Measuring SO2 in red wine

[RCF]

Hi Everyone

We have made four different red wines : cab. sauv., grenache, syrah and a syrah/grenache blend. The cab. has been in Hungarian oak barrel for one and a half years. The grenache, syrah, and blend are in steel tanks since last October. We bought a Hanna 84100 SO2 titrator to measure free SO2. Our initial readings were between 2 and 5 ppm of free SO2 on all our reds. We added potassium metibisulfite using the More Wine Guide to Red Wine Making formula. We retested in three days the SO2 levels were the same. Not sure if the Hanna instrument is malfunctioning or all the SO2 is getting bound up? We are reluctant to keep adding the metabisulfite for fear of over concentrating. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Ron Fioretti
909-797-0807

 

[grapeman]

Did you calibrate the meter before testing with fresh reagents? If not you can get false readings. It is unlikely that if you added the correct amount that it was all bound up that quickly.

 

[joea132]

This is a great sulfite calculator. I just bought the same unit and I'll be adding more sulfite to my latest batch as well. I always use this calculator.

http://www.winemakermag.com/guide/sulfite

 

[RCF]

Thanks for sending me the sulfite calculator we'll be using this for future sulfite additions.

Thanks again
Ron

 

[Runningwolf]

Ron, that is also the same one I use at work and at home. Great tool!