thanks,
Patrick
Ray
"Patrick" <phe...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1129650523.2...@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
That's exactly what we do in California when faced with that situation - but
we're talking about grape wines that have high enough levels of potassium to
make that a viable strategy. That's not always the case with other areas
and other types of fruit - or so I'm told.
Tom S
Joe
One small point: The wine should _first_ be deeply chilled, and _then_
seeded with cream of tartar (if necessary). Seeding only works in
supersaturated solutions. To get to a point of supersaturation the wine
must be chilled.
Tom S
Do the big wineries use metabisulfite salts or just treat with SO2 gas?
Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas USA
"Droopy" <Droop...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1130781274.5...@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Both sodium and potassium metabisulfite reduce the acidity a little. Over
the course of the winemaking process it is negligible in either case.
> Do the big wineries use metabisulfite salts or just treat with SO2 gas?
Depends on the winery. The one I know of (~2 million gallons capacity)
seems to use potassium metabisulfite. I see pallets of 50 pound bags
occasionally as I'm walking around, looking for something else. Still
larger wineries probably use liquid SO2 for cost reasons. Either is
effective.
Tom S
I've never found it necessary to seed wine to get tartrates to precipitate.
In fact, if you're really in a hurry, freezing will drop out tartrates
overnight.
I think commercial wineries seed to get tartrates to precipitate more
quickly than if they let it go spontaneously.
The really big wineries use ion exchange rather than chilling to remove
tartrate.
Tom S
So yeah, I guess you could add a lot of metabisulfirte before you chage
the acidity too much.
I just purchased a chest freezer so I'll have the ability to chill
(finally).
Joe