First Time Cider Mistake - need to REDO!

[hunterlab]

Hi everyone i'm new to the board and recently just got into brewing. I made my first beginner mistake, Bought cider with Preservative's in it and made a 5 gallon batch . I put 2 lbs of brown sugar in heated it with 1 gallon of cider and let it cool to pitchable temps. I pitched my Liquid Wyeast Cider yeast .
After i cleaned all up i went online and saw the post and info on preservatives . So basically i have 5 gallons of super sweet cider and a 10.00 yeast gone to waste.

Should i just drink this as cider and restart. If i restart im going to buy Champ yeast as its alot less money and going to do the correct cider.

Dan

 

[sashurlow]

I ran into the same problem last year and came to a similar conclusion... Start over. There are theories that you can make it work. Preservatives don't kill the yeast, they just prevent it from reproducing. So in theory if you add tons of live yeast they will all still ferment, just not reproduce. This would obviously be a slow process and one that is not guaranteed to work.
Or the logical alternative is to cut your losses and start over.
Don't forget ale yeasts...

 

[hunterlab]

Yeah i was just searching the forum and saw the post of Ale yeast. Luckily i found a packet of Muntons Ale Yeast here at home, im going to use that instead of running out to get more yeast. Now i just have to go and find some Preservative free cider.

 

[bad67z]

Welcome to the forum. I would probably chalk this one up as a learning experience. I took a look @ orchards in your area and it seem that you have a number of them. I would suggest that you call a couple of them and see if they would be will to fill your sanitized fermenter.

In my experience unfiltered unpasteurized cider has given me the best finished product. The orchard may give you a discount since they will have no bottling or distribution costs involved in the transaction.

 

[CvilleKevin]

+1 on unfiltered unpasteurized cider

Muntons Ale yeast works well, but it is a very fast fermenter. That is fine if you like the cider very dry. If you want to stop it with some residual sweetness, you will need to watch it careful after about day 5. IMHO S04 and Notty are a little easier to work with because they will ferment slower.

If you know anyone with horses, cows or pigs, they would likely be happy to take the batch with preservatives - most farm animals like cider in their feed