Sodium Metabisulfite Solution in my beer

[koast1990]

Hi All,

I've been stalking on this forum for a long time, getting up some useful information about brewing.

I tried to find someone who had a similar misadventure to mine but couldn't find it.

All I could read is that yeast are really tough, so I may be worrying for nothing. But on the other hand, sodium metabilsufte could be a problem when in contact with beer since it's a sanitizer.

So here is my problem;

I transfered my beer in my carboy for the secondary fermentation. I put an airlock on it, that I filled with a solution of sodium metabisulfite (about half a teaspoon in a cup of water). But I put the airlock before moving my carboy to it's rest place.

When I grabbed it, the pressure created inside did raise the solution in the airlock, thus dropping into my beer.

I believe that about 10 mL of the solution went into my beer (my carboy contains 5 gallon of beer).

I would like to know your thought on this situation, if this could have big issue on the outcome of my beer because I'm really anxious about it.

Also what is the tolerance of the yeast facing sodium metabisulfite?

Hopefully you guys have good news on that

Thanks and Regards,

Phil.

 

[stickyfinger]

sounds like it's not a lot of solution. plus, the pH should be high enough that it's even less important. it should age out if it is a bit sulfury. i tried using US-05 on a cider that I had sulfited, and the yeast absolutely would not ferment. ale yeast and sulfites are not a good combination i think!

 

[Pariah3j]

So I had no idea what this stuff was, but apparently its used alot in winemaking ? Found this site: http://www.eckraus.com/wine-making-sodium-bisulfite

Sounds like its used to kill off unwanted bugs and display any oxygenation that may have happened. Problem is it does kill the yeast as well as the bugs. If that is the same stuff, then sounds like you only need 2-3/16th of a teaspoon of the stuff for it to work. Yours being diluted in liquid form, and only a few drops falling in, it might not completely kill the yeast... Others with more experience with this stuff may be able to chime in.

 

[koast1990]

Yes basically the idea is that my water in the airlock don't get contaminated with any sort of mold or bacteria.

Unfortunately the way I processed the transfer, this water dropped in my beer (not all the volume in my airlock though).

@Stickyfinger - Thanks for the response. What would be your final thought on this, your response seems contradictory. Maybe the amount in my batch is not enough to be alarming, but according to your experience, my beer could be screwed.

Was your cider highly sulfited?
Also, I may be wrong but I've read that some lager yeast produce some sulfur byproduct (but maybe not sulfite especially).

Maybe it's not a big deal ..

@Pariah3J - Yes I used the Na-Metabisulfite instead of K-Metabisulfite because of accessibility. But it does the same job and I use it to sanitize my equipments. Don't think I would change to any other sanitizing agent.

It's true that the amount is probably not to worry about but hey, if you think about the other side of the coin, if I would drop the same volume of inoculated water (bacteria) would this be an issue or not ?

 

[stickyfinger]

@Stickyfinger - Thanks for the response. What would be your final thought on this, your response seems contradictory. Maybe the amount in my batch is not enough to be alarming, but according to your experience, my beer could be screwed.

Was your cider highly sulfited?
Also, I may be wrong but I've read that some lager yeast produce some sulfur byproduct (but maybe not sulfite especially).

Maybe it's not a big deal ..

I don't think you'll have a problem. It sounds like you introduced a very small amount. The only way to tell if beer is impacted is to see if it ferments and then taste it of course. I can't imagine you will even notice this in the final beer.

When I sulfited the cider, I did it at white wine making levels, and the pH was much lower than wort, so there was even more free SO2 to inhibit the yeast. I would just switch to using star san in your airlock from now on. If it gets sucked in, it's not big deal. It's actually good for the yeast once it is diluted in the wort.

 

[Gameface]

So first thing is that if you transferred to secondary your beer should be at FG, so no worries as far as not reaching you FG, right? If you are transferring your beer to secondary before it is at FG then stop doing that.

If you keg then it doesn't matter if you've inhibited the yeast.

If you bottle then you might consider adding in a little dry yeast along with your priming sugar.

So, overall, no big deal.

And I'm surprised no one has mentioned it, sodium metabisulfite is what's in Campden tablets. It is frequently used to neutralize chlorine and chloramine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campden_tablet

 

[koast1990]

So first thing is that if you transferred to secondary your beer should be at FG, so no worries as far as not reaching you FG, right? If you are transferring your beer to secondary before it is at FG then stop doing that.

I probably should have detail this before, since I'm a beginner, I did this batch with an already made wort (Basically I only have to ferment it).

I have no information about what the FG could be. I only respect the time-lapse for each transfer (primary, secondary, bottling).

Is there any hope my FG might still drop a few point in my secondary (meaning I would still be fine for the bottling).
I will try to monitor this to see any hope.

But thank for the advice, I will consider this for the next batches.