Smell

zalaman

Hey, did a distillation (bubble plate) from a non-quality white wine. As always it contains sulfite. Result ; 92° all (nice) but the first 9 liters a terrible smell of sulfite ( total run 27 liters ). What can I do to get rid of the sulfite smell because 9 liters all is a little bit too much to flush away. Any idea ?? Thanks Zalaman.

gman

Hydrogen Peroxide

gman

The formula I believe is on the Cornell universities website.. you would probably have to treat and rerun. Not sure if there are other options this is the only one I've ever used and it has worked pretty well.

grim

Copper Sulfate Trial (PDF)

This is pro territory - you will want to decant/filter and redistill.

Curators_Reserve

winemaking calculators @ winebuiness.com

great reference website

zymurgybob

When you say "sulfite smell" do you mean a sharp, stinging smell, as from old-fashioned matches, or a rotten-egg smell? The first is "sulfite" (sulfur dioxide, really) and the second is hydrogen sulfide, two entirely different animals. Neither is a sulfate. For sulfite, redistill with pH raised with, say, sodium carbonate. Copper in the vapor path will help with the hydrogen sulfide.

zalaman

It's the smell from kaliumdisulfiet (disinfection most treatment ) that comes trough the distillation. I'm washing now with very little air bubbles during 48 hours( aquarium air pump ) and it helps, but will it be completely away ? w'll see, sorry smell !

zymurgybob

What you're actually smelling is sulfur dioxide gas liberated by the potassium metabisulfite. First, that gas will react with water to form sulfurous acid (not sulfuric). If you add calcium carbonate (chalk) to the liquid, the sulfite ion will react with the added calcium to form calcium sulfite, which will precipitate out of the solution. I'm guessing that the newly-lowered acidity (raised pH) of wash will suppress ester (both good and bad) formation, which will make your brandy less flavorful.

Ok, I see this is after distillation, but the same principle applies.

gman

Sorry I was out of town for a bit. I looked at my old paperwork and I could not find the calculation I used but if memory serves me it was about 15 - 18 milliliters of Peroxide for just south of 8 gallons of white wine with 80 parts per million sulfites. Chris Gerling at Cornell University enology department gave me the website with the formula a while back maybe an email to him would help he is extremely knowledgeable and a very nice person. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful but grim, zymurgybob and Curators_Reserve seem to have a much better handle on it. Good luck.