I am going to try a quick way of making of lightly carbonated apple cider
and I have a question about adding wine stabilizer at bottling time. With
the juice and yeast I use, the cider clears after about a week and a half of
fermentation in the original juice bottles I get the juice in at the grocery
store. I plan to chill this when it clears and bottle it right away without
adding sugar. I just want to capture the natural carbonation from the
fermentation by chilling it and then siphoning it in plastic soda bottles. I
haven't tried this yet so I don't know if the carbonation will be sufficient
but I like just a small amount of carbonation so I think it's worth a try.
My question is about how I stop fermentation.

I have read that I should add sodium bisulfite and postassium sorbate when
bottling. I am wondering if this work with cider that hasn't aged, it has
just fermented for about a week and a half.

On the other hand, sodium bisulfate is also used to kill natural yeasts
(active or dormant) and other microorganisms before adding wine yeast in
wine making so I think it should also kill any yeast that exists in the
cider. So, I am wondering, do I really need to add potassium sorbate which
acts by preventing refermentation? How can the yeast begin to referment if
the sodium bisulfate has killed it? Is it recommended by the industry to
just sell chemicals or is it really necessary?

Thanks

My understanding is that metabisulfite doesn't kill yeast, it just
stuns it so that the wine yeast has a chance to start growing. The
wine yeast has a high anti-competitive factor, ie it kills off the
wild yeasts. Meta is also an anti-oxidant. Read...shelf life for
your wine.

Sorbate is birth control for yeast. It stops fermentation.

So add the sorbate when the carbonation is 'right' for you. Add the
meta to give some shelf life (and maybe slow down active yeast).

Steve

On Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:00:52 -0400, "hj3452rqkh32165557"
> wrote:

>I am going to try a quick way of making of lightly carbonated apple cider
>and I have a question about adding wine stabilizer at bottling time. With
>the juice and yeast I use, the cider clears after about a week and a half of
>fermentation in the original juice bottles I get the juice in at the grocery
>store. I plan to chill this when it clears and bottle it right away without
>adding sugar. I just want to capture the natural carbonation from the
>fermentation by chilling it and then siphoning it in plastic soda bottles. I
>haven't tried this yet so I don't know if the carbonation will be sufficient
>but I like just a small amount of carbonation so I think it's worth a try.
>My question is about how I stop fermentation.
>
>I have read that I should add sodium bisulfite and postassium sorbate when
>bottling. I am wondering if this work with cider that hasn't aged, it has
>just fermented for about a week and a half.
>
>On the other hand, sodium bisulfate is also used to kill natural yeasts
>(active or dormant) and other microorganisms before adding wine yeast in
>wine making so I think it should also kill any yeast that exists in the
>cider. So, I am wondering, do I really need to add potassium sorbate which
>acts by preventing refermentation? How can the yeast begin to referment if
>the sodium bisulfate has killed it? Is it recommended by the industry to
>just sell chemicals or is it really necessary?
>
>Thanks
>
>