brewthunda

Recipes 

I'm thinking of trying my hand at making cider and I have a question about using sulfites to control wild yeast and to end fermentation. In all of the commercial bottled ciders I've tried (Wyder's for example), I have a real problem with the sulfur dioxide smell and taste that they all seem to have.

Are the commercial cider makers just using way to much sulfites? Or am I unusually sensitive to the stuff? You guys seem to say that you won't taste the sulfur when dosing in the 50ppm range . . but I can certainly taste it in the commercial stuff.

Note that I think I may be allergic to high levels of SO2 . . . . a whiff of a bag of dried apricots can give me asthma. I've never really looked into it further, just bought sulfur free apricots.

Thanks.

mibrewer

Recipes 

If you get an asthmatic reaction to sulfites then I wouldn't use any amount of metabisulphite. It's just not worth it. Just use excellent sanitation practices otherwise and make your cider.

As to ending fermentation I don't know, but perhaps fermenting the cider to dryness and then back sweetening with a non-fermentable sugar substitute would be your best bet.

Kauai_Kahuna

Recipes 

If you used pasteurized store bought apple juice with no preservatives, and pitch a healthy yeast batch that does not produce a lot of sulfers you should be fine. I would recommend make a 1 gal batch first just to test, everyone reacts differently so its better to find out its not good for you with a little less expense.
Best of luck.

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In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones.
In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white.
Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat.
On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider.
Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.