# I accidently added too much sulfites



## Joedaddy (Oct 23, 2010)

What do I do now? I just crushed yesterday and during all the confusion of our wine club group crush, I made a mistake in my math for adding sulfites. I have about 50 gallons of cab sauv must and I ended up adding about 7 teaspoons of potassium metabisulfite. I should have used only about 2.5 teaspoons. My brix are about 25.5 and my PH is 3.14. I don't have my TA yet because my chemicals are still in the mail. I plan to do MLF. I would also like to add my yeast tonight. Are there some yeasts that will do better with high sulfites? What is going to happen if I have too much sulfites? Any suggestions on what I should do?


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## Deezil (Oct 23, 2010)

Stir until your arm falls off, then pick it up and stir some more.. I had too much sulfite in my peach at first, stirred it and it started.. Too much sulfite, and it wont start..


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## Tom (Oct 23, 2010)

Yep.. Stir like crazy and leave the lid off for a couple of days so the sulfites can release


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## Tom (Oct 23, 2010)

DO NOT ADD YEAST tonight


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## Dufresne11 (Oct 23, 2010)

Introduce as much O2 as possible...


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## Wade E (Oct 23, 2010)

I agree with above and will say you should really get an S02 test now to. If possible I would splash rack the wine instead of stirring if you can as that will let the excess S02 out much easier then just stirring. I would not attemp adding yeast for a few days. The reason I say get an S02 test is to test the S02 after fermentation to see if you have burned through enough S02 for your Malo to be possible. 20 - 30 PPM is about the most any MLB will start in and even that is pretty high. I would get a good starter yeast going right now with some store bought grape juice with no sulfites or sorbate or even benzoate in it and get that going good and then start slowly introducing your must into it to get your yeast acclimated to a higher sulfite level. Start with maybe a quart and once thats going good add 1 cup of your must. If that gets going good add another cup. Keep doing this until youve at least dbled your starter and hopefully by then you will have gotten your S02 level down enough.


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## Joedaddy (Oct 23, 2010)

Thanks guys, my arm is sore now. I also have too many stems in the must so I am stirring and picking stems at the same time. I guess I can hold off on fermentation because the grapes aren't going to spoil because of the lack of sulfites. I already have a fruit fly prob so I just put a sheet over the fermenters. It doesn't smell like sulfites like it did last night so I am feeling better. I think I will wait on pitching yeast a couple of days and then I will test sulfites before I get MLF going.

A bigger problem than sulfites might be high acidity. It wasn't the best year for growing grapes in Washington State and a lot of people are having to add stuff to adjust acid. I am going to wait on adding anything until I test again after fermentation.


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## grapeman (Oct 24, 2010)

If it is real high in acid, then you might do better to add calcium carbonate now to correct, especially in light of the high sulfites. If you can't get the malo going later because of it, you will be stuck with a high acid since with potassium carbonate you are limited to no more than a 0.3 drop.


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## Joedaddy (Oct 26, 2010)

Life is good now. It started fermentation this morning just fine. Acid is not too high.


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