Killing Yeasties with Sodium Benzoate

[Tantalar]

Can I add a soda that contains Sodium Benzoate to cider to kill fermentation?

 

[Yooper]

Probably not very sucessfully. It's really hard to kill a fermentation once it's going- like trying to stop a train. I've never tried with benzoate, though. I've used sorbate. What those preservatives do is to inhibit yeast reproduction. They don't kill the yeast, but they do stop the yeast from reproducing. In an active fermentation, the yeast don't really need to reproduce since they reproduced early on, so it's hard to stop it.

You could try a combination of racking, crash cooling, and preservatives if you really wanted to try to stop a fermentation.