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On a whim I decided to throw some Cider in a bucket, so I went to the store and grabbed some.

  1. I took a chance and bought 2/3 no preservatives and 1/3 preservative (4.5 Gallons total) in order to lower costs.
  2. I added about 1/2 lb brown sugar and about 8 oz of honey.
  3. Added acid, energizer, and a campden tablet

I am letting it site for 24 hrs, my question is can I do anything about the preservatives? I figured I could just dilute but some sites seem to suggest starting a culture with a small bottle of preservative free cider for a couple days.

Also on the side, is leaving the preserved at room temp OK for a couple days with the Campden without any issues?

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  • I haven't done it myself, but I've heard that preservatives work really, really well. But you also have some chemistry happening in there...what kind of preservative is it? – Pepi Dec 12 '14 at 8:48
  • The potassium one – Jackie Dec 12 '14 at 14:37
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In order to overcome the effects of the preservative you need to pitch more yeast than in a preservative free situation. Normally if you are pitching one packet of yeast I'd say do too.

Having a good sized pitch of active yeast is a great idea too. You can start some liquid yeast in malt extract and 24-26 hours later pitch the whole thing. Its not perfect but its a start.

Seeing how you are diluting the preservative by 60% that should also make it easier on the yeast.

And yes the preserved stuff at RT for a couple days isn't going to hurt it any.

Good luck

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  • I was planning on 2 EC-1118 anyway, maybe I will pitch 1-1/2 and use some more preservative-free to jump start the other 1/2 first. Just puts me behind a couple days :-) – Jackie Dec 12 '14 at 14:41
  • It ended up working great even without live starter. Ended up 15% brix to 7%Brix at second racking. I did use 2 packets. Thanks! – Jackie Dec 28 '14 at 16:58

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