confirming my sanitation practice is good...

[JDL]

I am in the middle of making my first fruit wine and I have to push the cap under twice a days so I wanted to see if you guys agree with my sanitation practice.

I got a spray bottle from the store and filled it with a solution of sodium meta and water and I spray down the item I am going to use and then let it sit for about 2 minutes then use the item. After I use the item I wash it then spray it with a one step solution and let it dry.

Is this sanitary enough or do I have to let it sit in a bucket with solution in it? I was trying to come up with something that would be easy and clean...

Knowing what you guys do would be great to if there is a easier way to do it...

 

[Wade E]

That will work just fine as long as you have the right concentration for that sulfite solution. It should be 3 tbls per gallon of water. and an equal amount of citric acid added can make this even more effective!

 

[Tom]

Thats what I do except I use k-meta

 

[JDL]

I hear k-meta alot, is that potassium metabisulfite? I even tried to google the meaning and it was not specific...

 

[surlees]

JDL,

Yes, one and the same.

Fred

 

[Tom]

Its Potassium vs Sodium

 

[wyntheef]

Somewhere in my past informational gatherings, I recall somebody suggesting that when cleaning their carboy with the meta solution just before using it, they presumed there would be an accumulation of sO2 in their wine(not neccessarily a bad thing if a very small amount).
It seems that would be the case here as well, and to be clear, I don't dispute the methods prescribed above.

My question is, if this were to happen often enough, would there be a point where you would be introducing too much meta? Point being, since such a small amount of meta goes such a long way, if you have even small amounts of it on a number of different tools, it seems as if your sO2 calculations could be thrown off.

I'm curious about this, because I have been doing kind of the opposite procedure, where I sanitize tools after using, put away in a clean environment, and then soak in 'one step' before using. Primarily because the 'one step' does not require rinsing. Although I try to remove as much of it as possible anyways. I haven't had problems with this so far, to my knowledge.
And as someone put it not so long ago, "sanitize, but not at the expense of your sanity."

 

[surlees]

Steve,

The answer to your question is that the SO2 that clings to utensils and equipment is so small as to render it practically harmless. An analogy is the detergent that clings to dishes after they're washed.

Fred

 

[Wade E]

Sulfite gets into solution very easy so it really doest build up as easily as 1 step does. I guess if you are doing small batches like 1 gallon, then all the tools you are using with sulfite on them could add up faster but if you are doing 6 gallon batches and letting the tools drip dry(and I dont mean completely dry either) it wont make much if any difference.

 

[Runningwolf]

I keep a qt spray bottle of k-meta to spray any tool before using it. Before this I had a wallpaper tray that I would soak my long tools in. The spray bottle is a lot more convenient and economical. If I have any empty carboys, I keep about a 1/2" of k-meta in it (after its been throughly cleaned) and put a solid bung on it. When I am ready to use it, I just swish the k-meta around in the bottle, remove the bung, empty the K-meta and I'm ready to use the carboy like right now! Caution..keep your nose away from the opening when removing the bung.