Looking at old wine and cider recipes, you might have seen something called campden, or campden tablets being used. But what are they and what do they do?

(Strap in for a bit of science speak for a second…) Used mostly in wine and cider making, campden is a sulfur based food sterilant/preserver. Small tablets are usually Potassium Metabisulfite, but sometimes can be found as Sodium Metabisulphite.

When mixed with plain old water or the juice you are using, the tablets release sulfur dioxide, a gas which proceeds to kill off bacterias and wild yeasts that may have gotten into your must. This is a good thing because our sugar liquids, be it grape must, apple juice, or even beer wort, are great places for those unwanted microbes and wild yeasts to try and take over. 

Campen (tablets or powder form) is also used in sanitizing our equipment, preventing oxidation, even removing chlorine from brewing water. Versatile stuff!

So how exactly do you use it? As mentioned it come in tablet or powder form. The tablets are great because they are the perfect measuring dose just crush them up before using,, but the powder is usually cheaper just more difficult in measuring small doses. The use process is pretty simple depending on what you are going to be going.

To sanitize your juice before adding yeast. The dosage is 1 crushed tablet per gallon (Thats ⅛ of a tsp per gallon if using the powder form) Just crush it up and stir it in. Thats it.. just make sure you wait 24 hours for it to off gas before pitching your yeast as usual.

(Sulpfur dioxide is a gas so it simply dissipates out. This allows us to now use our preferred yeast with nothing standing it its way.)

To prevent oxidation and stabilize wine. At racking time the dosage is the same as when sterilizing the must .. 1 tablet per gallon. And then again at bottling time 1 tablet per gallon. 

(a quick reminder,, if this a rather sweet wine or cider you may also consider using potassium sorbate at bottling as well to help stabilize)

Equipment sterilizing. This was the way things were done before the One-Steps and Starsans of today, It’s a bit (a lot) more work, but some still sanitize this way.. 

Here you want a stiffer mixture of 4 tablets to a quart of water. Put this quart in a bucket with the things you want sterilized and seal it up overnight. Remember its the gas thats doing the work not the water solution.

Pro tip: Just use Star San and save yourself the trouble.  

Getting rid of chlorine and chloramines in brewing water. Some city or municipal water has chlorine or chloromines added. This can lead to off flavors, but campden gets rid of it quick and easy.

Use 1 crushed tablet per 20 gallons. Just crush and stir into your water before mashing or otherwise using. Its almost instantaneous so no waiting overnight. 

Do take note that some people have reactions to sulphites in wines, but using the campden in the amounts above you will be within the standard sulphite threshold.

Campden tablets. A cheap, very common, often overlooked, but very useful insurance in your product.

Sources:

• Campden Tablets: What They Can And Can’t Do. – Wine Making and Beer Brewing Blog – Adventures in Homebrewing

• Campden Tablets: What Are They, Uses & How They Work (homebrewanswers.com)

• How to Use Campden Tablets – Midwest Supplies

• The Humble Campden Tablet – (How to use Campden for Homebrewing) – BrÜcrafter (brucrafter.com)