campden tablets in cider

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joeydisasteroid

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Hullo, So I was at the brew shop today and was talking to the guy about a cider that I have been brewing. I use organic cider and then just throw the yeast in there and let it do its thing. I expressed desire to get it a little bit sweeter and he recommended campden tablets. I got home and poured the cider in there and then threw two tablets (the ammount he said) in and then pitched the yeast. Was that correct or did I make a boo boo?
 
Boo boo, your yeast is probably dead now. You throw the campden in when you want to stop the yeast and leave residual sweetness in. Usually it's easier to throw an unfermentable in there after the fact, like lactose, or even splenda.
 
crap, thats what I thought. Would it do any good to throw more yeast in there or should I just toss the batch? I hate learning curves.
 
After 24 hours you should be good to add yeast depending on how many tablets you added. The usual rate is 1 tablet per gallon. The good news is that your "juice" is now free of any bacteria, fungi, wild yeast, etc...
 
Depends on how many gallons of juice you added them to. If you added two tabs to one gallon of juice then I'd wait 48 hours.
 
What yeast are you using? That can have a big impact on the sweetness too. I would avoid the champagne strains and go with either the cider strain, an ale yeast or Red Stars Cote de Blanc. You will likely still need to backsweeten like wyzazz suggests or I keg mine then will add a bit of store cider to sweeten a touch, both methods work great.
 
usually when you use campden is after the cider has fermented to a flavor you like. you throw in the campden and it stops fermentation then you can force carb in a keg.
 
Tinga said:
usually when you use campden is after the cider has fermented to a flavor you like. you throw in the campden and it stops fermentation then you can force carb in a keg.
Click to expand...

Sorry to be nitpicky, but campden does NOT kill wine or ale yeast. Wine yeast is tolerant of sulfites, that's why they're used in winemaking and cider making.

Everyone seems to say campden does kill yeast, but in the amount you'd need to do it, the beverage would be undrinkable. In the amounts we add, generally at 50 ppm or so, the yeast won't be even stunted let alone "killed".

Sorbate doesn't kill yeast, either, but it works to inhibit reproduction. so, if you truly want fermentation to not restart, you use sorbate after fermentation has finished. You rack the cider/wine/mead off of the lees, and into a sorbate/campden mixture. Sorbate works better in the presence of sulfites, that why you use campden also.

Once an active fermentation is going, it's almost impossible to stop at a desired amount of sweetness with campden and sorbate. You can chill the beverage, which causes the yeast to become dormant. That, combined with sorbate and campden MIGHT halt fermentation. But it might start up again once the cider warms up. Most people find that it's more practical to let the beverage ferment out completely, then stabilize it (with sorbate and campden) and then sweeten to taste.
 
YooperBrew said:
Sorry to be nitpicky, but campden does NOT kill wine or ale yeast. Wine yeast is tolerant of sulfites, that's why they're used in winemaking and cider making.

Everyone seems to say campden does kill yeast, but in the amount you'd need to do it, the beverage would be undrinkable. In the amounts we add, generally at 50 ppm or so, the yeast won't be even stunted let alone "killed".

Sorbate doesn't kill yeast, either, but it works to inhibit reproduction. so, if you truly want fermentation to not restart, you use sorbate after fermentation has finished. You rack the cider/wine/mead off of the lees, and into a sorbate/campden mixture. Sorbate works better in the presence of sulfites, that why you use campden also.

Once an active fermentation is going, it's almost impossible to stop at a desired amount of sweetness with campden and sorbate. You can chill the beverage, which causes the yeast to become dormant. That, combined with sorbate and campden MIGHT halt fermentation. But it might start up again once the cider warms up. Most people find that it's more practical to let the beverage ferment out completely, then stabilize it (with sorbate and campden) and then sweeten to taste.
Click to expand...

:mug: Thanks for the knowledge!
 
YooperBrew said:
Sorry to be nitpicky, but campden does NOT kill wine or ale yeast. Wine yeast is tolerant of sulfites, that's why they're used in winemaking and cider making.

Everyone seems to say campden does kill yeast, but in the amount you'd need to do it, the beverage would be undrinkable. In the amounts we add, generally at 50 ppm or so, the yeast won't be even stunted let alone "killed".

Sorbate doesn't kill yeast, either, but it works to inhibit reproduction. so, if you truly want fermentation to not restart, you use sorbate after fermentation has finished. You rack the cider/wine/mead off of the lees, and into a sorbate/campden mixture. Sorbate works better in the presence of sulfites, that why you use campden also.

Once an active fermentation is going, it's almost impossible to stop at a desired amount of sweetness with campden and sorbate. You can chill the beverage, which causes the yeast to become dormant. That, combined with sorbate and campden MIGHT halt fermentation. But it might start up again once the cider warms up. Most people find that it's more practical to let the beverage ferment out completely, then stabilize it (with sorbate and campden) and then sweeten to taste.
Click to expand...



i know it doesnt kill the yeast. but how fast does the yeast recover after a campden attack?

would it start to ferment again if you put in campden force carbed in a keg and then chilled the keg and served?
 
Tinga said:
i know it doesnt kill the yeast. but how fast does the yeast recover after a campden attack?

would it start to ferment again if you put in campden force carbed in a keg and then chilled the keg and served?
Click to expand...

No. But it won't ferment again even without the campden, if it's kept cold! :)

It generally takes about 12 hours (if the must is loosely covered) for the so2 to disipate much. It depends on the dosage, but at 50 ppm, the sulfite doesn't do much to the wine yeast anyway. Most people wait 24 hours before adding yeast into sulfited musts, but that's a "just to be sure", not because the wine yeast can't tolerate the sulfites.
 
Well...I came home tonight and found my cider happily bubbling out of the water lock. So I spose Im gonna let the little buggers (Yeast) do what they want. If I wanted to back sweeten what would be some good options? And what ammount should I use?
 
Any unfermentable sugar or artificial sweetner like Splenda will do the trick. You could also add back some of the original cider for a more natural flavor and chill it, if it is going to be a "still" cider.
 

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