I'm a few months into brewing and bottle-fermenting root-, bark-, and spice-based root beer, and over time I've seen where sodium benzoate is used to kill the yeast before it overcarbonates the bottle. My question is, when and how much to add? If I add it when bottling (before anything ferments) will that stop all yeast activity immediately, or will the yeast get to digest the sugar for a while before succumbing to the benzoate? It seems impossible to add after carbonation has occurred, as you only get one chance to pop the bottle.

Thanks for any input. I've found a great amount of help while reading these boards, and just can't find anything on this topic.

I have another question about phosphoric acid in the ingredient set, but I'll save that for next time.

/C

Thanks aruzinsky! I've noticed in batches where I've added a little salt that yeast activity is impeded; I wonder if the "sodium" in sodium benzoate will have a similar yeast dampening effect.

I also feel like I've seen where adding phosphoric acid slows yeast growth as well (I'm talking about one drop per pint). Does this make sense?

Bottle fermenting is a tricky road, trying to create a stable product with a moving target like yeast. Short of crashing the bottles at the 56 hour mark (what temp truly crashes champagne yeast?) I wonder what can be done to kill the colony when its work is done.

Tip for knowing when your bottles are ready to crash: when bottling, always bottle a plastic bottle of the same size, so you can squeeze it and feel when it's hard.

/C