Potassium sorbate

I am making some cider, and I would like to backsweeten it,
the guy at my lhbs, he wasnt to helpful other then telling me that i need potassium sorbate.

does potassium sorbate kill yeast?

im hoping to stir in some potassium sorbate and in a few days rack the cider out to be back sweetened.

any advice on this would be great,


thanks in advance,

The combination of potassium sorbate and potassium sulfite (campden tablets) will prevent renewed fermentation and allow for back-sweetening.
Add 1 campden tablet and 1/2 tsp sorbate per gallon on finished cider, wine or mead dissolved in a small amount of water or product. Once treated you can back sweeten. I usually leave wait to sweeten until 1 or 2 days after treating. And you should wait a week or two after treating before bottling to prevent any sulphur smells.

Craig

If fermentation is done then you can transfer to secondary, add potassium sorbate and potassium metisulfate to stop the yeast. Then you'll want to wait a few days to let that dissapate and backsweeten, I know Yooper is the one in the know on this stuff.

i only got the potassium sorbate, so it looks like i need to get some campden tablets too

ill rack it to secondary in the meantime.

I put mine in secondary for like 30 days & cold crashed it.

CBBaron said:

The combination of potassium sorbate and potassium sulfite (campden tablets) will prevent renewed fermentation and allow for back-sweetening.
Add 1 campden tablet and 1/2 tsp sorbate per gallon on finished cider, wine or mead dissolved in a small amount of water or product. Once treated you can back sweeten. I usually leave wait to sweeten until 1 or 2 days after treating. And you should wait a week or two after treating before bottling to prevent any sulphur smells.

Craig

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I racked to secondary... And added potassium sorbate yesterday, I am planning on adding the campden tablets tonight 1 per 1/2 oz of PS.

I will give it sone time then backsweaten. I an making a cran-lemonale but not it is super dry and sour.

Thanks

do i need both or just potassium sorbate. im making a mead its 3 months in right now

IF you put potassium sorbate and sulphite into the cider, you will be unable to achieve natural carbonation to make it sparkling.

Patience is the key here if you make cider in cool temperatures (16-17 celcius or even a bit lower) during late autumn and winter as per tradition, the flavour will be better due to less fusel alcohol production. The cider will come bright (clear) after several months and you can rack it without needing any sulphite. If you want sweeter cider you can add Potassium sorbate. however if you want a sparkling cider as opposed to a traditional UK west country farm cider (acid, milky and still). You can add sugar syrup to 10 g/l when bottling and this will give you a sparkling cider. Try to avoid sulphite, it ruins your drinks. The alternative is good hygienic practice (or pasteurisation if you must) If you want a light sweet sparkling cider follow the french practice of Keeving (a bit involved for the beginner) and bottle just before teh fermentation has stopped. The low nitrogen will give you a small yeast load and so teh cider will carry on slowly fermenting in teh bottle but remain sweet (a bit like a late stage stuck fermentation). This type of cider is really nice. If you realy want to be professional, put it in amateur champagne bottles and remove the little bit of yeast left by "remouage". Enjoy

Is potassium sorbate sufficient to kill yeast in the cider before I back sweeten it for kegging? What will the Campden do? Or if I skip Campden will I be in trouble?

levon15 said:

Is potassium sorbate sufficient to kill yeast in the cider before I back sweeten it for kegging? What will the Campden do? Or if I skip Campden will I be in trouble?

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Add both, after racking of the lees. Neither will kill yeast, but with a reduced population they will inhibit further fermentation.

The lees?

levon15 said:

The lees?

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The stuff that drops to the bottom as the cider clears and ferments. Once the cider stops dropping lees, and is clear, it can be racked off of the lees and then stabilized.

If there are still lees present, or the cider is cloudy, sorbate won't "work" as there are still plenty of yeast in suspension or on the bottom. Once the cider is removed from as much yeast as possible, and no lees are present, the sorbate probably will inhibit new fermentation.

But I need the sorbate and the Campden, will just sorbate do the job?

levon15 said:

But I need the sorbate and the Campden, will just sorbate do the job?

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Sorbate might do the job, but it works much better in the presence of sulfite (campden), so you should add both.

How long do I let it set before back sweetening?

levon15 said:

How long do I let it set before back sweetening?

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A few days after stabilizing should do it! Just make sure it doesn't cloud up again, and stays perfectly clear before sweetening.

So if i rack it to my keg, add the campden and potassium sorbate I just need to wait a few days to backsweeten? Making sure its not cloudy first? Seeing if its cloudy by sample out of the keg I suppose?

Ok, I'm going to jump into this with another question (i have 5 gallons of cider in primary) After back-sweetening, could I use priming sugar to carbonate similar to a beer? If I use treat the cider to "crash" the yeast, will it wake up to carbonate in a bottle? Should I pasteurize after all of this? Sorry for jumping in!

diptherunner said:

Ok, I'm going to jump into this with another question (i have 5 gallons of cider in primary) After back-sweetening, could I use priming sugar to carbonate similar to a beer? If I use treat the cider to "crash" the yeast, will it wake up to carbonate in a bottle? Should I pasteurize after all of this? Sorry for jumping in!

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No. Sorbate inhibits yeast production, so if you use it, you can't carbonate it. If you don't use sorbate, you can try pasteurizing the cider once it carbs up. (See the sticky for how-to).

for the person kegging, if you used a yeast that is inactive at fridge temps (like an ale yeast; with s04 and s05 this works great) you can often get away with just sweetening and whacking it in the kegerator. unless you are leaving it there for years i guess, since there will be some tiny level of yeast activity still, but my draught ciders tend to go pretty quickly. i still wait until it's clear, by cold crashing if possible, as i don't like bready tasting cider. with wild yeast , champagne yeast, etc. i wouldn't try it. if you do this, just remember that if you bottle some from the keg, those are very likely to resume fermenting at room temp, and possibly explode. ie not a very nice christmas gift

I am also needing some guidance with my cider. The recipe I am following calls for cold crashing for 2 days after wracking from my secondary which i had added berries to. After 2 days of cold crashing it calls for K sorbate (2.5 tsp) and K metabisulfite (2.5 tsp). Then to keg, back-sweeten and force carb. So can I add both potassiums at same time or do I need to wait between the two and then also wait to back-sweeten and keg? If I do need to wait do I just keep the cider in the fridge since it was already cold crashing? If I already cold crashed and plan on back-sweetening in the keg (which I'm sure will be drunk within a months time), do I STILL need to ad both potassiums?? Help