Anyone use potassium sorbate in beer?

[mrkeeg]

I SORT of asked this question in another thread dealing with creating a sweet beer.

Lacking much response, I decided to add potassium sorbate to a beer before adding juice to sweeten it ('floris kriek' or 'fuili' style)

Anyone ever do this? In a 1-cup trial run the sorbate didn't seem to affect the taste much.

Will report back. Interested in other's experiences.

 

[BBBF]

Are you going to keg it?

 

[mrkeeg]

Yes.
Presumably bottle conditioning wouldn't work so well after sorbate!

 

[BBBF]

Sorbate prevents the yeast from multiplying, so whatever is in there can still consume the yeast.

You need to sufite and sulfate to prevent any new fermentation. Although, I don't have a lot of trust in this methond because I have a mead that I backsweetened and ended up with a highly carbonated mead.

 

[malkore]

you do need to be careful with just sorbate though. in wine making you can end up (I believe) with a malo-lactic fermentation and adding sorbate can cause teh bacteria to produce a pronounced geranium aroma in the wine...kinda ruining it.

if you want a sweet beer you have 2 options really: sweeten with a non fermentable sugar like lactose, or formulate your recipe to have a higher final gravity. this is easier to do with all grain brewing.

 

[luthierzan]

Did you ever finish this experiment. I want to add some fruit to a beer and retain the fruit sweetness. This seems to be a solution but would appreciate your results
David Oh

 

[mrkeeg]

I cold crashed, added just sorbate, then kegged. The beer was good but the sorbate wasn't 100% effective, and it continued to be a bit active even in the fridge. Let us know if you have luck maybe using sulfate!