Sodium Metabisulphite and carbonation

Hi all,

My LHBS is more of a wine store than anything. They just sell pre-hopped kits like Coopers. Since sodium metabisulphite is commonly added to wine, it's the sanitizer that the shop carries...the only sanitizer.

I've been using it to sanitize my equipment and bottles through several batches now, but I'm starting to wonder if it's affecting the carbonation of my beer. Of the 10 batches I've made with equipment/bottles sanitized with this stuff, only 2 have been really well carbonated.

I've primed in the bucket using 3/4C - 1C of dextrose each time, and let sit in the bottle at 70-75C for 3-5 weeks for each batch. I'm wondering if the yeast is just having a hard time because of trace amounts of sanitizer in the bottle.

I don't have access to sanitizers like Star San or One Step. I think my only choices here are sodium or potassium metabisulphite or bleach.

Anybody having success using sodium metabisulphite?

I use potassium metabisuphite (though I recently found out that they do actually carry starsan) since there is a lot of catering to wine makers. I have heard that it can kill off some yeast which would explain why carbonation isn't very good. I rinse my stuff, spray it, let it sit for a bit and then rinse it again just to get rid of anything that might kill the yeast. No problems so far so I'd just say rinse everything well after you've sanitized it.