Sulfites

[ScadsOBees]

What is the role of sulfites and are they necessary?

Are they merely a steralization technique that is implicit in a recipe? Some recipes specify them, some don't.

Are they even necessary? If I pasteurize the must, will I need to use sulfites,especially if I want a sweeter mead?

The meadmaking guidelines from honey.com reports that a certain level of sulfites need to be maintained and sulfites added at each racking if the level is too low. Is this correct?

If I want a cherry meglathin then are they required since I can't heat the fruit?

I don't like using chemicals, but I also want my first batch to turn out....

Thanks!

[Gregory_Naff]

Rick,

Things about sulfites to remember:
Many people are VERY sensitive to sulfites.
They can add levels of complexity to your mead that you want / don't want.
Lots of mead has been made for centuries without them.

I have used them twice in the past 10 years. I did NOT like the outcome and I haven't used them since. I use varying types of water and I usually, but not always, pasteurize. I do not boil meads. I think that boiling greatly reduces (dulls) many of the finer nuances of the honey.

You could certainly heat the fruit. Bring the contents of your pot to 165 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes. Add some Servomyces from White Labs, or some Wyeast Yeast nutrient. It’ll be fine.

My experience with Cherry (about 15 different ones), is that the all start out tasting like Robitussin Cough Syrup. After a little time (like 2 years), they improve. One of my uses with sulfites was in a cherry, hoping to reduce the cough syrup effect. Only time reduced.


" don't like using chemicals, but I also want my first batch to turn out...."

I have never had a batch of mead not turn out. I have had some results that were less than expected, but as Edison said, they were not failures what I learned were things not to do in the future.

One of the brewing gods, Charlie Papazion, say "Relax, don't worry, Have a homebrew". This is very applicable in the brewing of mead as well as beer.

There are lots of resources for reading about brewing meads, but the best way to brew them is to dive in and do it. Mead is a very forgiving drink. In your other post, you mention having a common honey and a specialty honey. I always recommend that new brewers do a few batches with common honey before they dive into a specialty. You will learn a lot each time you brew. As your knowledge grows, then move into the specialty honey arena. Also, look for a local homebrew club in your area. These are a very valuable resource, and you may find someone that has brewed a lot of meads and will give you some hands-on guidance.

Good Luck, and Happy Brewing.

[Anthony]

Yo Scads,

Sulfitescan play a number of roll's, from being used to kill wild yeast and other nasties living on the skins of fruit to killing of yeast to stop a fermentation and stabilize a wine or mead before bottling to prevent bottle bombs.

During the fermentation process, sufites are produced by the yeast.

I don't use sulfites in my mead, I don't Boil, Pasteurize or Heat the honey or must when making mead. The method I've found to work with fresh fruit for killing off anything that may be on the skin is to freeze the fruit for a few days before use.

And mead made with fruit is called a "Melomel".

A very good site for new mazers is - http://www.gotmead.com/smf/index.php - there are 254 topics and 2300 post in the NewBee forum alone.

Anthony

[Anthony]

Hey Scads,

Why do say you can't heat the fruit?

If haze in the finished mead is your concern, 1/2 - 1 tsp. pectic enzyme per gallon of must can be used to prevent a pectin haze from forming, or can be added after fermentation should a haze fail to clear.

Happy mazing,

Anthony

[ScadsOBees]

I've read that you shouldn't boil the fruit because of the pectin setting. You've just told me that it don't matter that much.

The cherries I think will be in the second batch.

No sulfites to start out with.

Thanks for all the tips and pointers, it has helped clarify things a lot for me, so I feel a lot more confident starting the first batch.

Now I'm thinking about doing a gallon at a time because there is no way I can drink that many different varieties if I run 5 gallon batches....

-rick

[Ben Brewcat]

Sulfites serve two main functions; sanitizing must and protecting from oxidation later on. That's the "add at racking" reason. You'll get a lot of opinions on sulfites, so rather than stir the pot I like to just try to give people accurate information and decide for themselves.

At most, about one in a hundred people have any reaction to sulfites at all, and most are mild. Many people who get a headache soon after drinking red wine erroneously state that they are "allergic to sulfites", when this reaction is actually due to a sensitivity to anthocyanins (red wines are actually sulfited at a much lower level than whites). If you've eaten today and you're American, you've eaten sulfites almost guaranteed. Sulfites are present in any fermented beverage and are actually produced continually in our bodies in small amounts.

Important to also know that many American (and especially Californian white) wines are enthusiastically over-sulfited for marketing reasons which contributes to people having reactions, which is a shame. Used correctly, at about 50 ppm, sulfites dissipate from a must/mead readily and are present in negligible amounts later (yes, I actually titrate my sulfited meads to check, that's the geek I am).

That said, I rarely use sulfites. Good racking technique (no splashing/aeration) will virtually eliminate oxidation. IMO they can have a place in sanitizing fruity musts because you should indeed not boil fruits. It does set the pectin, but also the reason that boiling kettle smells so good is those aromas are LEAVING your mead for good.

[Aspera]

Scads,

Ben summed it up pretty well. In general, sulfites are not needed for mead as it is naturally resistant to contamination. Boiling/pasteurization will suffice, especially if you ferment entirely in glass. Having said that, tiny amounts of sulfites, sorbates and cold storage are an excellent way to stabilize very sweet meads and will not have any negative impact on the flavor of your mead. About 10% of the population exhibits a heightened sensitivity to sulfites, but not when it is used at the recommended levels. BTW: because of mead's acidity, you may need less than normal amounts of sulfites for stabilization. Also, gypsum can accomplish some of the same things as sulfites when it is used with the right yeast strain (SO2 producers).

[Ben Brewcat]

The gypsum idea is interesting Aspera, never occurred to me. Does calcium sulfate react with SO2 to produce a sulfite? Note also that sulfate hardness is pretty assertive flavorwise as a bracing dryness; I use it in my (very soft) water to build a water profile for british pale ale styles where that flavor is part fo the style. Might be interesting to use as a note in a sweet mead... a new experiment (for me at least)!

[Aspera]

Many yeast strains are both tolerant of SO2 and produce it in low levels to surpress microbial competition. This is part of how some yeasts can dominate a mixed yeast culture (especially lagers and their champagne cousins. I don't normally think of ales doing this, but sulfates definitely improve beer stability by changing the pH and giving the yeast substrates for SO2 production. Occasionally wine yeasts say "do not use with recently (sulfur) dusted grapes" for this reason. Yeah.....I'm a huge nerd to get this excited about yeast cultures.

[Aspera]

BTW..Sulfites react with water to make SO2, the active antimicrobial compound. The pathway goes something like this (i think) NaHSO3+ H20----> NaOH + H2SO3----> H2O + NaOH + SO2

You'll notice that this reaction is dramatically favored by acidity, so changing the acidity of your wine can also cause sulfur dioxide release.
I mostly boil, but think that their is a place for sulfites. IMHO, CO2 bubbling out of the carbory scrubs far more of the honey esters away than a short boil ever would. likewise, in a high acid mead, the bubbling will remove most if not all of the sulfurous smell sulfite users worry about. For me, the big advantage of sulfites is that they are much easier than boiling (no fuss, fast clean up). I view pasteurization as the worst of both worlds in this respect, as it doesn't clarify the mead, but requires a bunch more energy, equipment and clean up. Now back to figuring out what I did wrong with my ale (other than not using a glass carboy)