Has adding Campden Tablets ever made a difference for you

[b3nsf]

I've added Campden tablets once and Ive skipped it for the other 15 batches of ciders, I've never had any weird stuff happen, so have any of you guys had a bad experience by skipping the campden?

 

[bmd2k1]

Never use em - zero issues!

I cold crash all my ciders & keep them refrigerated afterwards - except for those I'll bottle & let sit at basement room temp for a month to carb up - then return to fridge.

Cheers [emoji111]

 

[applescrap]

Absolutely. Chloramine and chlorine, but that is beer. Have never used with store bought cider.

 

[Yooper]

I do- but I use them for all of my wines, meads, and ciders. I finally finished our 2012 cider- so it does age well for me using sulfites as an antioxidant. If you're drinking fast, not aging, etc, you can get by without them.

 

[b3nsf]

Great answers so far... I should have said "After pressing fruit, adding campden, wait 24 hours..prior to adding yeast" Like the many instructions say to do, Or just answer as you see fit, because those answers are perfect as well!

 

[bmd2k1]

I do- but I use them for all of my wines, meads, and ciders. I finally finished our 2012 cider- so it does age well for me using sulfites as an antioxidant. If you're drinking fast, not aging, etc, you can get by without them.

Wow....7yr old cider....impressive! Mine never makes it 7months...lol.

Is that aged in bottles or other ways?

Cheers [emoji111]

 

[Blacksmith1]

Are you supposed to keep it that long? I just bottled my first good one at 2 1/2 months a few days ago..... It's not getting any older

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

Great answers so far... I should have said "After pressing fruit, adding campden, wait 24 hours..prior to adding yeast" Like the many instructions say to do, Or just answer as you see fit, because those answers are perfect as well!

I have found that I need to use Campden with apples or pears, not my berries. For example, I use a pound or so of frozen crab apples in each 2 gal bucket of cider, because I make my cider from store juice and the crabs really help the flavor. But a couple of the times I did not use Campden I had some unusual tastes. Not funky, that I like, but something else. But since I started using Campden for 24 hours before adding the yeast, never a problem.

But like I said, I only use it on crab apples or pears, not the berries. Don't know why it works this way, but it does for me.

 

[Yooper]

Are you supposed to keep it that long? I just bottled my first good one at 2 1/2 months a few days ago..... It's not getting any older

I don't know about "supposed to", but I have quite a bit of it and it just seemed to take that long to go through it. Well, it took me like 3 years to even keg and bottle it, so winemaking is a great hobby for a procrastinator.

I take steps to reduce the risk of oxidation, and it does work. It was likely past its peak by year 4, though, but still good.

 

[b3nsf]

I have found that I need to use Campden with apples or pears, not my berries. For example, I use a pound or so of frozen crab apples in each 2 gal bucket of cider, because I make my cider from store juice and the crabs really help the flavor. But a couple of the times I did not use Campden I had some unusual tastes. Not funky, that I like, but something else. But since I started using Campden for 24 hours before adding the yeast, never a problem.

But like I said, I only use it on crab apples or pears, not the berries. Don't know why it works this way, but it does for me.

Cool! Can you describe the unusual tastes? I’m thinking of doing a split batch to test this!

 

[RPh_Guy]

I'm also questioning the necessity of sulfite to prevent wild microbe growth.

2018 was the first year I used unpasteurized preservative-free juice.

My wild ciders without sulfite and no added yeast are actually fairly bland.
However, this is a small amount of data and I can think of some good reasons to use sulfite to knock down the wild stuff at the beginning, depending on your process and tolerance of wild microbe flavors. For example, it might be good to try to prevent MLF. Maybe lysozyme would be better for that. ?

Also, several batches to which I did add sulfite developed wild microbe growth, so I obviously didn't add enough sulfite to kill everything to those batches. Some of them have nice wild flavors, but one wasn't so great. I don't know if the D47 or wild stuff is to blame for that one -- lots of sulfide and general harshness.

 

[gregbathurst]

I used to use sulfite, then I stopped years ago, never have problems. I rarely rack, I think if you rack or open your containers often it is a good idea to use sulfite.