Damn... Sodium Benzonate..

So the other day i was at wally world checking out and i noticed they had some dork corn syrup on clearance for 1$ for 32 oz, and i think wow that seems like it would go great for my caramel apple cider, i google is corn syrup fermentable all that good stuff but neglected to check the ingredients and see they contained sodium benzonate. i whip up 10 gallons and throw a few bottles in with some brown sugar wait 3-4 days with no airlock activity.

Being my 3rd batch i trust my instincts of wait 72 hours and nothing so i get suspicious open them up and see a still surface and find the culprit is the corn syrup.

Am i totally boned now? i read on another thread that i might be able to rack the sweetened wort onto a yeast cake from a clean batch and it will ferment? Can anyone attest to this? that or make a HUGE starter and pitch it??

I wonder how much preservative it actually has in there? There's no telling if a big starter will work or not considering they may have put enough chem in the syrup to embalm it. I would definitely pitch a big starter as soon as possible. I'd hate to see 10 gallons go down the drain.

Occording to my very quick research, the bonzoate gets absorbed into cells and inhibits anaerobic fermentation. So....could you pitch enough cells to over come this? Maybe...

So im going to pitch it with a nottingham yeast cake, should i rack on the compacted cake or make a slurry to pitch into cider?

I'd just dump some juice onto the cake, stir it up and then rack on top. You want to make sure as much of that cake gets into suspension as possible. If you are worried about using a 'dirty' fermenter...then yes...make a slurry and pitch into your existing vessel.

Pickled_Pepper said:

I'd just dump some juice onto the cake, stir it up and then rack on top. You want to make sure as much of that cake gets into suspension as possible. If you are worried about using a 'dirty' fermenter...then yes...make a slurry and pitch into your existing vessel.

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k, would there be any benefit to putting 1/2 gal of juice on the cake, stir it up and let the yeast start to ferment for a day? kind or re-wakening them? i bought some yeast energizer too..

A few years ago I read about someone else who had this problem (and it is burried in the forums). He said he overcame the preservative with more yeast. I don't know how much more.

This makes some sense as the preservative probably gets inside the active cells kills them and doesn't come back out. So if you have enough to kill 2 packets of yeast, the 3rd will ferment it. For the record, I don't remember how much extra yeast it took him to over come the effect of the preseravtive, just that he could.

So can it be done? yes. how to do it I think has been answered above.

Sure. It couldn't hurt to create a super starter. The more the better. Just keep your sanitation process pristine throughout the whole process.

I would use the existing yeast cake, give it a bit of a head start with juice, and stir it up to mix with everything. Hope it works! Let us know.

As long as it is a existing yeast cake from a non preserved batch.

Good point AC...don't wash and save the yeast from this batch to use again

Pickled_Pepper said:

Good point AC...don't wash and save the yeast from this batch to use again

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+1

Yes that's a good point. This is the last ferment for these guys! (Insert Prince's 'party like it's 1999' song here)

So in a panic i made a little starter and thought i'd try that rather than a yeast cake, 1000ml i let eat some AJ for a few days, then i split it between the two buckets, one took off the other didnt, so I'm less paranoid about losing the batch altogether. Will just have to wait for a clean yeast cake to rack onto.

Glad to hear at least one took off! You might even consider a whole 1000ml starter in the other one and see if that works. (or wait for a cake )

Good to hear! More yeast is the answer! I'll try to keep that in mind in the future.