Too many Campden tabs?

[chevyguy65]

We recently started a batch of apple wine. The recipe called for 2 campden tablets per gallon. after adjusting the SGto 1.085. the acid to .55% and then waiting 24 hrs we pitched Lalvin D47. after 2 days it was fermenting very well (lots-o- bubbles) I then was paging through other recipes and they ALL call for only 1 tablet per gallon. Its this going to cause problems down the road? I figure as long as fermentation is active then the level must not have been too high to prevent it and it should be ok.


I wonder if my recipe was a misprint? Any input?

 

[dfwwino]

I usually only add one tablet per gallon. The concern with adding too much sulfite prefermentation is that it will inhibit fermentation. Apparently, your yeast tolerated two tablets and did very well. Therefore, I would not worry about it. During primary fermentation, most of the prefermentation sulfite addition is driven off with the fermentation gases. That's why you add more later to stabilize the wine. You can check the sulfite levels with an Acuvin test before stabilizing and figure out how much sulfites you need to add at that time.

 

[Dean]

I think with apples, you need extra protection against oxidation, so maybe 2 tablets seem to do a better job. I'm not sure though. I do remember appleman talking about adding vitamin c (ascorbic acid) to apple musts to also help protect against oxidation and browning.

 

[grapeman]

I certainly would prefer to use only 1 tablet per gallon along with some ascorbic acid indeed, but see no real problem with using 2 per gallon. If you used less acidic apples and wanted to preserve the acid in them, the 2 tablets would help prevent mlf(secondary ferment) which would reduce the malic acid in an already less acidic wine(because of apples like Golden Delicious). If you were using a good acidic apple juice with a lot of malic in it naturally, the secondary ferment would be desireable, so you would only use 1 tablet. Either way, it will come out OK. Probably need to back sweeten some though to let the apple flavors resurface from the alcohol, etc.

 

[chevyguy65]

Fermentation is moving along very well probably go to glass today or tomorrow morning. Thanks for the input!