Sulphur replacement (No sulphites allowed)

It's not very common for a person to be allergic to sulfites. If diagnosed by a doctor, I would agree. Typically, the reactions are due to tannins (or some other things that people more knowledgeable here will tell you about) and mistakenly pin in on sulfites. It seems almost an urban legend that people pass on to each other. I digress...

You cannot avoid sulfites in wines; they are a byproduct of fermentation. The concentration is VERY small when present from only fermentation, though. I don't add much sulfite and imagine if I were a little "cleaner" and always had my carboys filled to the necks, I could eliminate it altogether. The wines wouldn't age as nicely in the bottle, though.

I don't know of an additive to replace sulfites. In your vinting, you could top the carboy off with an inert gas and that would help.

-- Patrick McDonald Athens, GA USA

Use nothing, but you will need to keep it clean. You are probably better off sticking to kits with boiled water for diluting.

Use a non-sulfite sanitizer at all stages, like Iodophor (hope they don't have iodine allergies) or Star San (an acid based sanitizer and my personal fave).

Make sure the wine has a suitably low pH. High pH wines are more prone to spoilage. You may have to resort to a little sweetening to balance the acidity if you find it too tart.

Don't be shy about keeping the alcohol level up, again, alcohol is a preservative.

Drink your wines up within a couple of years.

These tips should allow you to make wine without any sulfite additions.

Brian

You can use a 10% household bleach solution as a sanitizer too, but you must rinse very well.

If you are looking to make a sweet wine keeping it from refermenting may be difficult without sulfites. One solution to that would be to keep the sweetened wine refridgerated.

The amount of naturally occuring sulfite in wine is pretty low, I think it's on the order of 10 parts per million. If that is a concern, you should verify the value. Total sulfite content and free sulfite are not the same thing, I'm not sure I know a way to lower total sufite. Joe

My son has an allergy to sulfites. And he lives in California and his wife collects wines. Live can be tough. He can drink a glass or two but if he goes pas that he starts having an asthmatic reaction. But he has never had a reaction to my wine. I use the normal recommended amount of sulfites for home winemaking and I think it yields considerable lower levels than found in commercial wines. If that is still too high for your family member, then, as stated above, make all or some of your batches with no sulfites. You just have to be more careful with cleanliness and plan on shorter shelf life. This is important. Don't plan on long life reds. Shift more to whites and country wines that are designed to be drunk in a year or two. This is no real hardship. You can still make your long life reds, they will just not be for your sensitive family members. A lot of the wines I make reach their peak at 6 months.

Ray