Metabisulfite question

Hello,

I'm hoping I didn't screw up here. I just recently bottled a 5 gal batch up. This batch was crashed at 1.010 to leave residual sweetness, and racked onto sorbate/kmeta to keep the fermentation from restarting. After settling and clearing for a little while, I ran through a 5 micron then a 1 micron filter into a bottling bucket.

Here's where the issue lies. Being the first time I used my homemade whole house filter setup, I did not think about the residual kmeta solution left behind in the filters after running it through the system to sterilize. I poured myself a glass before bottling the last bit up, and when I drank it the sulfite smell and taste were definitely noticeable. I gave a bottle to my brother who said that the mead was very good, but there was an off taste to it.

My question is, will this eventually diminish as they age in the bottle or am I going to have to uncork the bottles and carefully pour them into something to let the gases evaporate off and re-bottle?

Thanks!

Buy a pack of titrets and check your so2 level.

How much kmeta and sorbate did you add? Sorbate tastes like the north end of a south bound skunk.

Bottling at that stage is risky unless you wait to see if fermentation doesn't restart...but filtering is your saving grace.

Hi Inner,

I used 1/2tsp per gallon of the sorbate and 1/4tsp kmeta when I racked after cold crashing. It sat for a week and a half to make sure it didn't kick back up. It cleared up remarkably fast in that time (Cote des Blanc ftw) so I decided to test out my new filter setup. I know that time and patience is the key to mead, but this was just more of a test to see if I could quicken the time from carboy to bottle.

I'm not entirely sure what too much sulfite tastes like, so I don't 100% know if that's the case. I wonder if it could just be shock from going through the filters and the bottling process. I am going to cellar the bottles and wait a few weeks and pop one open to see if it has settled out.

ox45 said:

Hi Inner,

I used 1/2tsp per gallon of the sorbate and 1/4tsp kmeta when I racked after cold crashing. It sat for a week and a half to make sure it didn't kick back up. It cleared up remarkably fast in that time (Cote des Blanc ftw) so I decided to test out my new filter setup. I know that time and patience is the key to mead, but this was just more of a test to see if I could quicken the time from carboy to bottle.

I'm not entirely sure what too much sulfite tastes like, so I don't 100% know if that's the case. I wonder if it could just be shock from going through the filters and the bottling process. I am going to cellar the bottles and wait a few weeks and pop one open to see if it has settled out.

Click to expand...

You obviously know what sulfites smell like, take a teaspoon and toss it in a gallon of water and take a whiff...now give it a little taste....yeah delicious.

Just think that on a lesser scale. If you did 1/4 teaspoon for your 5 gallon batch that's about 40-45mg/l which should be spot on. Now if you did 1/4teaspoon per gallon that would explain the problem...

Haha I know what my 5 gallon bucket of KMeta sanitizing solution smells like, and no thanks!

I just tried another sample and it doesn't really remind me of sulfur, but without any SO2 titrates I'm just shooting in the dark. I'm really hoping it's just shock from the filters and bottling process that will smooth out in a few weeks or so. Only time will tell from this point on, and if not oh well I've drank much worse!