Using sulphite
Andrew Lea
press, after a documented history in cidermaking of over 400 years and a
history in winemaking going further back still. Some of you may know my
favourite quote from Dr Beale (1664):
“Lay brimstone on a rag, and by a wire let it down into the cider
vessel, and there fire it; and when the vessel is full of the smoak, the
liquor speedily pour’d in, ferments the better”
[Brimstone is what we now call sulphur, and burning it in the barrel
generates sulphur dioxide aka sulphite].
Sulphite is quite natural, occurring in the atmosphere in the gaseous
form of sulphur dioxide (SO2) as a result of volcanic processes, and in
the human body as a result of the breakdown of sulphur-containing
proteins during digestion. Many yeasts also produce it during
fermentation, reducing naturally occurring sulphate to sulphite. Of
course it can be toxic, even lethal, in the wrong dose and in the wrong
place, but so also can common salt and water.
There are two places where it is used in cidermaking. The first of these
(as with Dr Beale) is where it's added to the juice before fermentation,
to kill off unwanted wild yeasts, moulds and bacteria, allowing the
beneficial fermenting yeasts to thrive. This keeps the fermentation
clean and makes it much less likely that you will later get off-flavours
and horrors such as 'mouse' from the action of rogue microbes. Although
Dr Beale didn't know it, its action is quite critically dependent on the
pH of the juice. If you have a very acid juice (eg from dessert or
cooking apples) you may not need any at all, because the juice will be
sufficiently acid to protect itself. See my website for further details
of this and the dose to use. When SO2 is used in this way it also
becomes bound very quickly to yeast by-products such as acetaldehyde, so
none of it remains as free SO2 at the end of fermentation.
The second place where it's used is after fermentation and at bottling
or bulk storage. The reason for this is partly antimicrobial but also
because it acts as an antioxidant. Or, rather, it mops up the initial
products of oxidation such as hydrogen peroxide and aldehydes,
preventing them going on to give sherry-like or 'oxidised' off-flavours.
Most commercial manufacturers add 50 ppm of SO2 at bottling, with a view
to achieving a residual 30 ppm of free SO2 the next day. Gradually this
level will also diminish over time.
Sulphite most likely does not cause a true immunologically mediated
allergy, but a few people are sensitive to sulphite in its free state
(less so, if at all, to its 'bound' form). Nearly all such people are
asthmatic and it aggravates their asthmatic symptoms - hence food law in
the EU and most places elsewhere requires its presence to be labelled on
food where it has been added. The best documented cases of sulphite
sensitivity were from its use (now banned) at high levels on pre-packed
salads or pre-cut potatoes, where the high free SO2 levels could be a
severe problem for asthmatics. The data on wine is much more equivocal
and where people have been challenge tested in clinical trials far fewer
of them prove to be sulphite sensitive than they imagine. There are many
other things in fermented beverages which can cause adverse reactions,
in addition to sulphite.
In my view the benefits of sulphite in cider vastly outweigh any
disadvantages, and I would no sooner make cider without sulphite than I
would drive a car without a seatbelt! Others may think differently.
Andrew
--
Wittenham Hill Cider Page
http://www.cider.org.uk
Ray Blockley
"In my view the benefits of sulphite in cider vastly outweigh any
disadvantages, and I would no sooner make cider without sulphite than I
would drive a car without a seatbelt! Others may think differently."
I would concur with Andrew here. Each to their own, of course.
Cheers,
Matthew Wastell
Please remember, just because something has been done for years does not mean it is the best or correct way to proceed. I'm sure those that questioned the radium-ore water crock were called un-educated. We should continually question, it is what makes science what it is!
"Sulfites are counted among the top nine food allergens, but reaction to sulfite is not a true allergy..... Commonly causes headaches and skin irritation" src wikipedia
I'm not knocking that they may be beneficial in the majority of cases, but in my case I have a reason the negatives might outweigh the positives so would like to understand more about them.
Why does sulphite not stop the cider or wine yeasts action?
What does mousey cider look/taste like?
Many thanks,
Matthew
disadvantages, and I would no sooner make cider without sulphite than I
would drive a car without a seatbelt! Others may think differently.
Ray Blockley
> "Sulfites are counted among the top nine food allergens, but reaction to sulfite is not a true allergy..... Commonly causes headaches and skin irritation" src wikipedia
> I'm not knocking that they may be beneficial in the majority of cases, but in my case I have a reason the negatives might outweigh the positives so would like to understand more about them.
Why does sulphite not stop the cider or wine yeasts action?
What does mousey cider look/taste like?
Many thanks,
Matthew
Melanie Wilson
>in my case I have a reason the negatives might outweigh the positives so
>would like to understand more about them.
Hi Matthew
I don't use sulphites generally, but used to in the past. Main reason I no
longer do is that my kids have numerous food sensitivities and so I tend to
knock additives of any kind on the head if I can. Unfortunately my cider
making experience is limited. But I've made wine and beer for about 30years.
I've not used sulphites for at least 10 years now and not really noticed
that more is wasted, via spoilage, but I really can't quantify it. Many of
my wines last years.
As a sanitizer I've replaced its use with preheating equipment (that can be
heated) and if it is stored seal after heating. The demijohns I plan to use
spend several days on the Rayburn prior to use. Boiling water on airlocks
and the siphon tube is stored above the rayburn an flushed with hot water
before use.
As for stopping fermentation, I just use patience. Most of my wines sit in
demijohns for at least a year , then are often safety bunged and sit in the
garage for a while longer.
Many French ciders I have had continued fermenting if left and seem to taste
fine, but with sediment.
Hope this is some help
Mel
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Andrew Lea
> Please remember, just because something has been done for years does
> not mean it is the best or correct way to proceed.
It's a good point and there have been many attempts to find a
replacement for sulphite in fermentation systems. So far nothing has
delivered. Even organic wine- and cidermakers, who would rather not,
find they have to use sulphite to get consistently saleable products and
indeed the organic standards contain such dispensations.
>
> I'm not knocking that they may be beneficial in the majority of
> cases, but in my case I have a reason the negatives might outweigh
> the positives so would like to understand more about them.
Yes it's something you have to weigh up if you have a proven sulphite
allergy to deal with.
>
> Why does sulphite not stop the cider or wine yeasts action?
It's an interesting question - why does it act more effectively on the
'undesirable' yeasts and other microbes? The answer is not clear but it
seems that microbial sensitivity to sulphite is the norm and resistance
is a mutation. Most natural weak acid preservatives (eg vinegar
(acetic), benzoic and and sorbic acids) are believed to work by being
able to enter into microbial cells by molecular diffusion through the
cell membranes because they are in part lipophilic (fat soluble). Once
inside, they ionise and increase the acidity (lower the pH) and the cell
homoeostasis mechanism has to work very hard to pump out protons to
restore the pH. Eventually the cells become so exhausted that they run
out of ATP (their energy source) to do this and give up and die or at
least stop growing. Sulphite is believed to work in the same way as
other weak acid preservatives.
Sulphite-resistant organisms appear to have the ability to synthesise
acetaldehyde in response, more readily than other microbes. This binds
up the sulphite and makes it inactive hence it is neutralised and the
cell survives and continues to grow. It cannot be an accident that
acetaldehyde is a key intermediate (the last step in the chain) of the
synthesis of alcohol from glucose. In other words, the same mutation
which confers the ability to be a wine yeast (smooth fermentation of
sugar to relatively high alcohol levels) entails the facile ability to
generate higher levels of acetaldehyde than normal, which will bind up
the sulphite and make it inactive. This is the working hypothesis that
most fermentation microbiologists go with.
>
> What does mousey cider look/taste like?
Hey it's got a twitchy nose and whiskers :-). Seriously, it tastes like
the smell of a mouse cage - or maybe to some people like popcorn or
fresh bread. You cannot smell mouse, only taste it, because the
compounds responsible (tetrahydropyridines) are in salt form and they
are liberated in the mouth by the change in pH of the taster's saliva.
That's why it takes a while to be detectable - several seconds, even up
to half a minute, as the salt is decomposed, and why there is quite a
deal of individual variation in human sensitivity. As Mel said in an
earlier post, 'mouse' is generally attributable to synthesis by
Brettanomyces (a spoilage yeast) or certain forms of lactic acid
bacteria from specific amino acid precursors and its formation does seem
to require an oxidative step. The organisms do generally seem to be
sulphite sensitive though not always. The problem with mouse is that its
flavour threshold is so low that you cannot blend it off. It is a big
economic issue in the Australian wine industry and most of the work on
it in recent years has been done at the Australian Wine Research
Institute (of course those wines never get into bottle so we don't get
to taste them!). When i did my Putley tutorial last month somebody
brought along an excellent example of mousey cider which we are keeping
as an example for the next session!
Hope all that helps!
Andrew Lea
A practical point. If you want to avoid the risk of a cider with any
free SO2 (likely to be much more allergenic than bound SO2), then I
would suggest using it only on the juice, before you begin, but not at
bottling. The reason for that is (a) your juice can never be sterile, no
matter how sterile your containers (unless you boil the juice - not
recommended!) and (b) all the SO2 will be well bound by the end of
fermentation. You might also consider using a strong starter of a
cultured yeast which will get going quicker than a wild yeast
succession. All this will help to reduce the population of adverse
microbes without running the risk of any free SO2 remaining.
If you are careful to absolutely exclude air at the post fermentation
handling and bottling stages you can give the SO2 a miss there, if you
are worried about allergenic carry-over. You can also try blanketing
with CO2 or nitrogen after fermentation to prevent air getting in, but
that is not easy to do on a small scale.
Matthew
Now I suspect that my juice last year was very acidic - it was the kind of
stuff that made you screw your face up like really strong fizzy cola-bottles
- just how I like it in fact :-)
By the way I use a good quality wine yeast - as firstly that was what I had
lying around, and it worked well so I continued to sue the same stuff.
After pressing the airlock is bubbling at full rate within 24 hours.
Sometimes I used a cup of actively brewing cider added to newly pressed
juice.
So I think from the chart on your website, if I do keep that acidic level up
then we should be ok without, if it dips below that magic number then I'll
sulphite it as per your chart. I won't bother at the end.
I noticed in your last message you said
rather not, find they have to use sulphite to get consistently saleable
products"
cider is not quite to my taste, I either use it in cooking, add lemonade or
chuck it - I'm not asking myself for my money back or complaining. I've not
actually had anything undrinkable by my own taste, although I did have one
that went quite dark brown and tasted a bit different (hence why I was
interested in what mousiness was). I suspect the air lock came off that one
and it was stored under the stairs which is a little bit musty. The odd
thing was, I didn't like it, but all my friends loved that one (more than
the normal ones).. Very odd!
Now back to the sulphite... So to use at the end or not..I brew to dry -
rack, add sugar for a second fermentation, then leave to completely clear
over 2-3 months, air lock always in place (apart from the one above!). Then
what I do when I bottle is fill to 1 cm of the top, as I use recycled pop
bottles I give them a squeeze to exclude as much air as poss then put the
lid on.
I'm being overly fussy about the use of sulphites, purely cus Veronica does
go that interesting red colour and I'm sure it's not life threatening and
quite an interesting party trick! I honestly believe if you don't have to
use something, then don't. Hence my desire to find out if I really need it.
Thanks very much for all the replies, hints and tips - much appreciated.
Matthew
Trevor FitzJohn
Andrew Lea
> Andrew. Continuing my e book journey through the Royal Society I note
> that Beale's aphorism 21 you quoted from the appendix to Evelyn's Sylva
> above was read to the Royal Society 2 years earlier on Dec 10th 1662 by
> Mr Oldenburg for Mr Beale. At the same meeting there was present Mr
> Christopher Merret of champagne fame as per Tom Stevenson, and Sir
> Robert Moray who describes the use of air pipes and bellows in a furnace
> to increase the temperature ( needed to make verre anglais the strong
> glass needed to contain the pressure of champagne or bottle fermented
> cider. Oh and a certain Mr Boyle demonstrated how to make a vacuum.
> Quite a meeting!
23-33 which also refers to those Royal Society meetings in 1662 in the
context of bottle fermented cider and gives a short biography of Beale.
Andrew
--
near Oxford, UK
Wittenham Hill Cider Portal
www.cider.org.uk
Miguel Pereda
Hello.
I respect every opinion, but cider which has been elaborated without sulphites is more complex, aromatic and healthy than the one with sulphites.
I try to choose the best apples, to grow them without pesticides, to make cider in the best hyghienic conditions and then I want to drink a natural and biological product, If I didn’t do this I could go to the supermarket and buy commercial cider with sulphites but the difference is big and that’s why I am a craft cider maker, not a commercial one.
Greetings.
Migue A. Pereda
Trevor FitzJohn
Great book.
There is quite a bit about cider in the early years of the Society.
Those were the days of polymaths.
Sent from my iPhone
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