Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

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zkosslow
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Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby zkosslow » Mon Aug 15, 2016 11:41 pm

So I brewed a quick Berliner Weisse LoDO style...must've overdosed the SMB (or picked up substantially less oxygen than usual?) so I now have a sulfur bomb. Instead of just throwing this beer down the drain, I wanted to at least try to save it. So I kegged it tonight and started bubbling CO2 up through the beer through the beer out post. Figured I'd leave it at room temp and bubble it a few times per day to try and degas/vent it from the rotten egg farts of death (H2S). Has anyone else tried this?? Anyone think it will not work??
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Big Monk
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Re: Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby Big Monk » Tue Aug 16, 2016 4:34 am

When you say you "must have overdosed the SMB", what do you mean? A measurement error?
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zkosslow
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Re: Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby zkosslow » Tue Aug 16, 2016 7:06 am

Yeah, I think I just overdosed for the amount of brewing liquor I used. And it was a BIAB on my stovetop instead of in my rig with pumps and 3 vessels, etc. so I think I picked up much less oxygen and consumed much less of the SMB constituents responsible for scavenging oxygen.
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Big Monk
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Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby Big Monk » Tue Aug 16, 2016 7:14 am

You think? Matts charts linked below will be helpful next time:

LODO Sodium Metabisulfite Dosage Spreadsheet

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url=ht ... are_type=t
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

"Messieurs, c’est les microbes qui auront le dernier mot." Louis Pasteur

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zkosslow
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Re: Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby zkosslow » Tue Aug 16, 2016 10:44 am

Ok so this seems to be going off on a tangent from my original question about bubbling CO2 up through the beer as an H2S removal method.

I know that I dosed 3.5 gal of strike water (1 gal jugs of distilled water poured into my kettle on my stove top) with 3 SMB tablets (my package says 550 mg of SMB per tablet but the end weight of 3 ground tablets was 1800 mg, assuming its just filler as the LoDO paper alludes to). This is based off the following thought process: 100 mg/L = 378.54 mg/gal....3.5 gal * 378.54 mg/gal = 1324.89 mg / 550 mg = ~2.4 tablets. Still being pretty damned new to LoDO brewing with SMB...I just said, I'll round up to 3 tablets to be "safe".

The reason I think I overdosed is 1.) I rounded up from 2.4 to 3 tablets, 2.) I most likely didn't pickup anywhere near the oxygen that I do when I'm brewing out on my rig with 2 pumps and 3 vessels, etc.....For Reason #2, I thought this because my naive understanding of LoDO brewing and using SMB is that the SMB constituents (I'm assuming the sulfites) are what scavenge the dissolved oxygen and if there's no oxygen to scavenge, those sulfur compound remain in the wort and doesn't react with anything.
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Brody
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Re: Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby Brody » Tue Aug 16, 2016 11:41 am

I have an APA kegged up now with the same issue (100ppm dose).

Typically this seems to lager out after some time with my Helles' but I'm noticing sulfur lingering in an APA I have on tap now... all Citra and Sulfur. I thought about degassing but don't want to lose my dry hops so I may let it sit.

It seems to me that the touch of sulfur compliments a lager very well but not as much an ale. I think I'm going to cut down the SMS in my ales to 50ppm or so next.

I'd either give your idea a shot or give it time.
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narcout
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Re: Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby narcout » Tue Aug 16, 2016 12:31 pm

I know it's antithetical to lodo brewing, but I've heard brief contact with copper works well to reduce excess sulfur. It might be something to consider if the beer is otherwise undrinkable.

You could try stirring a glass of the beer with a piece of copper tubing and see how it goes.
zkosslow
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Re: Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby zkosslow » Tue Aug 16, 2016 1:01 pm

Brody - yeah I think you're in a bit stickier of a situation than I with a hop-forward beer. My beer is far from a "touch of sulfur"...it is an absolute sulfur bomb! But I agree with you, I think I'll be at least dialing back my SMB additions to 50 mg/L until I really get a hold of LoDO brewing on my system and a DO meter.

narcout - Ha yeah I read about that too! I left it out of my original post as I figured a number of people on here would be having conniptions! That is certainly an option but I'd prefer to stay away from that if I could.
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Re: Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby Brandon » Tue Aug 16, 2016 9:01 pm

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Brody
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Re: Bubbling CO2 as Sulfur-removing Method?

Postby Brody » Tue Aug 16, 2016 10:21 pm


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