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Over Sulfited Wine

Johnboy
edited October 2015 in Beginner's Talk

So I've been offered a nearly full hogshead of Pinot noir/ Shiraz that has been over sulfited and is a little soury. Is it worth running through the still or is it a dead loss?

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Comments

  • grim

    The sulfur you can probably manage with some heavy copper contact, but the volatile acidity is a bit more difficult to deal with. You may find yourself needing to run it through a second time and taking off at a higher proof.

    Whether or not it will make an acceptable brandy is a big question mark. Some say yes, some say no. But the sour is a bigger problem than the sulfur.

  • Johnboy

    Could I just run it through my 1500mm packed section and make bulk neutral

  • grim
    edited October 2015

    Copper packing?

    Sure, but you might find too much ethyl acetate on the first run, you may need to treat the distillate and rerun. Check the vodka thread.

    It's worth giving it a go, even if you gotta take it all the way to neutral.

  • Johnboy

    Will do its a ss packed section but I'll add some copper

  • KapeaKapea

    My experience with over sulfited fruit wash is the sulfur concentrates up in the distillate, big time.

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • Johnboy

    was it recoverable or just a waste of time

  • KapeaKapea

    Super nasty. Learned a big lesson about sulfiting ferments intended for distillation:

    I'm more like I am now than I was before.

  • grim
    edited October 2015

    Read the wine literature on how to deal with it if you think it's going to be really bad.

    Copper Sulfate Pentahydrate and Ascorbic Acid are what you'll need if heavy copper contact during distillation doesn't correct. You can add copper in your boiler too.

    Here is a good overview.

    Basic Winemakeingand Enology - 5 (PDF)

  • Johnboy

    Awesome thanks for the info

  • RobertS
    edited September 2016

    SO 2 reduction in distilled grape spirits by three methods (PDF)

    Seems to be the place to drop this article. The authors tested additives to the strip and ran the spirit a second time. In summary:

    Calcium oxide is highly effective at about 0.9g/L, but can lead to an alkaline smell much above that

    Activated carbon is highly effective. They found one month at 70F sitting on 2g/L to be most effective, did not test active flow.

    Hydrogen peroxide is highly effective in small doses (did not find an exact number) but should be added slowly to avoid high local concentrations over oxidizing.

  • Curators_Reserve
    edited September 2016

    winemaking calculators

    See various calculators here including sulfite reduction using peroxide

    handy reference site..

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