Sorbate & Campden, post-cold crash, into Primary OK?

[elganso]

Hi folks,

Cider newb here.

Have 15 gallons of dry cider and looking to backsweeten 10 of the gallons (will keg carbonate then bottle from tap). Trying to avoid the rigmarole of a secondary transfer, which seems to be "best practice".

If I cold crash in primary for a few days ahead of time, wondering if one or both of these methods would be advisable:

1) Add sorbate/campden into primary and let sit there before racking to keg (above yeast cake) and then backsweetening.

2) Just rack direct to keg and then sorbate/campden in there, let sit X days before backsweetening, and then carb up.

Thoughts/preferences?

Cheers!

 

[Yooper]

No, you want to rack off of the lees before stabilizing. The reason is pretty simple- sorbate inhibits yeast reproduction. So it only works when the cider/wine is clear and with very little yeast in suspension. You want to do it once the cider is clear, is in a new carboy, and has NO new lees (sediment) at all after at least 60 days to ensure the yeast is mostly gone. Racking off of these lees before stabilizing is crucial.

You could rack into the keg over the sorbate and campden, but I'd definitely let it sit in secondary (in a keg, or a carboy) first to make sure the sorbate "works".

 

[MarkKF]

Devil's advocate - Say you put 5 gal. dry cider in s corny keg and add enough sugar to make a sweet cider but viable yeast comes to life? I read the corny can handle 130 PSI. How much pressure would actually build up? Isn't there a safety release?

 

[elganso]

No, you want to rack off of the lees before stabilizing.

OK, thanks for the info; I plan to bottle most of this so as not to take up kegerator space, so certainly don't want bottle bombs. Thanks!

 

[AidanSavage]

If bottling, you could look into pasteurizing the bottles, which would let you possibly slide without needing to use chemicals.

 

[elganso]

If bottling, you could look into pasteurizing the bottles, which would let you possibly slide without needing to use chemicals.

Yeah, that was my thought too.

I'm going for the least path of resistance here, so thought the chemical option would be simpler than the pasteurizing option. But, I also would be keen on having some 6-packs for xmas gifts, so may end up just keg carbonating/sweeten/bottle and pasteurize the bottles.

Cheers.