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questions about sulfites

I have 2 questions:

  1. When you test the sulfite level in a carboy, if you just dip the titret into the top of a carboy, is this a reasonable sample? That is, are sulfites so volatile that there might be different levels at the bottom of a carboy than at the top?

  1. I've often wondered why I'm being so exact with my sulfite titrations. If I complete a batch of wine and age it in a carboy, I find that I often have to add more sulfite over the course of a year. I do all of the adjustments for pH. But if I know that I'm aiming for a sulfite level of 40 ppm, based on pH, why not just add maybe 80 or 100 ppm at the onset and let nature take its course over the next year of aging. The alternative is to shoot for 40, then have it decrease to 20 and not be noticed for several months. Does this make sense?

Thanks,

Lee

Reply to
Lee
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This has been discussed before and I do not remember the reason but it is not a good idea. I believe it was Lum that explained why but I am not sure. If you do not get a good answer, try searching back through old threads with google.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

I believe it was TomS and the main reason was that when there is too much sulfite, you can't evaluate how the wine is developing. Also, there is a chance you're overshoot the addition and the sulfite never drops to a decent level.

Pp

Reply to
pp

It is becasue the available SO2 dissapates at a rate like (arbitrarily) 20% a day. It does not dissipate at a rate of say (again arbitrarily) 2 grams a day.

So if you put twice as much in you will just lose twice as much as day....so over the course of fermentation you will still lose it all.

This is complicated by acidity levels and other stuff, and I did not feel like looking up the dissipation rates...but you can get the idea.

Reply to
Droopy

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