Trying to ferment a juice high in potassium

I have black cherry juice that is all natural, no preservatives and no artificial flavors.
It has 10 mg of sodium, 550 mg of potassium and 25 g of sugar...
I can ferment this, correct?
Or is that too much potassium? I heard that potassium or potassium sorbate can make yeast sterile? Is that true or am I just off to a slow start with my fermentation?

I may be just worrying for nothing, it has not even been in the carboy 24 hours yet

BadgerBrigade said:

I have black cherry juice that is all natural, no preservatives and no artificial flavors.
It has 10 mg of sodium, 550 mg of potassium and 25 g of sugar...
I can ferment this, correct?
Or is that too much potassium? I heard that potassium or potassium sorbate can make yeast sterile? Is that true or am I just off to a slow start with my fermentation?

I may be just worrying for nothing, it has not even been in the carboy 24 hours yet

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It's not potassium that interferes with fermentation- it's sorbate or benzoate (preservatives).

Yooper said:

It's not potassium that interferes with fermentation- it's sorbate or benzoate (preservatives).

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It's been just about 24 hours now that I think about it and I have not seen any activity or any of the white foam forming on the top of the liquid yet?
I think the juice is about 62° and I used Lalvin D 47 yeast? Why is nothing happening yet?

(I even pitched a little more yeast about 30 minutes ago and I still see no activity?)

The gravity reading was very high when I checked last night: 1.092

Does this all sound okay or did I do something wrong?
How long is a very long case for yeast to take off?
If it has not taken off in 24 hours am I safe to assume something is wrong?

BadgerBrigade said:

It's been just about 24 hours now that I think about it and I have not seen any activity or any of the white foam forming on the top of the liquid yet?
I think the juice is about 62° and I used Lalvin D 47 yeast? Why is nothing happening yet?

(I even pitched a little more yeast about 30 minutes ago and I still see no activity?)

The gravity reading was very high when I checked last night: 1.092

Does this all sound okay or did I do something wrong?
How long is a very long case for yeast to take off?
If it has not taken off in 24 hours am I safe to assume something is wrong?

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Walk away for at least 36 hours! If you want to do something, sanitize a spoon and stir it up. Then cover it back up and walk away. It's way too early at 62 degrees to worry.

Yooper said:

Walk away for at least 36 hours! If you want to do something, sanitize a spoon and stir it up. Then cover it back up and walk away. It's way too early at 62 degrees to worry.

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Thank you much! I will quit staring at it.... Lol
Sitting here and trying to watch it ferment is tiring

So, this has sparked my curiosity for future fermentations.... If something does not ferment I would guess that would mean the yeast is bad.... But what other kinds of issues would there be if you do not see fermentation in certain batches ?



*Bad yeast
*too cold?
*Preservatives
*What about vitamin C?

Any others?
(Trying to learn and become less a noobie)

Too low pH. Too high OG, but 1.092 is well within range of d47. Water chemistry can be important as well.

snuesen said:

Too low pH. Too high OG, but 1.092 is well within range of d47. Water chemistry can be important as well.

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So tell about pH...? Isn't this acid level?
So if I'm correct and if this is acid what would you do to fix that if anything?
Also how do you know if it's too high? Is that what some of the other numbers on my hydrometer are or do I need a separate type of measurement tool

Also, what about OG?
When u say too high , that's too much sugar, right... So how is that a negative? I thought the yeast eats up all the sugar?

Learn me..... Lol

It is similar to acidity but not the same. Acidity is a measurement of malic, tartaric, and/or citric acid.
pH is basically a measurement of overall ionic concentration in a solution. If it's too low (under 3.2) you may have problems fermenting anything. Honey is acidic and when you add, say, oranges to a jaom you need to be careful that it doesn't drop too low.
You can either use pH test strips or a digital pH meter to test this.

Too high OG and your yeast will be shocked and die or lose ability to create ethanol (think wrinkly fingers in dish water). As a single celled organism, it's extremely sensitive to its surroundings. An og of 1.120 for a wine yeast = ok. An og of 1.200 = probably not ok

The carbonation that yeast give off during fermentation also lowers pH unless it is degassed, which makes it a prime candidate for causing stalled fermentations. If it's too low and you can't raise it by getting rid of the co2, you can add calcium carbonate (or potassium carbonate if it's done
fermenting) at a rate of 1/2 tsp per gallon (this also will lower acidity)

Patience. I've had some fermentations take several days to start.

BoomerCreek said:

Patience. I've had some fermentations take several days to start.

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Yes, it started already
It started at 1.092 so I'm gonna try to stop it at 1.025 or 1.030 so I can get it to around 8.2 to 8.8 ABV.
If I bottle and let the yeast eat a little of the left over sugar and then stovetop pasteurize how much alcohol by volume will be left? What I mean to say is if my brew is 8.2 ABV in the bottling bucket, What will it be after a week in the bottle of yeast eating sugar to make the carbonation?
Will it drop just a fraction and will I be left with 8.1 ABV? Or is the amount considerable... Like leaving me with 7.2 ABV?

When you bottle, it only has to drop 4 gravity points to achieve average carbonation. That may not take a week. If it's over-carbed you will NOT be able to stovetop pasteurize safely. Bottle some in plastic and keep a regular eye on it.

To answer the question, if you bottle at say 1.025 and you pasteurized at 1.020 you would be at 9.4%. Remember that co2 is a byproduct of ethanol production, the yeast are still making alcohol and the abv is never gonna get lower unless you dilute the solution.

snuesen said:

When you bottle, it only has to drop 4 gravity points to achieve average carbonation. That may not take a week. If it's over-carbed you will NOT be able to stovetop pasteurize safely. Bottle some in plastic and keep a regular eye on it.

To answer the question, if you bottle at say 1.025 and you pasteurized at 1.020 you would be at 9.4%. Remember that co2 is a byproduct of ethanol production, the yeast are still making alcohol and the abv is never gonna get lower unless you dilute the solution.

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How would I know if its over-carbed? I was just going to try one every other day...

When you bottle, fill and empty soda bottle. Once it gets nice and hard from the pressure build up, your good to go on stove top pasteurization. Just to be sure, crack open the soda bottle and make sure it's not a gusher. If its a gusher, too late to stove top pasteurize unless you open and recap all the bottles.

I'd also suggest getting a book that goes into brewing/wine making. Way easier to gain knowledge then to try and get all your info from a forum.