I am having problems with my 5 gallon batch of lemon wine. The fermention was very strong through primary(1 week) and secondary(2 weeks) and I racked 2 days ago into a fresh carboy. The SG at racking was 1.010 PH3.4.
I used campden for the primary & secondary but ran out and the brew shop said campden and pot meta was hard to get in OZ at the moment, so they suggested that sodium metabisulphite could be substituted (I usually use this for sterilising). The conversion they gave me was
1tsp = 10 campden, so since I was using 4 campden to 5 gal previously I added just less than 1/2 tsp. My previously strong fermentation has now ceased. I was worried by this so did some of my own investigation and it seems sodium meta is about 1.17 times stronger than pot meta and it is recommended that you only use 1/4 tsp of pot meta for 45ppm in 5 gal, so a 1/4 tsp of sodium meta would be about 52ppm in 5 gal?If I am correct I now have about 80ppm SO2, what can I do about this? I tried reactivating with some fresh yeast in a cup of the must... if it has done anything it is very very slow (liquid temp is about 20.C) ...
Q1. Are my SO2 calculations about right?
Q2. Should I let it sit for a few more days and try reactivating again?
Q3. Will the SO2 eventually dissapate down to 50ppm allowing the yeast to reactivate or am I stuck with a sweet lemon wine?
Q4. If I am stuck with sweet wine should I just clear it as normal and bottle with some pot sorbate?
Thanks in advance
James