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Campden tablets -- stopping fermentation

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EBCornell

EBCornell

NewBee
Registered Member
Sep 20, 2008
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Connecticut
So I managed to track down a place that sells some homebrew supplies relatively close to home. It's actually a sketchy garage that a guy sells grape juice out of for home winemaking, but he had the stoppers and airlocks I wanted so it was all good.
While I was there I picked up a thing of Campden tablets. My thinking is that I'm going to rack my standard cider (1 gallon Whole Foods apple juice and some Wyeast British Ale yeast) into 2 growlers (1/2 gallon each). I thought that I'd put half a crushed campden tablet in one to not only keep it a bit sweeter, but also allow me to bottle it sooner with out a NewBee's fear of bottle bombs. The other half gallon I'll let sit for another month or so. Does this sound like a decent plan or have I just been reading far too much while understanding far too little?
Happy Friday!
 
Campden (sulfite) by itself may not stop fermentation. A combination of cold crashing, sulfites and then sorbates is usually more effective. A forum search on "suflite and sorbate" will give some ideas to explore!
 
Hmmm...very good to know. So, lacking any sorbate and only using the Campden, I shouldn't go ahead and bottle until I'm certain that fermentation has ceased (ie consisten SG readings for a few days running)?
 
Should actually be a few weeks rather than a few days. Yeast may lie dormant for several months and then kick back up so a few days is like playing cider roulette.

The reason Sulfite is not a cure all for yeast is that many yeast actually metabolize sulfite (EC-1118 ) for example and are not as sensitive to sulfites as are other yeasts.

Hope that helps,
 
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