Do I need to boil stabilizers?

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Duane

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This is actually for a 100% Brett beer, the final stages of fermentation of which I want to halt. Will my campden tablets and sulfites both dissolve readily if I just crush them and dump them into my chilled keg of beer, or do I need to boil them in water first to get them to dissolve?

I ask because I already dumped in the crushed campden and need to know if I'll be alright.

Thanks!

Related question - I've heard some people say they like to hit their wine with campden first and THEN the sulfites 24 hrs. later. Is there any real point to this, or can both be added at the same time just as successfully?

Third and final question: I know I need to keep my beer ventilated for 24 hrs. to allow the gasses from the campden tabs to escape. Do I need to do the same after I add sulfites?
 
First, the answer is 'no'- campden tablets need to be crushed and dissolved, but not boiled.

Campden is a convenient tablet form of potassium metabisulfite- they are exactly the same thing. And they do not kill yeast nor halt fermentation.

Sulfites are used by winemakers as an antioxidant. I can think of no reason at all to put it in a brett beer.
 
Oops. Where I wrote sulfites I meant sorbate.

Does sorbate need to dissipate into the air (like campden tabs) or can I seal the keg immediately after adding it?
 
For what it's worth, chemically halting fermentation using the above methods is a technique the mad fermentationist recommends in his book on American Sours.
 
The only way to remove Brett is through sterile filtration, at least for the home brewer. Sorbate will stop the colony from growing but will not kill existing Brett. You shouldn't have to ventilate for sulfites or sorbate.

There are presumably lots of nutrients left in beer for brett to eat, so brett beer is naturally predisposed to keep eating. Brett is quite resilient and is able to go dormant and survive for long periods without food. Keep this in mind.
 
Related question - I've heard some people say they like to hit their wine with campden first and THEN the sulfites 24 hrs. later. Is there any real point to this, or can both be added at the same time just as successfully?

When making wine from fresh grapes we add meta at crush to stop any wild yeast that lives on the grape skins, if making wine from juice buckets there really isn't any point in doing this because of the lack of grape skins where the wild yeast resides.
 
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