sodium or potassium met?

[robbo79]

Hi guys, which one do you use and why? is there any reall benefit of using one over the other?

[Cellar_Rat]

Pot met is much better. Lower in salt (sodium). The commercial choice. Imporves your wine. Does give that hmm homebrew taste/smell

[lockwood1956]

sodium metra is about 8-13% stronger

[SiSandrine]

Potassium Meta is also generally more expensive unless you can buy in massive quantities so generally for adding to wine in order to produce SO2 we use Potassium Meta. For sanitation, keeping fermenting vessels fresh, rinsing bottles many of us use Sodium Meta.

[Canonmillbilly]

Does give that hmm homebrew taste/smell

Is that a good thing??

[SiSandrine]

I think (hope) he means the opposite i.e (Pot Meta) Does not give that homebrew smell/feel. That said it would have to be an excellent palate indeed that picked up the difference at 50ppm. I thought it would be about 150-200ppm before most humans are able to detect So2 in wine.

[Canonmillbilly]

I think (hope) he means the opposite

I though so too, but I'm new here and didn't want to call the man into question

[lockwood1956]

I thought it would be about 150-200ppm before most humans are able to detect So2 in wine.

that is the normal threshold yes

I am quite sensitive to it and get it at just under 100ppm


Brian has super sniffing powers!

[lockwood1956]

(he was born next to a pile of Cryptonite)

[SiSandrine]

That explains (quite a lot).

[Leon]

Does anybody know of any harmfull effects of ingesting too much Sodium meta? I'm not sure how I managed it, but one of my wines tasted quite distinctly of it, it tingled all the way down. I do only have one bottle left of the six, so perhaps its a little late to question it. Don't ask me how many ppm there were? It was quite noticable; perhaps it'll act like some sort of colonic irrigation, or colonic sanitation.

[Cellar_Rat]

Is that a good thing??

Having reread I can see the confusion. When I wrote " Does give that hmm homebrew taste/smell" I was referring to campden tablets (sodium met).
Which I can easily detect - perhaps they give a 'good dose'

[Cellar_Rat]

Does anybody know of any harmfull effects of ingesting too much Sodium meta? I'm not sure how I managed it, but one of my wines tasted quite distinctly of it, it tingled all the way down. I do only have one bottle left of the six, so perhaps its a little late to question it. Don't ask me how many ppm there were? It was quite noticable; perhaps it'll act like some sort of colonic irrigation, or colonic sanitation.

hello - are you still there ?

The affects of sulphite allergy I guess would be similar - my mates wife suffers quite badly.
Sulphites can also cause a variety of different symptoms and it is little understood at the moment.
SO2 gas irritates of the airways (watch out asthmatics) other symptoms include rashes (including urticaria - nettlerash), itching skin, swelling of lips, eyes, mouth or throat (angioedema), burning mouth, abdominal pain, even diarrhoea (colonic irritaton ) (sorry sorry sorry)

[rjb222]

There is something I believe should be noted in this thread. That is Sulfite dissipates over time and though agitation. So if you bottle at about 50ppm which is common for kit wines in a couple of years you will be down to about 25ppm. Pour this back and forth a few times and let your wine sit for an hour and you will significantly drop in free SO2. That is not to say there is no SO2 present at that time but O2 will replace the SO2 that is moved off through the agitation there by opening your wine to better flavor and aroma displayed at the time of consumption. The aeraters that are available actually do a very good job of this. I have also seen where some one has made a wine and over stirred a kit wine at clearing time and oxidized the wine before it even gets into the bottle. I guess what I am getting at is do not allow the fear of sulfite stop you from protecting your wine with it. When used properly with the right serving techniques even some one how has a tolerance issue to it can consume the wine with out a problem.