This weekend plus mad scientist testing

Before I get to the mad scientist part of this post, I just wanted to let you all know that Julie will be pouring our wine for the Columbia Wine Festival’s Sip and Shop tomorrow at the Songbird Station (Ste C, 2010 Chapel Plaza Ct, 573-446-5941) from 11am-5pm.  Or until her wine supply runs out!  I’ll be at the grand tasting the following weekend.  Click here for more information about the Columbia Wine & Food Festival.

And now on to the mad scientist part of this post.  I thought I’d show one of the chemistry tests that Clyde has to run before he bottles wine.  This test measures the sulfite level in the wine which is a two-step process.  The picture above shows wine in the round beaker on the right of the stand.  He is bubbling air through the wine and the escaping gases are then run through tubing and into a chemical mixture of some type in the cylinder on the top left.

As you can see the liquid in the cylinder is purple right now.  Air is bubbled through for around 10 minutes and then the mixture in the cylinder is ready for stage two.

Here you see the cylinder has undergone a ‘titration’.  Which simply means that another chemical of some type is very slowly – drip by drip – dropped into the cylinder and stirred in until the color changes from purple to the teal color you see above.  Then, based on how much of the chemical was added to the cylinder, he calculates to find out the sulfur level.

I’m sure my highly technical write-up is full of errors, vagaries, fairy tales, and probably driving Clyde (along with you chemists out there) crazy.  Just check the comments in a day or so if you are chemistry oriented and want to know the real scoop here and I’m sure Clyde will be kind enough to let you know what I’ve glossed over or outright got wrong.

Have a great weekend, and be sure to stop by and say hi while you are in the area!  Cheers.