Campden tablet questions

[MedHat Turk]

Are all campden tablets made the same? The ones I have say contain sodium metabisulphite but I have read in places that they are suppose to be potassium metabisulphite. Also I am trying to make my first gallon of wine from some plums and added the yeast about half hour after mixing everything up, including a crushed campden tablet. I now realize I should have waited 24 hours to drop yeast. It did start fermenting 36 hours later and still is 3 weeks later. Is this going to mess with the taste of the wine?

 

[antjuneau]

Potassium has a higher molecular weight than sodium, so less of the tablet is “active” sulphate. That means equal weights of each added to wine would lead to the sodium meta giving a higher concentration of sulphite.

I would go by whatever the instructions say, but if they quote a certain weight of sodium meta and all I had was potassium, I would use maybe 20% more to reach same concentration.

Other than that, no real differences between them.

 

[Yooper]

The only difference I"m aware of is that sodium metabisulfite will add a bit of sodium to the wine. Otherwise, they are the same.

 

[jgmillr1]

Also I am trying to make my first gallon of wine from some plums and added the yeast about half hour after mixing everything up, including a crushed campden tablet. I now realize I should have waited 24 hours to drop yeast. It did start fermenting 36 hours later and still is 3 weeks later. Is this going to mess with the taste of the wine?

You're fine. I usually add the yeast within an hour of hitting it with sulfites and I don't have trouble. The yeast rehydration procedure is more critical than the precise distance in time from the sulfite dosing. Biggest thing is that fermentation starts up, which it did for you. There won't be any impact to the wine taste from this.