Campden, Sorbate and Cloudy Wine

I stabilized a brilliantly clear Strawberry wine (3 gal) with 1.5 tsp of sorbate and three campden tablets. The wine went cloudy immediately... The same thing happened to the last couple of Apple wines I treated with sorbate and campden tablets. I thought I had a defective chemical so I threw them all out and bought fresh sorbate and campden. the fresh chemicals did exactly the same thing. Does anyone have any idea what causes this? Does anyone use Metabisulfite powder for small quantities of wine? If so, how do you measure it out for 1, 3, 5 and 6 US gallon batches??

Frustrated, A.J. Anchorage Alaska, USA

Reply to
A.J. Rawls
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Sorry I don't have an answer for you but I'm getting close to bottling and back sweetening a few batches myself, I'm curious on how long it did take for them to clear after treating and what was the aprox temp they were resting at? also was there sediment afterwards are did the sorbate and campden combination fully meld into the wine?

Rick

Reply to
Rick

Reply to
jimbo

A.J. Rawls wrote "Does anyone use Metabisulfite powder for small quantities of wine? If so, how do you measure it out for 1, 3, 5 and 6 US gallon batches??"

A.J. - You need a small gram scale that will make it possible to weigh parts of a gram. I usually have at least 5 gallons of wine so the quantities of K metabisulfite are easily weighed;

25ppm SO2 ~ (0.16 gram K meta/gallon wine)...0.8 grams for 5 gallons 50ppm SO2 ~ (0.33 gram K meta/gallon wine)...1.7 grams for 5 gallons 75ppm SO2 ~ (0.49 gram K meta/gallon wine)...2.5 grams for 5 gallons

K metabisulfite is pretty cheap so you can prepare a standard solution and use a portion for your wine. Example; 25ppmSO2 needed for 1 gallon wine. Dissolve 1.6grams K meta in 100ml water. Pipet 10ml into your gallon of wine.

Some time ago I weighed up multiple samples of K metabisulfite. The average of these weights worked out to 1.5grams per 1/4 teaspoon. If 1/4 teaspoon is added to 5 gallons of wine you are adding about 45ppm SO2.

A note about Campden tablets. While it's probably not worth worrying about Campden tablets do vary in weight from batch to batch. They are convenient to use but probably are no more accurate in providing SO2 than weighing small quantities of K metabisulfite with a proper scale.

Bill Frazier Olathe, Kansas

Reply to
William Frazier

The batches were treated and stored at 54 degrees F and I let the sit for 93 days before fining with Bentonite. No clearing happened until I fined. There was approximately 1 inch of very loose sediment in the

3 gallon carboys. I bottled one without filtering and ended up with fluffy sediment in the bottles... I filtered the other and it is lovely. I suspect the sorbate caused the problems somehow but it has only happened with Apple, Rosehip and Strawberry.

Later, A.J.

Reply to
A.J. Rawls

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