Mixed home made with store bought sorbate, will it work?

[siderluver]

Hi all,

Thanks for looking at my question. I'm doing a 5 gal batch of cider. 2.75 gallons are my home made juice and I bought 1.5 gallons of cider with
Sorbate. The rest is water (.75 gal)

I also added sugar and got my sg just over 1.060

Will the sorbate be less of a problem because there's less of it?

Should I add more yeast other than the 1 packet of Lalvin 1118?

 

[MindenMan]

I have responded to a post very much like this one a long time ago.
"Generally speaking" (quotes added for emphasis) the juice you have purchased in treated to the specific volume of the juice you bought.
To over simplify: one gallon of treated juice has enough chemicals to treat just that one gallon; so if you dilute that one one gallon to two or three there "should not" be enough sorbate or what have you, to cause complications in a much diluted batch. Does this make sense to you?

 

[madscientist451]

Save the juice with preservatives for something else, get some other apple juice and then you won't have to worry about it.

 

[siderluver]

Thank you, it does make sense and that's what I wanted to hear also.

I didn't realize just how many apples it takes to yield 5 gallons of juice. I ran out of apples, or rather the trees I was picking from did, so that's the reason for the store bought filler.

I appreciate your info.

 

[siderluver]

Save the juice with preservatives for something else, get some other apple juice and then you won't have to worry about it.

It's already mixed, yeast pitched.

 

[madscientist451]

Did the yeast kick off?

 

[siderluver]

At this point, it's been 24 hrs and it doesn't seem like there's too much activity. The airlock is not bobbing up & down. There's some patchy foam or white stuff floating around the top, a few bubbles and the airlock float is halfway up to the lid of the lock. So technically, there is some activity.

 

[MindenMan]

Fermenting cider does not often have huge visual cues. The fact you see bubbles sounds like fermentation is occurring. Remember, remember, remember, not all fermenters are 100% airtight, in that I mean: don't trust the airlock as the gauge of fermentation occurring or not,and don't get caught in the trap of "there aren't many bubbles" it must be done fermenting... Always check with a hydrometer.

 

[siderluver]

Fermenting cider does not often have huge visual cues. The fact you see bubbles sounds like fermentation is occurring. Remember, remember, remember, not all fermenters are 100% airtight, in that I mean: don't trust the airlock as the gauge of fermentation occurring or not,and don't get caught in the trap of "there aren't many bubbles" it must be done fermenting... Always check with a hydrometer.

Will do. Thank you.

 

[siderluver]

UPDATE:

It's been a week now and I was starting to think the sorbate was going to ruin everything. I'm happy to say that it's bubbling good now, but this has only just started happening in the last 24 hours. I did pitch a second yeast, added nutrient and energizer and left the lid off with only a towel until a nice foam formed. I have limited experience in this stuff, but I suspect my first yeast was perhaps bad or didn't survive the pitch.