Using Campden tablets to clean water and sanitise brewing equipment. These tablets can be used to remove added chlorine from your water, to kill bacteria on brewing equipment, and to protect your beer by preventing unwanted foreign bacteria fermenting in your beer. Campden tablets are basically potassium metabisulfite or sodium metabisulfite. When added to the beer or even cider or wine, they instantly react with the chlorine or chloramine , removing it from the water solution.
All this is done without adding any unwanted flavours to your water or beer. How many Campden tablets should I use? If using for sterilization of equipment, use 16 tablets to one gallon If removing chlorine from water, half a tablet to 5 or 6 gallons will break it down in less than 10 minutes.
If stabilizing apple juice when making cider to kill off wild yeast, deploy one crushed tablet per gallon of juice. You should wait for approximately 24 hours before you pitch your yeast. If trying to stave off an infection in cider or wine, then 1 or 2 smashed up tablets dissolved in your product, rack if you need. You will then probably want to bottle your cider asap and hope the tablets can overtake the infection.
This trick may or may not work. Producers of cider know full well that a batch of juiced apples can easily succumb to acetobacter bacteria contamination which causes the classic turn-to-vinegar spoilage of the apples.
Yeast is resistant to the tablets but the acetobacter is easily killed off, hence treatment with an agent like a Campden tablet is important in cider production. Why are campden tablets used with wine? In addition to preventing stray bacteria talking hold of a homemade wine, Campden tablets can also be utilised as an anti-oxidizing agent when transferring wine between containers.
The sodium metabisulfite in the Campden tablets will trap oxygen that enters the wine, preventing it from doing any harm. Campden tablets are one of 2 chemicals, either sodium or potassium metabisulfite which have unique attributes useful to the brewer.
Firstly they are used to sanitise wine musts and juices as well as equipment but can also be used during racking as both a measure to prevent bacteria from spoiling the wine and also as an antioxidant to keep air from staling the wine. Along with this, they can be used in removing chlorine or chloramine from water sources which is particularly useful to beer makers. Chlorine in water reacts with compounds in malted barley and can create unpleasant off flavours. Dissolving a crusheCampdenen tablet in up to 20 litres or 5 gallons of water is an effective way to reduce the chlorine to negligible levels.
Campden tablets are a sulphur based compound and made of either sodium or potassium metabisulfite, but most frequently are potassium metabisulfite.
Their usage in simple terms is to add sulfites to a solution to either kill undesirable microbes, stabilise and prevent oxidation or to remove chlorine from solution.
Brewers are able to buy Campden tablet, sodium metabisulfite and potassium metabisulfite and all three have the exact same usage and end result. Campden tablets can be either potassium or sodium metabisulfite in a tablet form making it very simple to measure a dosage.
Look on the package for whether the tablets are potassium or sodium metabisulfite. Both of these additives do the exact same thing. The only difference between sodium metabisulfite and potassium metabisulfite is that they will leave a residual trace of either sodium or potassium.
Some brewers prefer potassium metabisulfite as they deem it to have a more neutral flavour, the amounts being used however are very small so I tend not to worry. Potassium metabisulfite dissolves in water and creates sulphur dioxide and sulfites. These compounds have antioxidant properties and sulphur dioxide is widely used in the food and beverage industry as an antimicrobial treatment. Treating Juices and Must for Wine Making : Metabisulfite is a really simple way to sanitise fruit for wine making.
Of course, fruit that grows outside is covered in wild yeasts and bacteria and particularly for hedgerow or country wines we need to ensure these bacteria and wild yeast are minimised before adding our own preferred yeast strain although it is common for some grape wine makers to use the wild yeast for a spontaneous fermentation.
The way in which you treat a must with Campden is simple. A Campden tablet is crushed and dissolved into the must and stirred thoroughly. The Campden tablet is added and then you will need to wait at least 24 hours before adding your yeast otherwise the metabisulfite will greatly inhibit the yeast stalling fermentation. The typical dosage for treating the must before fermentation is a rate of 1 tablet per gallon or 5 litres of wine.
Preventing Oxidation After Racking : Once the wine has fully fermented out and begun to settle it is around this time we would want to rack the wine to a demijohn or carboy to condition and clear. During racking we run the risk of introducing oxygen and air into the wine, this can arise from splashing and exposure to the air whilst the transfer or syphoning is happening. To combat this issue we can simply add one Campden tablet per gallon which binds to any oxygen in the wine effectively removing it and preventing oxidation.
Oxidation is bad for almost any home brew and will affect the flavour and colour of the wine turning it an unappealing shade of brown in both red and white wines. Removing Chlorine From Brewing Water : All tap water you use to either brewing beer or make wine will have some form of chlorine or chloramine in it. Adding half a Campden tablet for every 5 gallons or 20 litres of water will remove chlorine or chloramine present. The potassium metabisulfite reacts with the chlorine to break it down into chloride, sulfate, and ammonia which are not going to add undesirable flavour compounds to your home brew and in some cases are beneficial.
As a Sanitising Solution For Equipment : Potassium metabisulfite can be used as a sanitising solution although it is more cost effective if you buy powdered potassium metabisulfite. Which one to use? Use a sanitized bamboo whip or a stainless steel fork to beat the powder into the water.
It may take a few minutes, but it will all dissolve if you work at it. This cools down the water quite a bit. When dissolved, use a wine thief or siphon tube to draw off a cup or so of wine and mix this with the sulfited water.
This sometimes causes small lumps to form, so whip the mixture a little more and then pour it into the receiving jug or carboy.
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