Cider ingredient questions

[cetialphav]

Hey guys,
I couldn't find a great place to put this so bare with me.

So I want to make a batch of cider and my local grocery store has 1 gallon jugs of cider on sale, however, it contains 1% sodium benzoate. So what I was thinking about doing was doing a 2L starter to get the yeast going and then pitch that into 4 gallons of the apple juice.

Do you guys think that will work ok?

Then after a few weeks when it is done with "primary" fermentation. I want to seperate out a couple of gallons and do something fun them.

-- One of the lines I want to do is oak condition. To do that I was going to get a package of those oak chips from my LHBS and age a gallon on those.
-- For the other gallon I was thinking about spicing with alittle cinnamon, but I would also like to hear some of the othe other stuff you guys have done with cider "mix" it up.

Thanks a ton
Ceti

[northern brewer]

I have been thinking about making another cider as well. However, most of the ciders that I have seen in the local grocery stores contain sodium benzoate as well. Everything that I have read online is that sodium benzoate will kill all yeast regardless of what you try and do to get around it? Is this fact or fiction? Can you ferment cider that has been treated with sodium benzoate?

[Lufah]

I haven't tried it, but I think you could. I'm guessing that it will breakdown over time and enough yeast could overcome it. Grab a gallon and give it a try. Just reuse some yeast from a beer. Give it a try and if it works alright you can try bigger batches.

Really tho I would look for an orchard to get stuff from.

Travis

[Geistbier]

Yeah from what I heard a superstarter is going to be necessary, I was able to find an organic local place with no preservatives. I didn't do anything to it, but drop in Cali ale yeast, it's in the secondary now and should be bottled this week.

No local health food place around? I would think it would be easier, but granted more expensive, than the potential problems of sodium benzoate.

You might contact the cider guy who did the show in May and see if he has any advice, he seemed very welcome to helping homebrewers. (But it might be tough to get a hold of him as this is the season.)

[Thirsty Mallard]

Look on the bottom shelves for the organic stuff. All the local grocery stores carry them down here and that should help you get around those pesky additives.

[cetialphav]

So, I decide to conduct a little experiment with this.

I bought a 1 gal jug of Cider with 1% sodium benzoate and pitch an 11 g rehyrdrated packet of Nottingham yeast.

After a few hours it looked like there were a few bubbles around the edge of the jug, which made me think that I was fermenting something. However, it has been sitting now for a couple days (wednesday afternoon) and there are no more bubbles on the surface of the cider an no pressure on the air lock.

So my prelimary conclusion is that the sodium benzoate killed the yeast, but i'm going to let it sit for a couple more days and see if it killed most of the yeast and it just a huge lag time.

This was not super scientific but it is better than nothing

Ceti

[Geistbier]

So, I decide to conduct a little experiment with this.

I bought a 1 gal jug of Cider with 1% sodium benzoate and pitch an 11 g rehyrdrated packet of Nottingham yeast.

After a few hours it looked like there were a few bubbles around the edge of the jug, which made me think that I was fermenting something. However, it has been sitting now for a couple days (wednesday afternoon) and there are no more bubbles on the surface of the cider an no pressure on the air lock.

So my prelimary conclusion is that the sodium benzoate killed the yeast, but i'm going to let it sit for a couple more days and see if it killed most of the yeast and it just a huge lag time.

This was not super scientific but it is better than nothing

Ceti

Cider can start slow, I know mine did. I started mine a few weeks ago, it went through the primary, but after I transfered to the secondary it took off again and has been steadily bubbling about twice a minute, interesting that you used Nottingham, I used White Labs Cali Ale.

I can't wait to bottle it.

[polski]

making my first cider today. I went with the wl english cider yeast. not sure what i'm going to add to the cider i have but we'll figure it out. I'm leaning toward cinnimon sticks and brown sugar, but i've also hear rasins.

what do you guys add and how does that affect the flavor?