do i have to sulfite immediately before bottling?

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.

fun4stuff

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2012
Messages
883
Reaction score
227
Location
West side
Last Sunday I backsweetened, added a fining agent, and stabalized a mead with campden and k-sorbate. Then added back to carboy to let it clear. 2 questions:

1) After adding the campden, it kind of had a "sulfite" taste.... this will go away, correct? In the past I always used k-meta and never noticed this kind of taste.

2) I am letting it clear for a week or 2. Will be busy for the holidays. Anyway- I started thinking- the campden gives off SO2 gas. Am I going to have to add sulfite again before bottling in a couple weeks?

Thanks!
 
I would check and make sure the Campden tabs are the 'one per one gallon tabs'...I stumbled across some that treated more than one gallon per tab. Also, be aware that campden tabs are sodium vs potassium based, since you mentioned you normally use k-meta. Just saying. Not that the different element will cause issues and the sodium content is considered trivial by most. But assuming you used 1:1 tabs you should be fine to bottle in a few weeks without dosing with campden/k-meta again & the 'just added SO2' aftertaste should go away. As long as you do not mean rotten egg odor, then all is well. So, what kind of mead?
 
I would check and make sure the Campden tabs are the 'one per one gallon tabs'...I stumbled across some that treated more than one gallon per tab. Also, be aware that campden tabs are sodium vs potassium based, since you mentioned you normally use k-meta. Just saying. Not that the different element will cause issues and the sodium content is considered trivial by most. But assuming you used 1:1 tabs you should be fine to bottle in a few weeks without dosing with campden/k-meta again & the 'just added SO2' aftertaste should go away. As long as you do not mean rotten egg odor, then all is well. So, what kind of mead?

I double checked. They are 1 per gallon, but labeled by the homebrew store I bought them from. So, assuming they labeled them correctly, I should be ok. I'm not sure if I just never tasted my meads right after adding the sulfite or if the campden tabs impart a different taste than I'm used to. It's not rotten egg/sulfur smell or taste. I've had that before. Tastes like metabisulfite. After I posted this, I had a little left over that I left out in a glass that did taste better after a couple hours.

I made AZ IPA's Raspberry Melomel:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/ra...10-great-arizona-homebrew-competition-183027/
 
Added 5 campden tabs to 5 gallons on 12/18 and placed under airlock. Going to bottle today. I should not have to add more sulfite, correct?
 
thanks. BTW- as a follow-up to above posts: sulfite taste was gone today.
I've found that there is often that "sulphite whiff" when it's been recently added.

You hit the nail on the head how the sulphites work i.e. the metabisulphite is added and dissolved, and the acids in the wine/mead/etc then break it down to provide free SO2.

This does dissipate over time, or if you needed to stir the mix it dissipates quicker. Yet there's normally still enough free SO2 to keep any fungal nasties that might be floating around, in check......

The warning that you see on wine bottles is to do with people with asthma, as the presence of sulphites can, on rare occasions, trigger an attack.

If you encounter people or someone who does suffer with that, you find that you end up making batches that are staggered nutrient and step fed, so that you always reach or surpass the tolerance of the yeast, so that you don't need to use sulphites or stabilisers to prevent refermentation and you can just use fermentable sugars to back sweeten etc, because it can't restart. Plus there's enough alcohol content to act as the preservative.

You just end up doing the clearing etc.....
 
Back
Top