When & how to use Campden tablets. New to wine making.

Mike,

Just wanted to add to what Jack Keller says. Campen tablets are enough sulfites to make SO2 equal to 50 ppm for one gallon of wine. SO2 does NOT kill organisms but puts them into a state of inactivity. Contrary to some of the info floating around here by self proclaimed people of credibility, even the engineered yeast can go dormant if enough SO2 is added to a must. So the trick is to make all the bacteria in the must dormant without affecting the yeast you pitched. 50ppm of SO2 is that number that most winemakers use. After fermentation, the SO2 will be gone from the must because it is a gas and dissapates from the activity during the ferment. After fermentation, the wine will be full of CO2 ( fizzy). The CO2 will protect the wine as long as you keep the wine topped up in th container you keep it in. You will need to de-gas the wine eventually by stirring it or some other way. Contrary to what Jack Keller says, oxygen is needed at the start of fermentation and also is introduced gradually and controlled ( racking) after fermentation to age the wine. After ferment you could wait to add SO2 because if you keep the wine topped up, it is saturated in CO2 so there is no panic to add it.

I> > Hi all,

if you keep the

Not sure I understand/agree with the above. The purpose of having SO2 in the wine is to protect the wine from oxidation; this works because SO2 is readily oxidized to SO3, and thus any oxygen present will react with the SO2 instead of with the wine. This does *not* happen with CO2, though. CO2 is already as oxidized as it's going to get, so it's difficult to see how the presence of CO2 confers any protection against oxidation or anything else.

because if you keep the

The only protection I can think of is at the surface - perhaps a blanketing effect as co2 is heavier than atmosphere.

OTOH, co2 will do nothing to protect the wine from oxygen once the oxygen gets into the wine. That's what the so2 is for.

Exactly so. There will be a layer of CO2 at the top of the vessel during primary fermentation, and it will remain there until the vessel is disturbed for racking. The same thing happens during secondary fermentation; again, the layer of CO2 remains until the wine is racked. After that, though, the head space in the vessel is filled with air, not CO2. Some CO2 will come out of solution, but not much, not nearly enough to displace all the air. Dissolved CO2 confers no protection against oxidation.

"Dissolved CO2 confers no protection against oxidation. "

You c> > >> In article

Here's more in-depth info on SO2. Everything you ever wanted to know and then some.

Sorry, I meant to include this excerpt:

=======================================================20. Campden Tablets Campden tablets are designed to have a mass of 0.44 grams. However, consistency of the tablet size in manufacturing is questionable, and many winemakers claim there is little certainty that tablets contain the amount of metabisulphite they are intended to (expected concentrations have been seen to deviate by up to 25%). Additionally, some winemakers claim that the "fillers" used in Campden tablets to increase the bulk size of the tablet, taint wine flavour and affect clarity. Nevertheless, Campden tablets remain a simple way of adding a small (if rough) quantity of sulphite to a must or wine.

Rules of thumb for the use of Campden tablets are generally quoted as: One tablet should be added per gallon (Imperial or US) initially and then one at each of the 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc rackings. Or, if heat is used in preparing the must, none initially but one per gallon at each of the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc rackings. =======================================================

I started with 12 cans of Welchs 100% frozen grape juice (concord grapes). The book I read said add 4 tablets of Campden pills (I used the potassium v ersion). I added 5 pounds granulated sugar and the crushed/dissolved campde n pills to the juice and shook it in the carbouoy until the sugar was disso lved. I started Fleshmens bakers yeast in a small bowl with warm water and sugar. Yeast was foamy and I added it to the carbuoy. It has been two days and it has not started to ferment yet. Did the Campden pills kill the yeast ? How do I fix this? I am making 5 gallons.

email me at mank-at-bardstowncable-dot-net

Thanks in advance!