Are Sulfites Optional?

[Honda88]

Q: Are there alternative antioxidants?
A: No, otherwise wine makers would use them!

Q: Will higher ABV will protect the wine from [microbial] spoilage?
A: To some extent, yes, but not entirely.

Q: Can cheap wine cause headaches?
A: Yes (OK, well, probably, since the science is not fully understood)! Poor quality fermentation produces many toxins besides ethanol such as methanol, other fusels, acetaldehyde, sulfide, other cogeners, etc.

A: I'm more concerned that the cleaning agents used are in the wine.
Q: What are you talking about? Fining agents are non-toxic.

Q: Would Pasteurizing in the bottle like in this thread work for wines or meads?
Sniped by @TechFanMD
A: Oxygen is enemy #1 of wine. You could steal a page from the brewer's playbook and use 22oz beer bottles (made to contain pressure unlike normal wine bottles, but similar in size to wine bottles), bottle carbonate with a measured amount of priming sugar/must (the yeast will consume some oxygen), and use oxygen-absorbing bottle caps. Wine packaged this way will probably be good for at least several months.
There will be sediment/lees in the bottle.

BTW, when you heat pasteurize your cider, those aromatics you smell are then lost for good. But if you don't mind then it's all good.

Hope this helps

Chemicals used to clean vessels.

 

[TechFanMD]

Chemicals used to clean vessels.

You can repeat this as many times as you want but where do you get the idea that wine is tainted by chemicals used to clean the equipment? Do you have a source? Personal experience?

These are highly regulated and highly tested facilities using food grade and FDA approved products. On top of that they are running enormous volumes of product through between cleaning so even if a trace were left it would be diluted an untraceable amount. I guarantee you consume more cleaning product residue from restaurants and the grocery deli department than you ever would from a commercial beverage operation.

 

[Honda88]

You can repeat this as many times as you want but where do you get the idea that wine is tainted by chemicals used to clean the equipment? Do you have a source? Personal experience?


These are highly regulated and highly tested facilities using food grade and FDA approved products. On top of that they are running enormous volumes of product through between cleaning so even if a trace were left it would be diluted an untraceable amount. I guarantee you consume more cleaning product residue from restaurants and the grocery deli department than you ever would from a commercial

I like my beer 100 percent acid cleaner free but that's just me

 

[TechFanMD]

I like my beer 100 percent acid cleaner free but that's just me

You do understand acids and bases right? The whole reason you use the acid cleaner is that even if any remains on the equipment it ends up neutralized.

 

[Scientific hippie]

Chemical! Chemicals! Stuff like sulfites and sulfates are very simple chemicals that are ubiquitous. I use StarSan and have learned to love the foam. I am very sensitive to wine, and have never gotten a headache from my own stuff. Bentonite is clay. Kieselsol is made from quartz; in my science days we sometimes purified stuff through columns of kieselguhr, which I think is the quartz itself. Chitosan is from crab and lobster shells. Isinglass (remember the song "Surrey with the Fringe on Top"? " With isinglass curtains y' can roll right down. In case there's a change in the weather..." Before vinyl (a pretty toxic substance) isinglass, made from fish bladders, was used. Unless you start seeing chemicals like n-n-acrylonitrile-blah-blah-blah, I don't think you should be too worried. Wine makes its own chemicals, hundreds of them. Some of them can cause headaches.

 

[Blacksmith1]

I was wondering about the isinglass. A friend has an old yacht with isinglass covers for the aft deck and fly bridge, I was wondering if the isinglass I saw referenced on this site was the same stuff.

 

[Honda88]

You do understand acids and bases right? The whole reason you use the acid cleaner is that even if any remains on the equipment it ends up neutralized.

Yes I do understand what you are saying. Believe it or not, you aren't the only educated person on this forum. I dont have to use the same products everyone else uses..

 

[TechFanMD]

Yes I do understand what you are saying. Believe it or not, you aren't the only educated person on this forum. I dont have to use the same products everyone else uses..

Very true. But you also don't have to spread false information about those products just because you prefer not to use them.

 

[Honda88]

Ok well if you are trying to standardize the homebrewing process you are in the wrong place. Lots of people here do things lots of different ways...You are the one who seems to be pushing their agenda. If you think I'm spreading false information by having a preference then whatever...

 

[TechFanMD]

Ok well if you are trying to standardize the homebrewing process you are in the wrong place. Lots of people here do things lots of different ways...You are the one who seems to be pushing their agenda. If you think I'm spreading false information by having a preference then whatever...

Not sure what agenda you mean. There are many great ways to sanitize. I'm not the one that implied that acid based cleansers can cause headaches in commercial wine.

 

[Yooper]

Remember that there is no such thing as a sulfite-free wine. One of the products of the fermentation process is sulfite. There are some yeast strains that minimize it, and I did read of wine commercial wine that had 0 measurable sulfites, but only that one. Even 'sulfite-free wine' has measurable sulfites in almost all cases.

There are more sulfites in raisins than in a homemade wine using sulfites at 50 ppm, lower than many commercial wineries.

However, if people choose to not use added sulfites, that's fine. Just be extra careful to avoid oxidation wherever possible, and drink fairly soon after bottling.

 

[Blacksmith1]

Broke down and got some campden tabs so that if my first serious batch turns out I can store it. I just won't tell the ol' lady and we'll see.

 

[Scientific hippie]

I was wondering about the isinglass. A friend has an old yacht with isinglass covers for the aft deck and fly bridge, I was wondering if the isinglass I saw referenced on this site was the same stuff.

Yup; it's clear stuff.