SO2 reduction using Hydrogen peroxide

[Denden5136]

Has anyone used hydrogen peroxide to lower their SO2?

I made a calculation mistake and now have 500L of wine at 80ppm. This is a commercial winery and the push is to bottle next week. I don't have the option of letting it sit for a few months to aerate out. I cannot blend it out. The options are to bottle as-is or add about 200ml of H2O2. Sensorily, it does not have sulfite aroma, but there is a slight bitter taste in the finish.

Has anyone tried H2O2?

 

[winemaker81]

I found several threads searching on "hydrogen peroxide sulfite".

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/potassium-metabisulfite.76737/

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/threads/did-i-completely-ruin-my-wine-too-much-k-meta.77334/

 

[BarrelMonkey]

Yes I've done this, and on a commercial scale too... But I think it's a real challenge if you're planning on bottling next week. See here for my previous post on this. The document linked in my previous post is a nice praactical guide as to how to do H2O2 additions.

What kind of wine is it, red/white? For red I might be tempted to bottle as is; that 80ppm is not too far over what you might target at bottling (depending on pH and other factors). For white wine it may be contributing to that bitter note that you mention.

If you do go the H2O2 route I would be careful to do it in stages - it's potent stuff and you do produce (a small amount of) sulfuric acid as a byproduct. I would ideally want to let the wine mix well and settle for several days at least before tasting. in fact, if you were to add the H2O2 while moving from tank to tank, that movement may well go a long way to fixing the problem, all the more reason to be conservative in your addition.

 

[winemaker81]

AWRI has a calculator for H2O2 addition, as mentioned in this post.

https://www.winemakingtalk.com/thre...uin-my-wine-too-much-k-meta.77334/post-859964

 

[Denden5136]

Thanks all. I filtered it today and will test the SO2 after lunch. The pH is 3.32. It is red wine. I have left 2 inches of head space post filtering to let it aerate a bit. The pH is quite low for a California red. I have heard scary things about H2O2, so I might just bottle as-is.

 

[winemaker81]

As @BarrelMonkey said, 80 ppm is not that high, especially not compared to the FDA max which is in the 350 ppm range.

Do you have other similar wine available? Tomorrow do a blind taste test with the similar wine(s), to see if you can taste the off-taste you mentioned.

How recently did you add the K-meta? If it was VERY recent, that may account for the off-taste. I've noticed that when first added, the K-meta makes the wine taste "rough".