Chlorine in the water...

[shadow47]

Hi, A kit wine I've bought tells me to leave a demijohn with water in it overnight to allow Chlorine to dissipate as it can effect the yeasts growth or something, it also says you can use boiled and then cooled water as this will also dechlorinate (Which i can't be bothered with).

I was going to make this kit last week but I never got around to it so the waters been sitting in the demijohn for a week with no airlock, pretty sure it's not good to use that. Would I be right?

Does it really make a difference because I've always used chlorinated water and have never really had any problems. These are expensive kits though, would it be OK to use bottled water? (is it completely germ free).

 

[prolix]

Shadow, in a demijohn a tiny bit of meta bisulphate will do the job in minutes. I use 1/2 a crushed campden tablet in 5 gallons so a tenth of one would be fine in a demijohn and that gets rid of choroamines as well (some water boards have started using this as more stable than chlorine).

I personally would not use that water and bottled water can be used but rather expensive and I would still boil it to be sure.

Chlorinated water effects some and not others not sure why, I have had batches of TCP tasting beer so I always remove it now as pouring stuff down the sink, that could have been drunk, is a painful way to learn a lesson.

 

[Aleman]

Wines do not really suffer the same problems that beer does, with regard to chlorine . . .ie there are no phenols to react with the chlorine to form TCP. I think its going to be a long time before kit manufacturers catch up with the idea of using sulphite to dissipate chlorine, as most seem to recommend standing overnight or boiling as good methods . . . although research has shown that neither is particularly effective. (Standing requires around 36hours to reduce the chlorine by half and boiling around 90 minutes, sulphite is more or less instantaneous.)

Personally I would add a crushed campden tablet to a demijohn then put a pint of water in there. shake until its dissolved, tip the water out (don't worry about getting it all out), and then filling with water from the tap. The sulphite that was left in the 'rinse' water will be more than enough to remove the chlorine.

 

[shadow47]

Thanks for the replies! I'll be using the Sodium Metabisulphate method next time rather than buying bottled water, what a waste of money that is, probably comes from the same reservoir as tap water haha.