Misc addition
Potassium Sorbate
Representative The maker publishes no figures for this product, so these are class-typical values instead.
- Type
- Other
- Added at
- packaging
- Form
- powder
- Formula
- C6H7KO2
- Concentration
- sold as the pure compound
- Typical dose
- 0.2-0.4 g/L, alongside a sulfite
- Timing
- Added at packaging, with the beer already clear and the ferment finished.
Before you use it
Sorbate alone is not a stabilizer: without sulfite, lactic bacteria can convert sorbic acid into the geranium off-flavor, which is unmistakable and unfixable. Never use it on a beer you intend to carbonate with priming sugar.
Description
Stops yeast reproducing rather than killing it, which is what makes back-sweetening a cider, mead or fruit beer possible without a refermentation in the bottle. Standard practice is to pair it with a sulfite, which handles the cells already present.