Aerating sulfites out in skeeter pee - voodoo or science?

[primerib]

Hi all,

Just put my first batch of skeeter pee to go, I’m very excited. I have read many good things about it.

One small question, I’m still pretty new to all of this and can’t seem to find any information on this. For those of you familiar with the skeeter pee recipe, it advises to vigorously whisk the must occasionally and let it “air out” for about 24 hours (even before adding your slurry or yeast starter), for the purpose of somehow aerating the sulfites out of the commercial lemon juice.

For anybody who knows, is this practice of aerating out the sulfites evidence based, or just voodoo? I don’t at all doubt that it works, I just had no idea the sulfites were that volatile. This may be very common knowledge. Thanks, just curious!

 

[RPh_Guy]

IF the lemon juice has sulfite (it should say on the label), aeration removes it.

Yes, SO2 is volatile, but most of the sulfite reacts with dissolved oxygen to form sulfate. Once enough oxygen is dissolved, it only takes a short time (less than 15 minutes) to neutralize all the sulfite. 1ppm oxygen neutralizes roughly 5ppm sulfite.

No voodoo.
Cheers.

 

[primerib]

Perfect! Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Sculptorofstone]

Hi all,

Just put my first batch of skeeter pee to go, I’m very excited. I have read many good things about it.

One small question, I’m still pretty new to all of this and can’t seem to find any information on this. For those of you familiar with the skeeter pee recipe, it advises to vigorously whisk the must occasionally and let it “air out” for about 24 hours (even before adding your slurry or yeast starter), for the purpose of somehow aerating the sulfites out of the commercial lemon juice.

For anybody who knows, is this practice of aerating out the sulfites evidence based, or just voodoo? I don’t at all doubt that it works, I just had no idea the sulfites were that volatile. This may be very common knowledge. Thanks, just curious!

IF the lemon juice has sulfite (it should say on the label), aeration removes it.

Yes, SO2 is volatile, but most of the sulfite reacts with dissolved oxygen to form sulfate. Once enough oxygen is dissolved, it only takes a short time (less than 15 minutes) to neutralize all the sulfite. 1ppm oxygen neutralizes roughly 5ppm sulfite.

No voodoo.
Cheers.

Hi. May I know how your Skeeter pee turned out? I opened the lemon juice two days in advance and covered it in cheesecloth, kept in the fridge to rid it of the sulphites. But I’m not getting any fermentation yet and this is day three. Do you recall if it took longer than three days to start fermentation, or have I messed it up somehow? Much appreciated.

 

[Yooper]

Hi. May I know how your Skeeter pee turned out? I opened the lemon juice two days in advance and covered it in cheesecloth, kept in the fridge to rid it of the sulphites. But I’m not getting any fermentation yet and this is day three. Do you recall if it took longer than three days to start fermentation, or have I messed it up somehow? Much appreciated.

What is the current temperature of the mixture? How much yeast did you add? Did the lemon juice have any sorbate or other preservatives in it?

 

[Sculptorofstone]

What is the current temperature of the mixture? How much yeast did you add? Did the lemon juice have any sorbate or other preservatives in it?

The mixture is 75 F. The room temperature stays about 74-76 F. I added one 0.176 ounce packet of EC-118 to the pure, unadulterated cranberry juice three days ahead of the lemon mixture. It began fermenting. The lemon was 1/3 cup of fresh squeezed juice and two 945 ml bottles of Realemon with “water, concentrated lemon juice, sulphites and lemon oil” as the ingredient list.
Nary a bubble in sight on day three. Bummer.

 

[Sculptorofstone]

I was toying with sprinkling another packet of yeast to the mixture, but I don’t know enough about wine making (grain beer and cider is all I’ve brewed) to know if that will be a disaster.
Any suggestions?

 

[Sculptorofstone]

Oh and the water was tap and left out with a towel over it for two days to evaporate the chlorine.