I did a really stupid thing

mikefrommichigan · Jun 15, 2016

I should really post this in the beginner’s forum.

I just bottled 18 gallons of Pinot Noir that had been aging for 3 months in 3 carboys. I racked the wine and added some Meta bisulphate to each carboy before bottling.

My usual steps are that I fill a bucket with water as I do not have a faucet in my wine room. I then scoop a small amount of water in a plastic jar and add the meta, screw on the lid and shake until the meta is dissolved, then add the meta to the wine. Everything went well with the first 2 carboys.

With the last carboy I repeated the same steps, (or so I thought) and blindly added the meta solution to the wine, before I realized that the meta solution was really foamy. To my dismay I suddenly realized that I had taken a scoop, approx 4 oz, of starsan out of my starsan bucket, instead of the water bucket, and mixed the meta with it and added it to the wine.

I tasted the wine again and I did not taste any off flavors at the time.

Anyone know if the wine will suffer over time? I know it is well sanitized.

ILWIIA · Jun 15, 2016

I can't comment on whether your wine will be flawed, as I'm still a newbie myself - hoping your wine will be okay.

However, I can relate - I was recently racking a 6 gallon batch and during racking made some Kmeta mixture up, put the mixture into a bottle of wine, which I then dumped into the receiving carboy. I then got a little ahead of myself because I had somewhere to be, and after not using all of the kmeta/wine mix in the wine bottle I grabbed the wine bottle to walk to the kitchen and took a swig of whatever was left inside the wine bottle and swallowed. Quickly realized I had just consumed Kmeta and freaked out...poison control suggested I was fine, and I'm still here, so whew!

mikefrommichigan · Jun 15, 2016

Fortunately I have never tasted it only inhaled it, just s bad.

Mismost · Jun 15, 2016

I once mixed my beer priming sugar with Starsan and bottled the whole five gallon batch before I figured it out. I had never made that beer before or since....but, it was not bad at all and after a few months I completely stopped twitching!

I suppose the beer could have been better without the Starsan...but, frankly I can say that about all beers. I think a few ozs in 6 gallons...you'll be OK (unless you start twitching).

jsbeckton · Jun 16, 2016

I never "fear the foam" of starsan and commonly rack onto it. If I were to let it settle out it would probably be 2-3oz that I could discard but I have never had any issues. I think it's negligible.