CIDER 101

[Ciderhead]

GrandMaster Will, (who btw brought one of mine back from the dead) any additional thoughts?

[LordEoin]

Huzzah! i wasnt wrong 
there's an option 4, but i'm not going to endanger folks with shards of glass and hot water/cider flying through the air...
heating up carbed liquids in glass bottles is not a good idea unless you're sure of what you're doing.
just stick with the splenda.

[Will_D]

CH is absolutely correct. The OP at the start of this explains how to get sweet (to taste) sparkling cider.

Option 4 (from LE): I did not mention this as its a bit dangerous for us to pasteurise carbed bottles. If done ouside with the bottles fully submerged in the water bath could be done but why risk it!

[nigel_c]

For anyone kegging the batch, a very simple option could be the just back sweeten with AJ and keep the keg in the fridge. If the kegger is set to say 7-8 the yeast is not going to be active enough to consume the sugars from the AJ. Even very slowly I'm sure most people would consume the contents of a keg before a temperature stunned yeasty could consume the remaining sugar.
Just another option ive been thinking about.

[LordEoin]

if you're kegging it, you can just pasteurise the lot, backsweeten and force carb.

[nigel_c]

Can you pasteurise in the keg? Eg sit keg in boiler and hold at 75 ish for 20 mins?

[LordEoin]

i dont see why not, could also use stabilizer to kill the  yeast.

[nigel_c]

Excellent Smithers. Just get my batch. It's been sitting in my folks greenhouse all winter. Time for a sample me thinks

[Bogwoppit]

I racked off both my carboys this weekend, both have finished fermenting, one at 1.000 and the other at 1.004.

Had a taste of both and they are quite acidic, definitely won't be touching these again until the late summer in the hope that I get a good malolactic fermentation. If I see no activity when the weather gets warmer then I might get hold of a malolactic culture to give it a boost.

Bw

[Dunkel]

The juice I received from Davy Pritchard has started to form a nasty-looking white film on the surface. I intend to rack from under this film, pasteurise the whole lot and then add some yeast back in.

i have put 12L of cider into my burco at 70* and added 1.2L of AJ to this. will keep it at 70* for 15mins then let cool before i bottle.

Is this hot enough for killing off all nasties? Of course, it will probably change the flavour.

Would a mixture of Campden tablets and Potassium Sorbate do a better job of stabilising the cider?

[Dunkel]

BTW, here's a picture.



Film is broken up a little due to raising the cider this morning in preparation for racking. I have seen this before, many many years ago, but can't remember what it's called.

[Dunkel]

Having checked against images on the ol' googleweb, I think it's the start of a lactobacillus infection. The cider has fermented down to 1003; maybe a little more to go. The cider itself smells and tastes fine at this stage. Instead of pasteurising, I've decided on the following steps;

Today - cold crash (i.e. leave the fermenter out for the night in the freezing cold outside)
Tuesday - rack, add beer finings, and again cold crash
Wednesday - rack, add Campden tablets
Friday - Rack to bottling bucket with backsweetening, yeast and priming sugar; bottle.

I reckon the worst that will happen will be a sour cider - could be a new style!

[nigel_c]

If it is a lactobacillus infection will it consume consume any of the back sweetening sugars that the yeast will not. I'm not sure myself just might be something for you to look into.

[mr hoppy]

Not a cider expert, but I know from German sour beers that lacto loves apple juice. Generally, it doesn't like low pH - like in fermented beverages quite as much.

[Dunkel]

If it is a lactobacillus infection will it consume consume any of the back sweetening sugars that the yeast will not. I'm not sure myself just might be something for you to look into.

Even something like Splenda?