# Copper Pipe



## Lonzo (Feb 19, 2012)

I was reading somewhere on here that if your wine has a sulphur smell then stir it with a copper pipe. Is it safe to say that i could stir with a copper pipe every time before bottling? if so, how long i stir? 2 minutes??


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## Wade E (Feb 19, 2012)

Do all your wines have H2S? LOL


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## Lonzo (Feb 19, 2012)

no but im only on my 2nd batch lol. figured if it cant hurt ill do it


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## Bobp (Feb 19, 2012)

I would only do it if you have a H2S issue... the best thing i would say is to learn the issue's that lead to the problem and try to avoid them before it becomes a problem.. I learned it the hard way..i had heard of it.. read about it.. but it had never happened to me and i took it for granted.. and then a very slow ferment hit for me.. and i was not ready nor informed to deal with it..Good luck


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## Lonzo (Feb 19, 2012)

well i think ill make me a copper pipe stir stick just so im ready if it ever happens.


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## vacuumpumpman (Feb 20, 2012)

Lonzo said:


> well i think ill make me a copper pipe stir stick just so im ready if it ever happens.



What I have done in the past, is use that copper pipe as a racking cane. 

thanks steve


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## Lonzo (Feb 20, 2012)

every time u rack u use it?


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## vacuumpumpman (Feb 20, 2012)

Lonzo said:


> every time u rack u use it?



In the very beginning when I was using vacuum Approx 8 years ago - That is all I used , until someone pointed out that I shouldn't approx 4 years ago. I really do not know what will happen if you do use the copper pipe as only a little is actually coming in contact with the inside walls of the pipe.

Hopefully someone else can answer that question

Thanks steve


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## BobF (Feb 20, 2012)

Lonzo said:


> well i think ill make me a copper pipe stir stick just so im ready if it ever happens.



I use heavy copper wire used for grounding. The benefit over pipe/tubing is that you can scrub it with copper clad scrubbies to get rid 'stuff' on the outside - and their is no inside to try to clean.


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## JohnT (Feb 21, 2012)

The copper wire will work, however I would recomend the following.. 

There is a product called Reduless. This is a much safer product and can work wonders.


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## Rocky (Feb 21, 2012)

BobF said:


> I use heavy copper wire used for grounding. The benefit over pipe/tubing is that you can scrub it with copper clad scrubbies to get rid 'stuff' on the outside - and their is no inside to try to clean.



This is similar to what I have done. I pull the copper grounding wire out of a 3-wire Romex cable. On mine, I fashioned it into a "whisk like" tool that I used to stir the wine to attract the sulphur. If the smell was particularly bad, I hung it over the side of the fermenter over night. I made a second one that I could fit into my electric drill and used it that way on slow speed.

As BobF says, clean and sanitize the wire before and after use with steel wool, k-meta and a hot water rinse.


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## BobF (Feb 21, 2012)

JohnT said:


> The copper wire will work, however I would recomend the following..
> 
> There is a product called Reduless. This is a much safer product and can work wonders.


 
I've since moved on to 1% copper sulphurate. I decided I prefer knowing how much I'm adding.

I've also reduced the number of occurances ... zero in the last year!


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## Jwatson (Feb 21, 2012)

I read this in _The Homemakers Wine Manua_l by Luc Eisenmann:

*Removing H2S with Copper Sulfate*
Copper converts hydrogen sulfide gas in wine into a solid material called copper sulfide and the copper sulfide has no odor. Copper sulfide is not soluble in wine, and it settles to the bottom of the tank. After a few days, the winemaker racks or filters the wine off the copper sulfide residue. *Some home winemakers rack their stinky wine through a clean piece of copper screen, or they place a few copper pennies in the wine container. But, placing copper metal in wine is not a good idea. Wine has a low pH, and acid in the wine can easily dissolve too much copper. Excessive amounts of copper may be deposited in the wine, so copper metal in wine should be used with care.*
Professional winemakers prefer to use a 1-% solution of copper sulfate pentahydrate to remove H2S because the amount to copper added can be accurately measured. A simple method of removing H2S is to add enough 1-percent copper sulfate solution to produce about 0.1 ppm of copper in the wine.

I did have some H2S in a Brunello last year and racked the wine over a piece of copper but I was careful to do it just once. I think the splash racking was of more benefit. Next time I will use products like reduless. Look at morewinemaking.com.


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## Jwatson (Feb 21, 2012)

From _The Homemakers Wine Manual:
_
*Removing H2S by Racking*
Hydrogen sulfide should be removed promptly because it becomes more difficult to remove the longer it stays in the wine. Home winemakers often use the following procedure to remove mild cases of hydrogen sulfide from wine. (1) About 50 milligrams per liter of sulfur dioxide is added to the wine (1/4 tsp. of sulfite powder in 5 gals) when fermentation is complete. (2) The wine is then aerated by racking with a great deal of splashing and bubbling to blow off the H2S gas. (3) The sulfur dioxide in the wine converts a small amount of hydrogen sulfide back into elemental sulfur, and the sulfur settles to the bottom of the storage container. (4) After a week or two, the wine should be racked or filtered to remove the elemental sulfur, or the smell may reappear. Sometimes a stinky wine needs to be racked two or three times to remove the stench completely. Aeration is often effective in treating mild cases of hydrogen sulfide. But, aeration should always be used with caution. Aeration may oxidize mercaptan in the wine into disulfide, and disulfide is as stinky as H2S and much more difficult to remove.
*
Removing H2S with Copper Sulfate*
Copper converts hydrogen sulfide gas in wine into a solid material called copper sulfide and the copper sulfide has no odor. Copper sulfide is not soluble in wine, and it settles to the bottom of the tank. After a few days, the winemaker racks or filters the wine off the copper sulfide residue. Some home winemakers rack their stinky wine through a clean piece of copper screen, or they place a few copper pennies in the wine container. But, placing copper metal in wine is not a good idea. Wine has a low pH, and acid in the wine can easily dissolve too much copper. Excessive amounts of copper may be deposited in the wine, so copper metal in wine should be used with care. Professional winemakers prefer to use a 1-% solution of copper sulfate pentahydrate to remove H2S because the amount to copper added can be accurately measured. A simple method of removing H2S is to add enough 1-percent copper sulfate solution to produce about 0.1 ppm of copper in the wine. Then the wine should be stirred thoroughly. Then, after a few hours, the wine should be carefully smelled. Table 13 shows how much of the 1-percent copper sulfate solution is needed to produce a 0.1 ppm treatment. One treatment is often enough, but a second or even a third treatment may be necessary for difficult cases. The wine should be left undisturbed for several days after this treatment so the copper sulfide (a very fine black powder) can settle to the bottom of the container. Then the wine should be carefully racked off the copper sulfide residue.
The following rules may be helpful when using copper to remove hydrogen sulfide odors from wine. (1) Never add copper to active fermentations. Copper sulfate added during fermentation often causes more hydrogen sulfide to be formed. (2) Only small quantities of copper sulfate solution are required, so use a pipette and measure carefully. (3) Add the 1% copper sulfate solution in small (0.1 ppm) doses rather than a single large dose. Very little copper will remain in the wine when copper sulfate is used in this way. More copper can be added if needed, but excessive amounts of copper are difficult to remove from wine. (4) The TTB limit for copper in wine is 0.5 ppm so avoid adding much more than 0.5 ppm total.

If you still are worried still about copper, I have read that sparkalloid is good at removing copper ions.


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## Lonzo (Feb 21, 2012)

ok well i use spraklloid to clear my wine so i guess im good then


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## JohnT (Feb 22, 2012)

With reduless, you can also control the exact amount of copper dosage. The benefit is that reduless is much less toxic then copper sulfate. 

Prior to finding reduless, I was a big fan of copper sulfate. I was always careful to do bench trials so that I did not over-dose the wine. 

With Ruduless I have had amazing results. No real bench trials are needed since it is a much safer product then copper sulfate. 

I would highly recomend that you do a search on reduless. The claims made about the product have proven to be true.


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## Runningwolf (Aug 5, 2012)

derick21 said:


> Is stirring your wine with copper pipe really safe? Was it approve by the professionals. I think we should just go for the safer products like what JohnT said.
> ______________________________________
> plumbing


 
Sure it is, if you sanitize it first. Unfortunately being a spammer is not, and you're out of here!


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## MalvinaScordaad (Aug 5, 2012)

Dealing with H2S issues require a strategy. Simply the first early on thing to do buid a good yeast culture before pitching, during fermentation is to add yeast nutrients, After pressing Splash Racking a few times, if this fails then a Reduless addition and a 72 hour racking. For real problems and if not dealt with until later a dose of Ascorbic Acid followed 24 hours later with Reduless, If this fails then an addition of CuSo2 as a last resort. Using copper can work sometimes but the copper must be perfectly free of all oxidation or you are wasting your time. Copper oxidizes in minutes on the surface. There is little danger of stirring your wine with copper but copper can cause a haze. So in a White it could be a detraction that would need to be corrected as well. 
Malvina


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## Arne (Aug 5, 2012)

Runningwolf said:


> Sure it is, if you sanitize it first. Unfortunately being a spammer is not, and you're out of here!


 
Thanks Dan, we do appreciate you folks watchin out for us. Arne.


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## g8keeper (Aug 6, 2012)

Runningwolf said:


> Sure it is, if you sanitize it first. Unfortunately being a spammer is not, and you're out of here!


 
well i guess that explains why a 6 month old thread was resurrected by you, dan...lol....it didn't make sense until i read the spammer part, so apparently there was a deleted post prior to your response....lol..at first i thought you were losing it, dan....roflmao...


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