Just discovered my cider has 0.1% potassium sorbate...

[GlowingApple]

One of my friends went to a nearby apple orchard and picked up some cider (and got some for me too). She pitched some champagne yeast and after two days fermentation still hadn't started.

I got started with my batch later, and before I pitched my yeast I realized the jugs of cider have small print that reads "Not more than 1/10th of 1% potassium sorbate added as a preservative". She specifically asked the orchard if it had preservatives and they said no, but neither of us noticed the fine print until now.

I've heard that double-pitching the yeast can sometimes work, as potassium sorbate only stalls reproduction, not fermentation.

Is it worth it though? I could get some new cider without preservatives, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with 5-gallons of unfermented cider, that will need to be refrigerated (don't have enough space for all of that). Is it worth just double-pitching the yeast and hoping for the best, or giving up on this batch and just drinking the unrefrigerated cider until it goes bad?

 

[MaxStout]

I don't have an answer to your problem, but I will say this: I would no longer do business with an orchard if their people told me a bald-faced lie like that.

 

[max384]

I don't know if this works, as I've never tried it, but I've heard that making a starter out of bread yeast can overcome the potassium sorbate. And then pitch another starter of whatever yeast you were using.

Personally though, I'd probably just abandon it.

 

[Randzor]

Making a starter with store bought juice might work. But the yeast will be stressed throughout the fermentation process.

 

[bu_gee]

I was involved in another thread where repitching was resulting in lower gravities, but it is a tough slog.

Maybe get a gallon of cider with no potassium sorbate and pitch into that and use it like a starter for the big batch.

 

[b-boy]

You need a really big starter to make this work. I'd add a few cans of frozen apple juice without preservatives and a huge starter or multiple packets of dry yeast. I've done it and my cider was fine.

 

[madscientist451]

There are numerous threads about this if you search on Google.
My 2 cents: Find some space in the freezer, your refrigerator, a cooler or wherever you can store it and drink it, use it for cooking (great for pork and chicken dishes) , to back-sweeten some other cider you may have, or give it away. You can spend a lot of effort trying to get it to ferment but I really don't think its going to be worth it. Put you efforts into something with a better chance for good results.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

There are threads here about doing that. Some by me. But I would suggest that exercise of removing potassium sorbate is a pointless one (unless of course you bought many many gallons and have to figure something out).

Get some vodka (or brandy) and sparkling water and FCAJ (frozen concentrated apple juice) and chill everything down real cold. Make basically "cider & vodka" on the strong side, add a bit of fcaj to improve the flavor, add the soda or sparkling water for a bit of fizz, and then put it in 2 litre bottles in the icebox and toast this hard learned lesson at every chance
At least that way you'll have a slightly fizzy cocktail and use up your cider.

For the amount of time and irritation that trying to fight with a sorbated must will take ... I'd say cut your losses and use your time and effort with a new round of un-sorbated cider etc, and make it the right way, then.

 

[biochemedic]

Here's another option: Get something else fermenting, then add the cider...

One of the first meads I did was a muscadine pyment, and the muscadine juice I found was sorbated. I talked to the owner of my LHBS about it, and he was pretty confident in the fact that sorbate would not stop an already active fermentation, and he was right. For full disclosure, I only added a gallon of the juice to 5 gallons of already fermenting mead, so the volumes were such that it diluted the sorbate out quite a bit, but still, I think this is a good consideration for your current predicament.

 

[Hoosierbrewer]

I thought about using some juice with potassium sorbate to back sweeten. I was wondering if I could still add some priming sugar to it and get sweetness and carbonation.

 

[Skylark]

I am currently fermenting two batches of sorbated cider using Cote des Blanc. I pitched 1 packet / gallon (ie, overpitched by 5x), rehydrating the yeast first as the packet instructs. One is about a week ahead of the other, but they are both going quite slowly, looks like at least 2, maybe 3 weeks to finish primary even at ~70 F. The older batch has a bit of an 'off' flavor, not sure what it is. Hoping it doesn't get worse.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

I thought about using some juice with potassium sorbate to back sweeten. I was wondering if I could still add some priming sugar to it and get sweetness and carbonation.

The point is to retard the yeast with pot sorbate *before* introducing additional sugars. That would be, add ... wait ... then add sugars. Using a product with pot sorbate and sugar all-in-one won't likely "neuter" the existing yeast currently in your cider sufficiently to keep them from renewing ferment.

 

[GlowingApple]

I thought I'd post a follow-up. I ended up pitching more yeast, champagne yeast. Nothing... So I decided to just let it clear in my BetterBottle and rack if off the sediment and use to to back-sweeten a cider or just drink. I got busy with things and didn't get a chance to deal with it. Nearly four weeks later is spontaneously started fermenting. Went fast for a few days and the gravity started to settle. I let it sit for a few weeks to clear and took a taste... wow, talk about sulfur!!!

I racked some into a glass jug and a growler and am going to let it sit a couple months to see if the taste improves (what the heck I've got the space), but I don't have high hopes for it.

Still my fault for not reading the fine print on the packaging, but definitely never going to that orchard again and going to recommend my friends stay away as well!