Skeeter Pee - delayed racking

[JBP]

Question - how long can I delay before racking and adding kmeta/sorbate to Skeeter Pee?

Situation - teaching a friend the basics of wine-making with a batch of Skeeter Pee (and also a FWK). All work is being done in my basement. The plan is for her to come back on Saturday for next steps (first racking, etc). This evening, I checked her Skeeter pee to find a SG of 0.994 and a very slight sulfur dioxide odor. Normally, I would splash rack from BMB to a carboy, degas, and add kmeta/sorbate - and be quite confident all would be fine. Since the goal is for her to experience each step, the question is whether I can safely wait until Saturday to rack? Any metrics for "can't wait any longer"? So far, the rotten egg smell is faint (I noticed it immediately, hubby can't detect).

FWK is right on track and doing fine. Might have to steal a bottle or two of that one...

 

[cmason1957]

Saturday seems like a fairly long time, given that there might be some stressed yeast. I might try giving it some really, really good stirs now and see if that clears it up, since hubby can't smell it, but my wife always smells things before I do.

 

[winemaker81]

Stir the wine well and add K-meta. Run a fan and if you have a drill-mounted stirring rod, stir for at least 2 minutes, preferably longer.

If hubby can't smell the H2S, you've caught it very early and can stop it without damage to the wine. If you wait, you'll probably regret it.

I recently had a light brush with H2S -- Mrs. WM81 smelled it before I did.

 

[JBP]

Thanks to both of you for good advice - stirring and kmeta today. Racking lessons on Saturday.

 

[sour_grapes]

Question - how long can I delay before racking and adding kmeta/sorbate to Skeeter Pee?

Situation - teaching a friend the basics of wine-making with a batch of Skeeter Pee (and also a FWK). All work is being done in my basement. The plan is for her to come back on Saturday for next steps (first racking, etc). This evening, I checked her Skeeter pee to find a SG of 0.994 and a very slight sulfur dioxide odor. Normally, I would splash rack from BMB to a carboy, degas, and add kmeta/sorbate - and be quite confident all would be fine. Since the goal is for her to experience each step, the question is whether I can safely wait until Saturday to rack? Any metrics for "can't wait any longer"? So far, the rotten egg smell is faint (I noticed it immediately, hubby can't detect).

FWK is right on track and doing fine. Might have to steal a bottle or two of that one...

Just as a matter of nomenclature, note that "rotten egg" is due to H2S (hydrogen sulfide), not SO2 (sulfur dioxide). Sulfur dioxide has a "burnt match" smell. H2S is excreted by yeast when nutrients are scarce.