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Chlorinated water and TCA

I'm addressing this question mostly to the organic chemists in the group (hi, Mark!). While most wineries have stopped using bleach and other chlorine-based sanitizing factors to lessen the risk of TCA development, probably everyone uses plain tap water to clean up.

Now, most municipal water these days has chlorine added, either in pure form or as chloramine. People who keep aquariums are advised to remove the chlorine before exposing it to their fishies, so the amounts are not biologically trivial.

Is there much chance that this chlorinated water contributes to cork taint? I'm asking this as a home winemaker as well as a consumer, because I spray gallons of the stuff on my equipment and bottles.

- Ernie in Berkeley

Reply to
ernie
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Heya, Ernie! Yup, chlorine in tap water can certainly lead to TCA production, but I question just how fast the process is. At the low concentration found in most municipal water supplies (and EBMUD's is one of the better in my experience) I wouldn't expect it to be very fast at all, so unless you leave the water sitting for long periods in your equipment you shouldn't have a problem. However, to be ultra-safe, just add a small amount of metabisulfite to that water before using it and there'll be no more chlorine to worry about.

HTH Mark Lipton

Reply to
Mark Lipton

To add to that, as a winemaker myself; I use well water - so no chlorine to worry about. But it is still good practice to use a dilute solution of potassium metabisulfite, with a little citric acid thrown in, as a sanitizing rinse for any equipment that will come in contact with wine. I usually use about a 4% solution, with about 1% citric acid.

Now if only H2S problems were so easy to avoid .....

Reply to
AxisOfBeagles

Speed of TCA production might not be an issue in wine, given the long aging time. A few drops of EBMUD water left in a rinsed bottle over the years...

But that'a good reason to rinse in dilute k-meta.

H2S: check out the graph on page 322 of Margalit (Concepts in Wine Chemestry): 160 mg/l DAP before fermentation prevented 100% of H2S formation. Even 80 mg/l produced only 30% compared with untreated must. But we should take this to rec.crafts.winemaking, I guess.

Reply to
ernie

I do frequent rec.crafts.winemaking - but here, there .. it's all about wine.

I love Margalit - keep it handy right in the winery. And I now use both DAP and yeast nutrients at early primary. I find the other important preventative is racking off of gross lees just before primary is finished, allowing a 'settling' period, then racking again. And then crossing my fingers and praying to the wine gods.

Reply to
AxisOfBeagles

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