Wine sulphur vs. bottle refermentation

[The_Glue]

I am experimenting with some enzymes and additives used in the wine making world but i would add them to my beer.

One of these additives would be wine sulphur (potassium metabisulfite) for reducing free oxygen in my beer to preserve aromas longer.

Do you think i can use suplhur and still have healthy bottle refermentations (for bottle carbing) or yeast would need some free oxygen to work?

(i would add the suplhur to the fermenting beer around the time it hit the final gravity)

 

[Chef-Ryan]

Well some yeast strains will withstand some SO2 (What Potassium Metabisulphite also called KMS breaks down to) But what affects the yeast is what is called free so2 so depending on the dose you used of KMS anyhow long it has been there is a chance of the yeast either dieing or cementing properly. I know products exist for home sulphite testing but i personally have never used them. When in doubt do bench trials (in this case just take a small portion of beer and add a small bit of yeast, because any yeast in the beer could potentially be dead, and see if the yeast comes to life and stays alive over a day or 2. Watch for smells of Rotten eggs, that will mean the yeast is stressed, if it ferments nicely then it should be good to go .. if not .. .you might still have to much free so2. and there is 1 yeast i know of that has very high tolerance for s02 and that is brett and i know beer people like brett where as wine people prefer to stay away from it so i will not say any further words on that.)

 

[The_Glue]

Well some yeast strains will withstand some SO2 (What Potassium Metabisulphite also called KMS breaks down to) But what affects the yeast is what is called free so2 so depending on the dose you used of KMS anyhow long it has been there is a chance of the yeast either dieing or cementing properly. I know products exist for home sulphite testing but i personally have never used them. When in doubt do bench trials (in this case just take a small portion of beer and add a small bit of yeast, because any yeast in the beer could potentially be dead, and see if the yeast comes to life and stays alive over a day or 2. Watch for smells of Rotten eggs, that will mean the yeast is stressed, if it ferments nicely then it should be good to go .. if not .. .you might still have to much free so2. and there is 1 yeast i know of that has very high tolerance for s02 and that is brett and i know beer people like brett where as wine people prefer to stay away from it so i will not say any further words on that.)

I am thinking about getting 40-50ppm (mg/l) free SO2 from a single addition after the main fermentation which is quite a bit below the EU regulations (for white wines they allow a maximum of 200ppm total SO2). This means about 1g metabisulphite per 10L of wort.

edit: once i accidentally added the amount i mentioned (1g/10L) to my brewing water before brewing beer (i wanted to add way less than that for removing chlorine and chloramine but i made a mistake) and both bottle carbing and the fermentation went without problems, though mashing and boiling and aeration could have reduced the free SO2 content

 

[WVMJ]

Split your next batch, do half with KM and half without and you can compare the carbonation when they are done. You shouldnt have a problem, should also work for cider and mead and everything else as long as your are not doing a wild ferementation. You can add the full dose of KM 1/4 tsp to 6 Tablespoons of water, dissolve it, and add 3 TBSP or whatever ratio you are going to treat a lot easier than weighing out little doses of KM.

WVMJ