Sulfating wine at home: what it is and how to make a sulfur wick with your own hands

Doing home winemaking is interesting and exciting. For the production of wines, special grape varieties are used, certain technological processes are followed. To improve the quality of the product, wine is sulphited at home with sulfur dioxide. The agent in certain quantities can be added directly to wine or pulp, juice.

What is sulfitation?

First of all, the addition of sulfur preparations to the wine product is used to kill foreign bacteria. Thanks to the procedure, several more problems can be solved:

• you can stop the fermentation process;
• prevent various diseases of the wine product (yeast turbidity, flowering, bacterial fermentation);
• Deactivation enzymes that destroy the original color of the wine, its taste and peculiar aroma are deactivated.

Sulfation is a common procedure. Sulfur preparations are completely harmless, often used to preserve fruit purees for children. Experienced winemakers recommend the use of sulfur dioxide, since the effectiveness of other types of preservatives is much worse.

How to sulphate wine at home

For the procedure, branded drugs sold in specialized stores are used. Moreover, the substances are not simply poured into the wine product, since they are poorly soluble in an acidic environment and will quickly evaporate when the liquid is stirred. First, the required amount of the product is diluted in a glass of ordinary water, and then the solution is poured into the product to be processed.

Recommended doses of sulfur preparations, taking into account the type of initial product, are shown in the table:

Wort affected by gray mold200 Heated pulp When laying liqueur wines for a long storage period

Type of processed product	Dosage (mg/liter)
He althy grape must	120
100
80

A simple solution is to fumigate the containers with sulfur using a special long-handled ladle-spoon (lighter). The procedure for burning sulfur is carried out in stages:

1. The drug is placed in a litter box, set on fire and quickly lowered into a container, covering the neck of the dish with a lid.
2. As soon as the drug burns out, the lighter is pulled out, and the container is tightly closed with a lid.
3. The processed wine product is quickly poured into a container and hermetically sealed.

When burning sulfur, metal containers cannot be used - glass, wooden or enameled dishes are used. For the treatment of vessels, you can use special sulfur strips - wicks.

How to make DIY sulfur wick for winemaking

If there are no branded strips soaked in sulfur, you can make a special wick yourself, at home:

• cut paper strips 30 cm long, 3-4 cm wide;
• sulfur is poured into a container and heated until it turns into a liquid;
• paper strips are dipped in liquid and hung to dry.

Wicks are stored in a glass, hermetically sealed container. The procedure is carried out outdoors. Safety precautions involve the use of protective rubber gloves, masks, tweezers.At the end of the production of the strips, be sure to wash your face and wash your hands with soap.

The requirement of sulfitation is to maintain the correct dosage. Since a small amount of sulfur preparations will not produce the desired effect, and an excessive dose can give a bitter aftertaste to the finished wine product.

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