Screwed by Potassium Sorbate?

[HopHead73]

My wife got 1 gallon of fresh pressed cider from the local orchard in her home town.
Made a small starter, about 8oz of the cider with 1 pack DYW05 Dry Wine Yeast - Champagne (5 g).
It had some small bubbling, made a nice cake and I pitched it into the rest of the gallon with 4oz of corn sugar, some yeast nutrient and peptic enzymes.
I did put 1 campden tablet in the cider 48hours before pitching the yeast.
It's been 22hours and I wasn't seeing any signs of fermentation and then that's when I noticed on the label of the cider that it has "less than .1% of potassium sorbate for preservative".

I know sorbate will inhibit yeast reproduction.
Am I screwed with the just the one pack of yeast?
Or would it be worth it to pitch another pack so there are enough yeast cells to eat through a gallon of cider.
The OG was 1.060.

 

[AidanSavage]

My wife got 1 gallon of fresh pressed cider from the local orchard in her home town.
Made a small starter, about 8oz of the cider with 1 pack DYW05 Dry Wine Yeast - Champagne (5 g).
It had some small bubbling, made a nice cake and I pitched it into the rest of the gallon with 4oz of corn sugar, some yeast nutrient and peptic enzymes.
I did put 1 campden tablet in the cider 48hours before pitching the yeast.
It's been 22hours and I wasn't seeing any signs of fermentation and then that's when I noticed on the label of the cider that it has "less than .1% of potassium sorbate for preservative".

I know sorbate will inhibit yeast reproduction.
Am I screwed with the just the one pack of yeast?
Or would it be worth it to pitch another pack so there are enough yeast cells to eat through a gallon of cider.
The OG was 1.060.

Cold crash it, rack off the yeast cake, then drink what you have left. Oh, and make a note to never use that orchard again for raw cider. If you can juice your own apples, then the orchard is still a decent source if they sell apples or the pick-your-own boxes. The potassium sorbate being present will hinder the yeast, and I think over-pitching can worsen the taste of the finished product, if it finishes.

 

[Yooper]

I know at least one person on this forum has been successful with starting a fermentation and overcoming sorbate, but I'm not sure the cider tasted good afterwards.

One more package won't do it- you need a massive overpitch so a yeast starter (using apple juice) would be the way to get started and then add a little of your cider to the starter a little at a time to get it acclimated and really reproducing before adding it to the full batch of cider.

 

[JimRausch]

I'm not sure if Yooper is referring to me, because mine was a Graf, but reading this post reminded me to update mine("sorbate laced cider").
So, in a 5G batch, I pitched about 15gm of Munton's yeast in a 2.5 G wort and let that ferment for a couple days before adding 3.5G of cider- 1/2 of which was sorbate tainted cider and 1/2 bottled apple juice. It fermented completely, down to 1.014 because of the unfermentables in the wort. I then bottled it with 1 can AJC and pasteurized after 6 days when it had reached a decent stage of carbonation.
So Yooper is absolutely correct as always. It's possible to overcome the effects of sorbate(it inhibits reproduction of the yeast), but you really have to work hard to build up enough yeast mass so they don't have to multiply.

 

[HopHead73]

Well less than 48hours and there is a bit of fermentation going on. But since the yeast can't reproduce I'm sure that will fizzle out.
This was just an experiment at my wife's request (I brew too many IPAs apparently and she wanted some cider).
We have a local orchard that will fill any sized carboy with fresh pressed untreated cider for making hard cider.
The price of another gallon and a pack of yeast will be much less of a hassle then trying to save this batch.

Life lesson: always read the label of cider before pitching yeast

 

[AidanSavage]

Well less than 48hours and there is a bit of fermentation going on. But since the yeast can't reproduce I'm sure that will fizzle out.
This was just an experiment at my wife's request (I brew too many IPAs apparently and she wanted some cider).
We have a local orchard that will fill any sized carboy with fresh pressed untreated cider for making hard cider.
The price of another gallon and a pack of yeast will be much less of a hassle then trying to save this batch.

Life lesson: always read the label of cider before pitching yeast

Actually, wouldnt potassium sorbate dosed cider/juice be a way to make a low-alcohol sparkling sweet cider? Since you know the yeast cant ferment dry, you'd be able to tinker with yeast amounts to find out just how much you'd need to add to get carbing going.

 

[Strut]

I've found you can ferment through the little K Sorbate used in most ciders. My understanding is that the sorbate gets "used up" as it inhibits yeast reproduction. So you can re-pitch another starter if you stall out on the first. I've read that some folks use a healthy dose of cheap bread yeast as a sacrificial starter, rack after it slows, then pitch your good yeasts to finish up.

Good luck!