campden killed the colour of my must?

[SmokeyMcBong]

hey all.

I'm just starting a fruit wine with added frozen juice concentrate. Its 3 cans of 5 alive, 1 can of ice tea, 1 can of lemonade and 1 can of fruitopia. to this I added 2lb 9oz pears, 2lb 8oz pineapple, 1lb 2oz quadberry (blue,black,rasp&straw), and 1lb 5oz red grapes (fresh fruit that had all been frozen and thawed) I added some pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, water to 6 gallons and sugar to 1.069.

It had a very beautiful pinky watermelonish colour which I was excited about. anyway, I pitched some ec-1118 in some must in a one gallon starter jar and after a few additions of must to the starter I added 6 crushed campden tabs to the must in the primary (got this process from a hard lemonade thread on a different site). as soon as the crushed campden hit the must it turned the colour from beautiful pink to a pissy brown.

Anyone know what happened? or what I did wrong?

 

[jamesngalveston]

It will turn pink again as all settles, wine goes through many color changes until it is finished fermenting, degassed and cleared....]
I would not worry about it too much...

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

thanks James. I've only done one other wine it was lemonade so the colour didn't change much when I added the campden so this time the big change startled me.

thanks again bro.

 

[GreginND]

It may not turn pink depending on what the color molecules are. My slightly pinkish rhubarb turns into a white wine when I add sulfites. Not really a problem with grapes but other fruits it can affect the color.

More importantly, are you adding campden at the same time you are adding your yeast starter? Or is the starter waiting 24 hours before pitching?

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

More importantly, are you adding campden at the same time you are adding your yeast starter? Or is the starter waiting 24 hours before pitching?

Thanks for the follow up info bro.

the yeast starter will be pitched after 24hrs. I learned that one the hard way on the lemonade recipe that i did. had a brilliant starter going, so good infact that I thought, is it really necessary to let this thing go for so long? Its bubbling away so strongly, couldn't hurt if I only wait 8hrs after the campden to pitch the starter!! so I promptly murdered the nice big yeast starter that I thought I had by pitching too soon. 3 days later I had to pitch another packet of yeast.

 

[Wade E]

Some wines, typically light fruit wines lose their color when sulfites are added especially Strawberry wine. When I make delicate wines like this I usually expect them to be quicker drinkers and use less sulfites and replace some of the sulfites with ascorbic acid as a preservative.

 

[seth8530]

Make sure you did not over pitch the sulfite. Also, I have witnessed a wine turn brown when sulfites were added. However, the colour turned back to normal in good time.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Make sure you did not over pitch the sulfite. Also, I have witnessed a wine turn brown when sulfites were added. However, the colour turned back to normal in good time.

I don't think I over pitched the campden. one tab per gallon, same as for the lemonade recipe. this was to sanitize the must before adding the yeast. As a matter of fact, I'm just about to pitch the yeast now. Starter has been cooking for 25hrs and the campden has been in the must bulk for about 22hrs.

The colour is slowly coming back, its not nearly as nuclear pink but its not pissy brown anymore.

 

[Stressbaby]

This is sulfite bleaching and the effect is temporary.

 

[seth8530]

I don't think I over pitched the campden. one tab per gallon, same as for the lemonade recipe. this was to sanitize the must before adding the yeast. As a matter of fact, I'm just about to pitch the yeast now. Starter has been cooking for 25hrs and the campden has been in the must bulk for about 22hrs.

The colour is slowly coming back, its not nearly as nuclear pink but its not pissy brown anymore.

Good to know, looks like it will be ok then.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

So, just to update this.

The must did infact return completely to its original colour. Its fermenting away as I type. It's smelling up my spare bedroom something fierce!! I tasted a little bit today after squeezing the fruit bag and stirring, it tasted just like Tahiti Treat!! Got high hopes for this one.

Thanks again to everyone who posted.

 

[Norske]

Gooseberry wine goes through the same thing. Goes from a beautiful pinkish color to dishwater brown, then back to its original color in a few days.