when do you add Campden

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

VermontFreedom

Active Member
Joined
Apr 6, 2006
Messages
36
Reaction score
0
Location
central PA
I have recipes that call for adding campden tablets to a fruit-and-water mixture and letting it sit for 72 hours before starting fermentation.

I have other recipes that call for putting the must together right away and adding a campden tablet at first racking.

What do you folks do and which might have the greatest negative effect on flavors and aromas?

Wouild you add potassium sorbate instead of campden (after fermentation is done)?
 
I usually add campden to my must right away (unless it was boiled) and then at every other racking. If I add campden right away, I wait 24 hours and then pitch my yeast. No reason to wait 72 hours.

For sorbate, that should be used in conjuction with campden for a couple of reasons:
1. Sorbate works best in a sulfited environment
2. Sorbate will smell like geraniums without sulfite
3. Sorbate doesn't kill yeast, just stops it from reproducing. Sulfite makes the environment more intolerant for the yeast. They actually work in conjunction to stabilize wine.

If you are not sweetening your wine or killing fermentation early, you don't need sorbate. However, sulfite(campden) is still used to preserve the wine.

Lorena
 

Latest posts

Back
Top