Best way to add Campden?

Hello brewers

I am working on a cider and I'd like to halt the fermentation to keep some of the sweetness intact. In a book I read, it mentioned that when racking to a secondary, all effort should be made to keep oxygen out. It mentions siphoning to the bottom of the carboy to keep the liquid from agitating and picking up extra oxygen.

I also read from another source that Campden tablets can be used to halt the fermentation process. If I were to crush up these tablets and add them to the liquid, would it work ok simply by pouring it into the container or should I mix it up? Would mixing it cause the cider to gather too much O2? Should I try to funnel it into the secondary carboy, or mix it into my primary, let it settle, then siphon?

Also I have a purely academic question. From what I understand, Campden tablets only prevent the reproduction of yeast but don't actually kill it? If this is the case then might it be a good idea to add Campden tablets to the cider before bottling it to prevent it from over-carbonating? I am looking to make a sweet lightly carbonated cider.

Sorry if this comes across as overly concerned, this is my first brew :cross:

Potassium sorbate is what stops yeast reproduction. Campden tablets prevent growth of other organisms besides yeast. Campden itself will not stop a fermentation, but Campden enhances the action of the sorbate, so use them together.

Thanks for the info!

Campden does work on wild yeasts as well...

What's the best way to add Campden for a secondary? Just crush it and mix it into the primary, let it settle for a while and siphon out to the secondary carboy?

Teromous said:

What's the best way to add Campden for a secondary? Just crush it and mix it into the primary, let it settle for a while and siphon out to the secondary carboy?

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You crush the tablets and dissolve them in a little water or cider. Add that to the new carboy, and siphon the liquid into it.

By the way, it's almost impossible to make a lightly sweetened carbonated cider using traditional ingredients and processes.

First, it's very difficult to stop a fermentation at a certain point and keep it there. It's like stopping a train. Secondly, if you do manage to stop it, the yeast will not then be able to work to carbonate the cider.

If you want a lightly sweetened, bottle carbed cider, you let the fermentation finish. It'll be a bit too dry, so you can then add some non-fermentable sweetener like lactose or splenda to sweeten to taste. Don't stir, or anything like that. You take samples of the cider, and mix up a simple syrup of water and sweetener, and then find the one you like. Then, take the SG of the sample, and sweeten it to just under that. (It seems to get sweeter in the bottle). So, if you like it at 1.010, you can sweeten the batch to 1.008, for example. You rack the cider gently into the sweetening solution. Then, you can prime it and bottle it, using a prescribed amount of fermentable sugar by racking it into that as well.