Strange looking yeast cake in cider bottles

Hey guys, I just moved a six pack of a cider I made to the fridge and I noticed the yeast cake looks very strange. Now this is the first homebrew cider I've made, so I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I used Campden Tabs and Potassium Sorbate to stabilize. Here are some pics. To me, it looks like a petri dish.

Those look like sorbate particles. How did you dissolve the sorbate and campden in the cider before bottling?

I stirred it into what I used to back sweeten, which was 3 thawed cans of frozen apple juice concentrate. Will it be okay to drink like that?

ItsTheBrent said:

I stirred it into what I used to back sweeten, which was 3 thawed cans of frozen apple juice concentrate. Will it be okay to drink like that?

Click to expand...

Yeah, but sorbate doesn't taste very good!

Next time, use 1/4 cup boiling water and stir the sorbate and crushed campden into that. Then, stir well to dissolve. THEN put it into the carboy and rack the cider into it.

Also, it's too late now, but you never stabilize and sweeten at the same time!

You want to stabilize first, to ensure that the sorbate inhibits yeast reproduction. Then a few days later you can sweeten to taste. Make sure you check for carbonation and if any bottles are getting carbed up, chill them all right away!

Ha.. I just found a post about waiting to a few days to sweeten. Whoops. I'll check a bottle now. Thanks for the help

+2 to Yooper. That's exactly what my last sorbated drink looked like. It doesn't dissolve all that easily.

Also, I read on gotmead.com that you should add the sorbate/K-meta separately from the backsweetening solution, the high sugar will bind molecules and so forth and such as... I don't remember the science. But, it held true when I added the sorbate to my backsweetening solution, then to carboy, and it continued to ferment.

I posted about this same thing a year ago and am still somewhat unsure why it happened to me a few times. I've never used sorbate but got the same "petri" dish look to my yeast cake. Here is the thread about it. The cider with this was undrinkable to me, and the nasty aroma never went away fully.