Should I ditch the Sulphite/sorbate pack in my kit for KMeta?

[Mark Kissel]

Hi All,
I make mostly dry red wine from kits and seams like most are coming with a pack of Sulphite/Sorbate. I have been reading that the Sorbate part can add off flavors over time and not to use it. The catch is to sanitize everything thoroughly. I also filter all my wines with a number 2 filter to remove all the left over yeast. In light of this, thinking of just using KMeta additive based on PH at completion of fermentation.

Thoughts?

 

[Seamonkey84]

If your not sweetening it, you don’t need the sorbate.

 

[RPh_Guy]

That's what I do and recommend.
(Aside from filtering, which I haven't ever done.)

Honestly sanitation is overemphasized. An adequate sulfite level will protect wine from wild microbes, especially with good racking.
Look at commercial dry wines. None of them have sorbate, and yet lots of them are aged for months to years in wooden barrels which are natural reservoirs for microbes and can't be fully sanitized.

 

[Mark Kissel]

my thoughts exactly. Not to mention all the fruit flies you see in a winery. Kmeta must do a good job keeping things at bay. Other thing i think i discovered is wine kits come with some SO2 at the start. Finished fermenting my Lodi ranch Cab and ran a SO2 test thinking it would be zero but came in at 15ppm.....quite surprised.
As always thanks for the feedback!!!!

 

[RPh_Guy]

Finished fermenting my Lodi ranch Cab and ran a SO2 test thinking it would be zero but came in at 15ppm.....quite surprised.

Yeast produce sulfite during fermentation.

 

[Mark Kissel]

I did not know that....

 

[bob1852]

I did not know that....

It's why you need to be skeptical when you see a wine labeled as "no sulfites".

The maker and/or marketer must not be aware that fermentation produces sulfites, with some yeasts producing far more than others.