or nose. Could the potassium sorbate also through off my free SO2 reading?

Or should i try to blow off some of the free SO2 by splash racking?

Any thoughts or advise are appreciated!

 

[winemaker81]

If you can't smell it, don't worry about it.

 

[NorCal]

You could reduce the free SO2 by splash racking and having it form other compounds, but that won’t change the amount of sulfur in the solution. I agree that if you can’t smell or taste it, you’re good to go.