How long campden tablets to off

What is a typical time for them to completely off gas?

What do you mean, "off gas" ?

When I make wine, I usually re-sulfite every other racking, and at bottling. I don't have an so2 meter, so I use the "campden at every other racking" to guestimate a way to keep the sulfites at 50 ppm, more or less. So, I guess in order to really answer your question, we'd have to know exactly what you're asking!

I was under the assumption that using campden that SO2 is released as bubbles similar to those in fermentation. I was wondering the typical time needed for the bubbles to cease

bubbachunk said:

I was under the assumption that using campden that SO2 is released as bubbles similar to those in fermentation. I was wondering the typical time needed for the bubbles to cease

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Well, no. Sulfites bind to the molecole (don't know the exact science) as to inhibit the binding of oxygen. They do disapate with time, but not as bubbles that leave the wine.

I've heard that roughly 12-24 hours is how long you should wait for campden tablets to do their work in a disinfecting capacity. When using them to release chlorides from tap water, I've heard that the reaction is almost instantaneous and finishes within 5 minutes.

Now, for how long it will take for the liquid to be completely free of sulfur....who knows....

I am getting ready to add some for the first time, do you need to wait for a while before drinking for the sulfites to settle out? Will filtration help?

The sulfites disapate with time, but they are only at a level that you can taste for a very short wine. They don't really "settle out" and you don't want them to, since they help prevent oxidation and help preserve the wine.

If you use them at a reasonable level, you shouldn't have any issues at all with them.

YooperBrew said:

The sulfites disapate with time, but they are only at a level that you can taste for a very short wine. They don't really "settle out" and you don't want them to, since they help prevent oxidation and help preserve the wine.

If you use them at a reasonable level, you shouldn't have any issues at all with them.

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It's actually for a beer, I am using them so I can backsweeten. I don't mind waiting if I have to I have just never used them so I don't know what to expect. I was planning on using 1 campden tab and 1/2 teaspoon pot sorbate per gallon...does that sound about right?

Sulphites bind to the products of oxidation so the wine doesn't spoil, and also inhibit micro-organisms. (cultured yeasts are tolerant of higher levels than wild yeasts). As they bind they settle out so the levels drop. They also bind to pigments so a coloured wine will lose sulphites faster. When you add it to a red wine you will see the area where you add it bleach temporarily. They bind very strongly to acetaldehyde which is the main product of oxidation and also produced in primary. At the end of primary there won't be any free sulphites left.
Sulphites work best at a low pH, should be below 3.8 so I don't know how much use it would be in beer - what is the pH of beer?

Hmmm- I don't know. Never heard of using sulfites and sorbate to stabilize beer. If you're kegging, you can definitely try it but I would just keep the keg cold and not even try to stabilize it first. If the keg is kept cold, the ale yeast will go dormant.

gregbathurst said:

Sulphites work best at a low pH, should be below 3.8 so I don't know how much use it would be in beer - what is the pH of beer?

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3.4 or so, I am going to give it a shot because I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work. I have been researching it for weeks and even started a thread on it and no one seems to know how to go about backsweetening beer.

Assuming that the campden tablets will work the same way in beer as they do in wine...

• You will need to transfer your beer into secondary or tertiary...you'll want beer that isn't dropping sediment still.
• Add enough campden tablets to the beer to knock out the yeast (it wont necessarily kill the yeast though, just slow it down a lot).
• Add the potassium sorbate and mix in again.
• Sweeten to taste, and take a gravity reading.
• Wait three weeks or more and verify that no new fermentation has occurred with another gravity reading. This is important- if you don't do this and the yeast wake back up even after the campden tablet treatment (which can happen),
• Keg the beer and force carbonate.

If you plan on bottling, you'll have to do so from the keg after force carbonating. ...and this is all something that I have never done...YMMV

I added the campden and sorbate last night at the same time, I racked from the pirmary into a keg on top of a solution with those dissolved into it. I had cold crashed and the beer was perfectly clear and I didn't draw any sediment. I plan to filter this down to 1 micron to try and strip out some of the yeast, then add the fruit concentrate back to it and force carbonate.