Fermentation after k-meta/sorbate

I'm making a 5 gallon batch of EdWort's Apfelwein (my first homebrew) and I wanted to try an experiment so I siphoned off a gallon into a PETE water bottle I bought.

Before siphoning, I sterilized everything, added a 1/2 tsp of potassium sorbate and a crushed campden tablet as well as a can of concentrated cranberry juice simmered with 1/2 tsp apple pie spice to the bottle, and siphoned the apfelwein on top.

I put it in the fridge to settle and have been venting the builtup gas every couple hours. Today (2 days later) I noticed that the bottle was very firm so I loosened the cap slowly to vent. The cap literally exploded off the bottle (and hit me in the face). I quickly covered the opening with a sterilized inverted measuring cup, adapted the cap for a airlock, sterilized everything again, and put it back on. It's been bubbling about every 3 seconds since then. The gas emitted smells like CO2 and yeast, nothing nasty.

I was under the impression that campden + sorbate should kill the yeasties. Is this builtup CO2 that's just offgassing or is there fermentation going on? Should I kill it again?

Or should I relax?

First of all, you didn't kill the yeast. What sorbate and campden do is inhibit reproduction of the yeast. Once fermentation is completely over, you can add the sorbate and campden. One campden tablet per gallon, and 1/2 tsp of sorbate per gallon. Dissolve that in some boiling water (1/4 cup or so) and then add it to the receiving carboy. Then rack the cider/wine into it.

Wait a couple of days, to ensure that it's add some time to sit. Then, you can sweeten to taste.

Adding them together won't work, as you've found out. Also, now that fermentation has restarted, you'll have to wait until it's finished and try again. Adding more now won't stop fermentation once it gets going.

Ah. Thanks! I was going off a few posts that said to rack onto the sweeteners at the same time as the campden and sorbate. I'll wait for it to finish (only took 5 days for the 5 gallons to go from 1.065 to 1.000) and hopefully some of the flavors remain. It's for Thanksgiving so I'm in no hurry.

On a side note, a lot of the additives recommend boiling in small amounts of water (1/2 cup, 1 cup). What do you use for boiling those? A regular saucepan seems way too big. I'm considering getting a hot/stirplate and some labware.

IrritableGourmet said:

Ah. Thanks! I was going off a few posts that said to rack onto the sweeteners at the same time as the campden and sorbate. I'll wait for it to finish (only took 5 days for the 5 gallons to go from 1.065 to 1.000) and hopefully some of the flavors remain. It's for Thanksgiving so I'm in no hurry.

On a side note, a lot of the additives recommend boiling in small amounts of water (1/2 cup, 1 cup). What do you use for boiling those? A regular saucepan seems way too big. I'm considering getting a hot/stirplate and some labware.

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I have a little tiny saucepan that holds about 2 cups so that's what I use. You can boil the water in the microwave, too, and add the chemicals to that. A 2 cup pyrex works great!

YooperBrew said:

I have a little tiny saucepan that holds about 2 cups so that's what I use. You can boil the water in the microwave, too, and add the chemicals to that. A 2 cup pyrex works great!

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I've got a few 1 pint canning jars left over. I'll see if they work. Thanks again!