Kegged Cider backsweetened-refermented-cold keg?

[gstolas]

I kegged a cider about 2 weeks ago. I added sorbate and k-meta, back sweetened with 2 cans of 100% cherry juice concentrate (for my girlfriend's taste)

We have been pouring it pretty consistently, no more than a day in between pours.

However, she mentioned to me earlier that her last pour was lighter in color and a perceived a little more boozy. The back sweetening left it still semi dry but also added a pinkish color to the cider. I know the keg had maybe 4 pours left in it if that the past couple days. It is as if now I hadn't backsweetened at all!!! I understand that sulfiting and keeping it cold is not a 100% chance of no refermentation, but why so suddenly near the end of the keg has this happened.

A part of me wants to think that the juice didnt distribute completely leaving the sugary content near the bottom of the keg drawing out first resulting in the last pours lacking.

Did my keg referment despite being kept at 36 F with sulfites added? ....and within a 24 hour period 2 weeks after kegging? And if so why the color change? I handed out some bottles early on but they had been consumed already.

Has this happened to anyone?

 

[Yooper]

Sulfites don't stop yeast at all (it's an antioxidant), but the sorbate should!

The thing to remember is that sorbate doesn't kill yeast, it just keeps it from reproducing so I wonder if you had a ton of yeast in the cider when you kegged it, so that it could continue fermenting without reproducing. It needs to be clear and without much yeast in solution when you add the sorbate. Could that be the issue?

 

[gstolas]

Sulfites don't stop yeast at all (it's an antioxidant), but the sorbate should!

The thing to remember is that sorbate doesn't kill yeast, it just keeps it from reproducing so I wonder if you had a ton of yeast in the cider when you kegged it, so that it could continue fermenting without reproducing. It needs to be clear and without much yeast in solution when you add the sorbate. Could that be the issue?

Could very well be the issue. If that is the case I'm wondering why it took so long to suddenly show rather than gradually

 

[paneubert]

I am more in the camp of "it did not mix well and you have been drinking heavily sweetened cherry cider and are just now getting to the layer of less well mixed beverage". Do you recall mixing it really well? Did you rack onto the cherry concentrate, or did you add it on top of the cider? Could have kept fermenting, but if we are talking a 2 week timeline, sorbate and k-meta added, and assuming you have this chilled in a fridge, and assuming that the cold would be dropping any yeast to the bottom (where it end up in your glass every time to take a pint), I don't personally thing it was a continued ferment situation...

 

[gstolas]

I am more in the camp of "it did not mix well and you have been drinking heavily sweetened cherry cider and are just now getting to the layer of less well mixed beverage". Do you recall mixing it really well? Did you rack onto the cherry concentrate, or did you add it on top of the cider? Could have kept fermenting, but if we are talking a 2 week timeline, sorbate and k-meta added, and assuming you have this chilled in a fridge, and assuming that the cold would be dropping any yeast to the bottom (where it end up in your glass every time to take a pint), I don't personally thing it was a continued ferment situation...

This is what I suspected also. I added the juice to the top in a full keg, tried to rock it back and forth as best as I could without destroying my keezer collar. It COULD have fermented but I doubt it did that fast and that suddenly.

 

[Silver79]

I also think unequal distribution. I managed to do that with my carmal apple a few months ago. First pour was very sweet. Removed from kegerator to shake it each day for a couple days, that seemed to fix it. Racking onto it and then stirring halfway through has remedied that in recent batches.

 

[MarkKF]

The thing to remember is that sorbate doesn't kill yeast, it just keeps it from reproducing so I wonder if you had a ton of yeast in the cider when you kegged it, so that it could continue fermenting without reproducing. It needs to be clear and without much yeast in solution when you add the sorbate. Could that be the issue?

I think you really need to wait before the second racking. So it’s clear and all the yeast is on the bottom. And don’t suck it up in the siphon.

 

[canehdianman]

Was there any trub coming out with the cider? if fermentation started back up it would have made for a very cloudy first pour every day.

I agree with the others, it sounds like it wasn't mixed well. I find I have to lift my kegs out and really shake the crap out of them to get it all properly mixed.

 

[gstolas]

No trub. And I opened a bottle that I had bottled a week prior to this and it didnt hiss or change color. So a lot points to not mixed well