I have some film yeast in 3 out of 4 of my 5 gallon carboys. Fermentation is complete but I would like to wait a bit longer to bottle as the cider ages in the carboys. I almost always have issues with getting the rubber stopper to firmly seat in the carboy neck and this is likely the culprit. I have started securing the stopper with rubber bands but even this does not always work well.
In Claudes's book he recommends cleaning out the film yeast with a clean paper towel and then spraying the surface and the neck with a 0.5% sulfite solution then dosing with 30 ppm sulfite.
Is this 0.5% sulfite solution possibly a misprint in Claude's book and the intention was to use a 5% sulfite solution?
I have on hand the 5% stock sulfite solution that he recommends for dosing sufite when starting a fermentation and a 0.5% solution which also has citric acid in it for sanitizing equipment but I do not have a 0.5% solution without the added citirc acid. Do I need to make up a 3rd solution with 0.5% sulfite without the citric acid to spray in the neck and then does with 30 ppm using my regular 5% sulfite dosing solution?
Also I am considering dosing with less sulfite after cleaning possibly 10-20 PPM.
Thanks for some clarity on the sulfite solutions.
Bill Carwile