Reusing sanitizer in stoppered carboys

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G259

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I have several 3L carboys that I want to rack a 3gallon batch into. They have pot-meta in them to sanitize (standard). Can I rack wine into them for aging, skipping the camden addition?
 
It's near impossible to determine the dosage if you go with just the residue in the 3L carboys. I'd shake out the excess and dose normally with K-meta.

A tip I got from @sour_grapes -- dissolve 1/4 tsp K-meta in 5 Tbsp water. Add 1 Tbsp to each 1 US gallon/4 liter batch. For 3 L carboys? I'd go with 2-1/2 tsp per container.
 
dissolve 1/4 tsp K-meta in 5 Tbsp water. Add 1 Tbsp to each 1 US gallon/4 liter batch. For 3 L carboys? I'd go with 2-1/2 tsp per container.

Not a "tsp" guy myself. Prefer scales. But most of my tanks are 60L or more so my 0.5 gram accurate scales were fine in most cases. But I have a few smaller demijohns for "extra" wine after racking. Some quite tiny down to 7 L.

For a while, to properly add small amounts of KMeta to small demijohns I thought about getting a jeweler's scale. Highly accurate.

But then I realized, I could use my rather inaccurate larger scale, and simply create larger batches of 10% (ish) solution (i.e. 50 g per 500 g/ml water so 10 ml of solution equals-ish 1 g of Kmeta), and then buy a cheap but highly accurate graduated cylinder to measure out the dose -- if I needed to add only 0.7 grams KMeta (based on wine pH and volume), I only need to move the decimal, and measure out and add 7 ml of solution. So much easier. And more-ish accurate.
 
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@balatonwine, you are quite right.

However, over half the forum membership is American, so it makes sense to provide a solution that works for the majority, e.g., it's highly likely everyone has measuring spoons. Additionally, this translates into whatever units are used. A tablespoon is ~15 ml, so use 75 ml water, and 1/4 tsp is 1.05 grams, then add 15 ml of the solution to each 1 US gallon / 4 liters.

Personally, I'm trying to think in metric because once I can, things will be easier in winemaking. But a lifetime of thinking US customary measurement is hard to change. In 7th grade our science teacher told us the US was migrating to metric, and that while it would be hard, it would be easier in the long run. Unfortunately, he was wrong. We have a lot of packaging marked with both US customary and metric units, but have as yet to make the jump.
 
you are quite right.

However, over half the forum membership is American,

While exposed to metric in HS, I learned to go full metric at good old UCLA where I did my BS (in the last century....). No course in Chemistry uses anything but metric. Even in the USA. Never looked back. Because everything is base ten. So easy. ;)

it's highly likely everyone has measuring spoons.

Two points:

1) Weirdly... I don't have measuring spoons.... Nor does my wife, who is a great cook. She uses a "palm" measure system. Experience works for her.

2) Well, it is also highly unlikely that most everyone has wine making equipment.... so.... if one gets into wine making it might be a good idea to also get into a bit of basic chemistry, and that is all again mostly going to be metric. :cool:

Additionally, this translates into whatever units are used.

The problem is when one starts to convert between systems. Avoid all but the most necessary conversions! That causes all the confusion. I can work equally well in either metric of imperial system, but even after 30 years using metric, I still get confused if try translating on the fly. So I simply don't. I work in one system or the other in any project from start to end, and avoid in process converting between them. (I may need to do some standardized conversion at the start, but stick with that from then on).

Hope this helps.
 
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1) Weirdly... I don't have measuring spoons.... Nor does my wife, who is a great cook. She uses a "palm" measure system. Experience works for her.
You took my quote out of context -- in the USA everyone I know who cooks, has measuring spoons and cups. Even those that don't cook often have them ... although the dust on them can be quite thick!

I don't exactly measure (most of the time) when I'm cooking, but do so for bread and desserts, as those are far less forgiving.

Yup, translating on the fly can produce problems. I need to buy a digital scale that measures in grams, as it will eliminate some messy translations. I have a conversion site bookmarked as it avoids problems.
 
You took my quote out of context -- in the USA everyone I know who cooks, has measuring spoons and cups. Even those that don't cook often have them ... although the dust on them can be quite thick!

I was only referring to my house. So not taken out of context, simply limited my comment to my own very narrow context (which is why I said "weirdly"). And I meant it literally in our case.... we do not have them. Not even stuck in a back drawer covered with dust. We simply do not have them. Period. All cooking is by experience and by taste and guesstimate. Not a rebuff to your comment, simply stating... well... we might be weird..... :)

The only things with volume measuring scales on them, are mine, and I use them in wine making only. And they are all metric. Because I am more anal with wine making than with cooking.

Hope this helps.
 
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Your question is basically, ,,, how much risk?
commercial sterile canned food has nine log cycles of microbiological kill
washing with cold water/ no soap gives five log cycles of kill ,,, (5/9 to sterile)
washing with hot soap water gives seven log cycles of kill ,,, (7/9 to sterile)

cold water that removed ALL the dirt was probably good enough, wine is not a good growth medium for spore formers that canned foods are based on,,,
, , , ,,,, how much over kill do you want?
They have K -meta in them to sanitize (standard). Can I rack wine into them for aging, skipping the camden addition?
another test is sniff it, if it still burns like SO2 putting fresh SO2 in doesn’t make any difference.
 
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The first part: 'whah wah whah whah'! The second part, I get that. Thanks!
 

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