Finer Wine Kit Sulfites

[Vlabruz]

Does anyone know what the dosing is in the stabilization pack that come with Fwk?
I'm trying to see what my sulfite levels are. I may have over sulfited
I've added the packet, racked shortly after to get off lees and added 1/16tsp. Few months later racked and added 1/4tsp than racked yesterday and added 1/4 tsp.
So I've added about 112.5 ppm. I realize I should've probably only done 1/8tsp dosing at rackings.
I planned to bottle in April but I assume I may need to wait longer?
I do have the kit to test sulfites. Im not sure how accurate it is nor am I confident in my testing skills yet. I guess I can test it to get a rough idea? 4/24/22 is when I added kits stabilizer pack

 

[Rice_Guy]

?Q? can you taste the sulphites (match like/ sulfury) ? your significant other ?

you are a home wine maker and can ignore the legal limit, ,, the ppm dose in dried fruit is higher than your wine, ,, in 1700 without legal limits the sulphited wine may have tasted off but it didn’t kill people.

 

[Vlabruz]

I havent tasted it since I added the sulfites. Taste some before. Ill check it again in April. Thanks!!

 

[winemaker81]

I concur with @Rice_Guy, you haven't added anywhere near enough K-meta to be noticeable, much less approaching the legal limit.

I add 1/4 tsp per 19-23 liters at every racking, and at bottling. A fair amount of this gets used up, so a week or two later, the ppm of free SO2 will be around 30.

 

[Vlabruz]

I concur with @Rice_Guy, you haven't added anywhere near enough K-meta to be noticeable, much less approaching the legal limit.

I add 1/4 tsp per 19-23 liters at every racking, and at bottling. A fair amount of this gets used up, so a week or two later, the ppm of free SO2 will be around 30.

Very good, so you suggest at bottling in April I add another 1/4tsp or should I do less?

 

[vinny]

Nope -- just add it. NorCal did a test, and it turns out that blindly adding 1/4 tsp per 5/6 gallons results in ~30 ppm, which is roughly the target folks test for. It's old school, but it works.

@winemaker81, just practicing in case you ever go on holidays..

 

[winemaker81]

Very good, so you suggest at bottling in April I add another 1/4tsp or should I do less?

If you're making a backsweetened wine, add the finishing pack (or whatever it's called), which contains sorbate and K-meta. The K-meta is sufficient so you don't need to add anything else.

If you're making a dry wine (red or white), the sorbate is not necessary, just add 1/4 tsp K-meta.

I should have been more specific. I make grapes, juice, kits, and and fruits, so I tend to speak generically. I made mostly dry wines, so typically I write the date (month/year) on the finishing packet and toss it in a drawer. 12-15 months later, unless I've used it for a different wine, I bin it, as the sorbate has a finite shelf life and a few cents worth of sorbate (buying new) is a lot cheaper than recorking 30 bottles.

The "1/4 tsp K-meta for 19-23 liters of wine" has been the rule as long as I've been making wine. My take is that this rule-of-thumb was developed through decades of winemaking. I've yet to find an authoritative source for it -- but it's very wide spread.

 

[winemaker81]

@winemaker81, just practicing in case you ever go on holidays.

If you have posted sooner, you'd have saved me some typing. Get with it!!!

 

[Vlabruz]

If you're making a backsweetened wine, add the finishing pack (or whatever it's called), which contains sorbate and K-meta. The K-meta is sufficient so you don't need to add anything else.

If you're making a dry wine (red or white), the sorbate is not necessary, just add 1/4 tsp K-meta.

I should have been more specific. I make grapes, juice, kits, and and fruits, so I tend to speak generically. I made mostly dry wines, so typically I write the date (month/year) on the finishing packet and toss it in a drawer. 12-15 months later, unless I've used it for a different wine, I bin it, as the sorbate has a finite shelf life and a few cents worth of sorbate (buying new) is a lot cheaper than recorking 30 bottles.

The "1/4 tsp K-meta for 19-23 liters of wine" has been the rule as long as I've been making wine. My take is that this rule-of-thumb was developed through decades of winemaking. I've yet to find an authoritative source for it -- but it's very wide spread.

I've already added it according to the kit instructions

 

[winemaker81]

I've already added it according to the kit instructions

Some vendors specifiy that. It doesn't matter when the sorbate is added, as long as it's post-fermentation.

In this situation, add 1/4 tsp K-meta before bottling.

 

[Vlabruz]

Some vendors specifiy that. It doesn't matter when the sorbate is added, as long as it's post-fermentation.

In this situation, add 1/4 tsp K-meta before bottling.

Thank you

 

[leftiesrule]

I concur with @Rice_Guy, you haven't added anywhere near enough K-meta to be noticeable, much less approaching the legal limit.

I add 1/4 tsp per 19-23 liters at every racking, and at bottling. A fair amount of this gets used up, so a week or two later, the ppm of free SO2 will be around 30.

Let's say you plan on bulk aging in the same glass carboy for about 6 months or so and you added 1/4 tsp kmeta when racking into this carboy. Would you stir in another 1/4 tsp kmeta at the 3 month mark even though you weren't racking at that point? Would you change your strategy depending on what kind of bung you use (vented, drilled with airlock, etc.)?

 

[vinny]

Let's say you plan on bulk aging in the same glass carboy for about 6 months or so and you added 1/4 tsp kmeta when racking into this carboy. Would you stir in another 1/4 tsp kmeta at the 3 month mark even though you weren't racking at that point? Would you change your strategy depending on what kind of bung you use (vented, drilled with airlock, etc.)?

Theoretically your stopper of choice (vented, airlock, or solid bung) should do its job, which is simply a barrier between wine and fresh air. With limited head space only so much air is in contact with the wine. Only oxygen is damaging to the wine, and as it is absorbed into the wine the free So2 will react with it before it can damage the wine. Standard practice is to add 1/4 tsp every three months whether racking or not, just to stabalize and protect the wine.

If you didn't have a barrier in place the exposure to O2 is constant and replenished, which is why a wine will spoil if you let your airlock go dry for a period of time.

 

[winemaker81]

Let's say you plan on bulk aging in the same glass carboy for about 6 months or so and you added 1/4 tsp kmeta when racking into this carboy. Would you stir in another 1/4 tsp kmeta at the 3 month mark even though you weren't racking at that point? Would you change your strategy depending on what kind of bung you use (vented, drilled with airlock, etc.)?

In the past I added k-meta every 3 months. However, members have experimented with adding every 6 months, and that seems to work. If you're not comfortable with 6 months, do 3.

I don't see a difference between airlocks and vented bungs. I top barrels monthly and am considering adding 1/3 the normal each month, as I have to pull the bung and top the barrel.

 

[vinny]

Regarding my above statement. I know what common practice is, but is anyone dosing with k meta and bulk aging with a solid bung without doing the 3 month K-meta.

I only ask because once we bottle there is no option to add another dose and bottles hang around for years. There is really no difference between a sealed carboy and a corked bottle. Just a fail safe that many feel is not worth doing because we have access, or is there more to it.. Like most things in wine!

 

[cmason1957]

I would tend to disagree that a sealed carboy and a corked bottle are the same. That carboy interface isn't nearly as airtight as a cork. They do leak some.

 

[vinny]

I would tend to disagree that a sealed carboy and a corked bottle are the same. That carboy interface isn't nearly as airtight as a cork. They do leak some.

That I would agree with. I don't trust myself with bungs. I tend to plastic wrap with an elastic if I have a solid bung in. I feel I am more prone to overlook a bung when I am checking airlocks.

 

[winemaker81]

Regarding my above statement. I know what common practice is, but is anyone dosing with k meta and bulk aging with a solid bung without doing the 3 month K-meta.

I use solid bungs with barrels, as the evaporation produces a vacuum, so changes in temperature and barometric pressure are unlikely to blow the bung. For carboys I use drilled stoppers/airlock or vented bungs.

IME once the vented bung is seated, it stays seated. But I check all bungs when I do my airlock checks, as it's good preventative care. I haven't had any problems, but since I'm there anyway, I look at everything. It's a visual check, so it takes seconds.

 

[leftiesrule]

I use solid bungs with barrels, as the evaporation produces a vacuum, so changes in temperature and barometric pressure are unlikely to blow the bung. For carboys I use drilled stoppers/airlock or vented bungs.

IME once the vented bung is seated, it stays seated. But I check all bungs when I do my airlock checks, as it's good preventative care. I haven't had any problems, but since I'm there anyway, I look at everything. It's a visual check, so it takes seconds.

I've grown very fond of the vented/drilled carboy hoods that wrap around the neck of the carboy instead of being inserted into the carboy. They hug the neck tightly and always stay seated regardless of which sanitizer you use, unlike normal bungs.

 

[winemaker81]

I've grown very fond of the vented/drilled carboy hoods that wrap around the neck of the carboy instead of being inserted into the carboy. They hug the neck tightly and always stay seated regardless of which sanitizer you use, unlike normal bungs.

I tried them years ago and was never confident that the sealed properly. But it's been decades, so the product I used has long since been upgraded. I will consider that.