Potassium sorbate

[shawnsbeebrewer]

My batch of cider is ready to be back sweeten, how long do i wait after putting the potassium sorbate in my cider before I back sweeten, also do I shake or stir in the potassium sorbate. If I use sugar to back sweeten do I still need to use priming sugar when bottling for carbonation?

 

[LeBreton]

As a rule of thumb, NEVER shake cider, to mix in anything you should gently stir to avoid oxidation.

If you add sorbate, you won't be able to bottle condition though, as yeast reproduction will be prevented. Sorbate is useful for backsweetening and then force carbonating. With natural carbonation you backsweeten & prime and then need to halt further fermentation by either coldcrashing or bottling pasteurizing.

 

[shawnsbeebrewer]

Thank you so much, so if I back sweeten, prime then bottle and then put into the fridge, will this be enough of a cold crash or do you have another suggestion

 

[LeBreton]

Depends on the yeast you used. Ale or other beer yeast should be fine, but a champagne yeast may be more difficult to stop. That being said, I don't coldcrash much and prefer to pasteurize or force carb, maybe someone with more experience in that area could chime in?

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

I've had good results racking and cold crashing ale yeasts, but that is BEFORE I prime and carb. I've never actually just put bottles in the fridge once they are carb'd. I imagine it would slow things down, but I wouldn't leave them in there for a year. You might end up with gushers...or worse.

I crash at winter ambient temps to clear my ciders and to keep the gravity from dropping too low while it's aging. (40º-50ºF?) Once I bottle and bring them up from the basement, they always carb just fine. So you won't completely kill them without pasteurizing.