to camden or not to camden

[spudbasher]

Hi everyone,

Has anyone got any opinions on sulphiting,I used to do a bit of brewing in the 80s and remember getting blinding headache hangovers after a sesh on various "wow" type wines ,(not beer ,which obviously wasn't sulphited) friends also complained of the same after drinking same wines ,I read somewhere that its the sulphites (camden tabs) that give the hangover ,that you are actually getting chemical poisoning not a alcohol hangover ( I know alcohol is a chem!)?

Is it ok not to use them, with stuff you drink quite young I guess it is, does anybody not bother at all even with stored wines?

Also if you wanted to make an organic wine you would have to leave it out,(I also read that's why you don't get hangovers of organic wine,supposedly), any way any thoughts?

Cheers Spud.

 

[evanvine]

Sulphur Dioxide, SO2, is used as an anti oxident and preservative.
Commercial wines and ciders contain SO2 at the rate of 50ppm or 50mg per litre.
This equates to one campden tablet per gallon/4.54ltrs.
Spirits do not contain it, and they can give you one hell of a hangover. :twisted:

 

[Moley]

I always use one CT per gallon or the equivalent in metabisulphite solution for the reasons evanvine states. I make lots of 'quick' juice wines and they don't give hangovers.

CTs shouldn't cause hangovers but poor technique and impatience will.

 

[user 1290]

Organic wine is made from organically grown grapes and can contain suphites (same with organic cider and organic fruit wines).

See: http://www.ecowine.com/sulfites.htm , etc.

You can cut down the amount of sulphites you add by pasteurising your pressed juices, steam juice extracting them, using carton juices, etc. and by using ascorbic acid as an antioxidant in lieu of sulphites. Maintaining optimum levels of adjuncts will also assist.

Expensive filtration equipment can remove spoilage organisms, but if you really wanted to avoid sulphites you could always pasteurise your finished wine (although it's supposed to affect the quality, but this it done extensively with small scale produced back sweetened cider).

And then there's always sparkling wines which don't have sulphites added at the end of the process.

 

[Ken L]

I used to react quite badly to whatever was in some beers and wines in the 80's with hangovers, hot blotchy red patches etc but use both sodium metabisulphate and potasium sulphate at about 60% of the doses usually recomended for home brewing with no ill effects whatever.

all I can suggest is try it and see.

 

[suzie]

I have been getting excrutiating upper stomach pain when I have drunk some of my wines. Its the still ones that are worse for me. This is also the ones with campdems in and potassium sorbate.
The fizzy ones without campdens and P/S are absolutely fine for me.
I think I am sensitive to campdens tablets so am trying to make wines witout it. Just wondering how long they would last without campdens.

My other bottles of still wine I am leaving for lots of months hoping that as they condition, mellow and change I can tollerate the drink.

 

[shadow47]

Well, our ancestors have been making wine for hundreds of years without sodium metabisulphite, so it should be fine, just leave it longer for the yeast to die naturally, and age it in bulk, I wouldn't bother bottling it in glass as it may explode if you don't leave it in bulk long enough, if you wanna bottle in glass for friends, just tell them to open it within a day coz it might explode.

Do an experiment on yourself, get some grape juice (or whatever), stick some campden tablets in it, one for every two litres so it's double the concentrate, and drink as much of this as you drink wine.

If you feel like **** then you know it's the sod met.

 

[rozza2010]

Does anyone know if you need to use a crises Camden tablet everytime yourack your wine to a new DJ??

 

[jonboymentalhealth]

I'm making a sparkling wine but obviously i've not put a ct in i was going to leave six months for yeast to die then pitch new yeast with priming sugar. So hopefully it wont mater if you dont use CT :drunk:

 

[alanbamber123]

In my opinion camden is law.

 

[Tony]

In my opinion camden is law.

It's a place, just down the road from me. Some good pubs there too

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[evanvine]

It's a place, just down the road from me. Some good pubs there too

My thoughts too Tony! :whistle:

 

[potty]

I don't use ct at all and have been fine so far.. as was said before our ancestors never used them and I want my wines to be a natural as possible..

 

[Moley]

I try to use chemicals sparingly, but I would suspect that our ancestors had a greater ratio of failures.


PS: I preferred your previous avatar, the pert bounce as opposed to the black eye.

 

[evanvine]

I don't use ct at all and have been fine so far.. as was said before our ancestors never used them and I want my wines to be a natural as possible..

Sounds to me that you may like "sherry" tasting wine. :sick: