Added way too much K-meta (no, I mean WAY too much)

[LaCroixes]

Since I'm new to winemaking (more of a homebrewer), I thought I'd start small with a Vintners Reserve 4-week kit.

I ended up not degassing enough before bottling, and 3 months later, my Cab-Zin blend is all sorts of bubbly. After reading many previous posts on possible remedies, I decided to take 3 gallons of my batch, pour gently back into a carboy, dose with K-meta, and splash rack over the next week or so.

The only problem? I misread the K-meta dosing amounts, and ended up adding 1 tsp/gallon. Not the stupidest thing I've done, but close.

What I want to know is, is this salvageable by further bulk aging, aggressive and frequent splash racking and/or dilution with another non-dosed wine kit? Or should I just chalk it up to experience and dump?

 

[gratus fermentatio]

In theory, it should dissipate in time.
Regards, GF.

 

[Yooper]

I'd try using a wine whip (like for degassing) and whip it often, and lots, for a week or two, and then taste a sample and see if you've managed to get much of it to dissipate.

 

[LaCroixes]

Thanks for the responses. While waiting for advice from the forum, I poured the wine from bucket to bucket about 8 times and got a face full sulphur for my trouble.

I don't have a wine whip, but I will stir it semi-vigorously with a long-handled spoon after racking into a bucket.

 

[cyberlord]

If you have a drill you can fashion a whip out of a plastic coat hanger.

 

[WoolyBooger]

If you have a drill you can fashion a whip out of a plastic coat hanger.

I was hard up one day and sanitized 2 long zip ties and put them together in somewhat of an "L" shape. I then chucked the contraption into my drill and gave it hell. It wasn't ideal, but it was the only thing I had that would fit through the neck of my Carboy.

 

[Brewkowski]

I thought I'd read about adding very small amounts of Hydrogen Peroxide to react with the sulfites. I mean I'd probably still go with a more natural approach of whipping and splash racking. Maybe buy an SO2 test kit just to get a feel for how much more you need to adjust it.

 

[LaCroixes]

Well, I don't have a power drill either.... But maybe I can borrow one. I've just been splash-racking from the carboy into a bucket, stirring vigorously for a couple of minutes and then splash-racking back to the carboy.

Brewkowski, I've heard of the hydrogen peroxide thing, but I'm not really comfortable with the procedure. I'd rather see how the stirring/whipping works out for this next week. Then I'll force myself to forget about it for a couple-three months before bottling again.

 

[Brewkowski]

I'd be curious to see what your numbers are at, just for my own knowledge, and how quickly it fades after splashing. I normally test my wines and get them around 50ppm before bottling, assuming that I"ll have some splashing during the racking and bottling. Not sure if you have an oxygen tank nearby, but that might work so you don't have to rack it as much.
Technically the legal limit for commercial wine SO2 is like 350ppm, I've heard that it's even hard to detect levels below 100ppm. So if you did 1 tsp/gal, that was maybe like 8 times too much (my container says 1/8 tsp per gal = 100ppm), so something like 800ppm?
Here's a calculater for some SO2 stuff I saw online

http://vinoenology.com/calculators/SO2-addition/

just looked up an example and to remove 600ppm in 3 gal, would take about 110ml of standard 3% Hydrogen Peroxide. They say it can have an affect on oxidizing other compounds, but with a red wine who knows it might age it a little quicker.

 

[Hummer]

Since I'm new to winemaking (more of a homebrewer), I thought I'd start small with a Vintners Reserve 4-week kit.

I ended up not degassing enough before bottling, and 3 months later, my Cab-Zin blend is all sorts of bubbly. After reading many previous posts on possible remedies, I decided to take 3 gallons of my batch, pour gently back into a carboy, dose with K-meta, and splash rack over the next week or so.

The only problem? I misread the K-meta dosing amounts, and ended up adding 1 tsp/gallon. Not the stupidest thing I've done, but close.

What I want to know is, is this salvageable by further bulk aging, aggressive and frequent splash racking and/or dilution with another non-dosed wine kit? Or should I just chalk it up to experience and dump?

I'm not clear whether you used 3 tsp. in 3 gallons, or 6 tsp. in 6 gallons. Did you recombine the 3 gallons with 3 tsp. to make a 6 gal. batch with 3 tsp. Kmeta? If so, you're probably not too far off the mark.

In any case, you could use the foul up to advantage by bottling and aging the wine for two years before drinking. Rather than drinking it prematurely, at two years it will be a much better wine.

 

[LaCroixes]

I *wish* I could dilute it with another 3 gallons, but alas no. I have only about 6 bottles of the original fizzy wine that I held back when I first started this odyssey, but I'm hesitant to send perfectly fine (but fizzy) wine after bad.

Hummer, will bottle-aging work as well as bulk-aging to dissipate the SO2? I've read that it's harder to get rid of excess sulfites in bottled wine, because the sulfites have nowhere to go, so I thought bulk aging might be better.

And I think I might hold off on the peroxide for now, Brewkowski, or at the very least test an 8 oz. amount. I'm hoping aeration and aging with work as slightly less invasive methods. And given my problems with simple instructions, who knows what else I'd get wrong.

Again, I really appreciate everyone's help on this.

 

[Yooper]

I'd suggest taking a small sample and tasting it. If you don't taste sulfur, bottle it. If you do, keep stirring!

 

[Hummer]

Hummer, will bottle-aging work as well as bulk-aging to dissipate the SO2? I've read that it's harder to get rid of excess sulfites in bottled wine, because the sulfites have nowhere to go, so I thought bulk aging might be better.

I think you're right that bulk aging would work better, and also to continue stirring it off as Yooper suggests. Lacking a reliable test for sulfite level, sniff and taste has to be good enough. You'll still want to be careful in keeping it topped up and not rely on presumed high sulfite to keep it from oxidizing.

On the other hand, it's only 3 gallons. How long does it take to drink 3 gallons? Once it's gone, problem solved!

 

[Honda88]

I think you're right that bulk aging would work better, and also to continue stirring it off as Yooper suggests. Lacking a reliable test for sulfite level, sniff and taste has to be good enough. You'll still want to be careful in keeping it topped up and not rely on presumed high sulfite to keep it from oxidizing.

On the other hand, it's only 3 gallons. How long does it take to drink 3 gallons? Once it's gone, problem solved!

yea id just say screw waiting it out, just drink it and learn from your mistake