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Cider Digest #0203
Subject: bottle priming with fresh cider
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 1992 19:14:19 EDT
From: mamccabe@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Mike McCabe)
I've had four gallons (as much as I could steal from the dining hall)
bubbling away with some of the yeast from a batch of beer, and perhaps
soon it'll be time to bottle... I give an apologetic nod to thos who
recoil in horror at the thought of using beer yeast, this is my first
time. I'm a little worried, as well - I impressed the roommates with
the beer, but will they recoil in horror at the cider's tartness?
Anyway, my question:
I'd like to make a sparkling cider, and it occurs to me that I can
just as well prime the cider with fresh cider as with corn sugar
before bottling. How much (in four gallons) will give me a nice,
light carbonation? Will the new particulates that fresh cider would
introduce make corn sugar a better idea? (I'd like the final product
to be clear.)
Many thanks,
Mike Neophyte
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Date: Tue, 20 Oct 92 18:22 CDT
From: jimf@iwtdr.att.com
Subject: cider press experience
> The flavor of my first batch has a definite pine taste,
> which doesn't make it undrinkable but nearly so. Is this
> why real presses are made of oak? I'm not sure how to get
> rid of it.
Well the second batch is definitely much more drinkable, with a
slight pine odor but no really noticeable flavor. I mashed up a
bunch of 2nd rate apples and let them sit in the press for 3 days
for conditioning, then tossed them out. The pine odor has decreased
a lot also.
A major problem is that the mashed up apples get squeezed into the
holes and soon plug them up so the juice doesn't drain out at all.
I am going to try putting the mashed up apples in a dampened piece of
cotton duck cloth before pressing. I bought some burlap and washed it
but the incredible amount of lint makes me think I don't want to use it
unless I like a lot of lint and fuzz in my cider, which I don't.
My wife saw a press at a local orchard - it was shaped somewhat like a
very large accordion and had a canvas type cloth in it through which
the juice was squeezed.
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Date: Wed, 21 Oct 92 08:46 CDT
From: jimf@iwtdr.att.com
Subject: bottling
My first batch of cider seems to have stopped fermenting or
slowed down to near 0 after a month using Whitbread Ale yeast.
No bubbles in the airlock but a little bit of foaming in the
neck of the jar. But it has not really cleared - it's somewhat
cloudy. I was thinking of adding a little cinnamon, letting it
set for a few days, adding a little sugar, then bottling in
Grolsch bottles.
Should it be clear before bottling?
If I add a little sugar, will the Grolsch bottles explode or
can they handle the pressure?
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Date: Wed, 21 Oct 92 7:28:05 PDT
From: Buckaroo Banzai <u_banzai@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu>
Subject: Continuing Adventures of CiderMan!
[update on the progress of my cider]
I started with a one gallong jug of unfiltered apple juice, that was fresh
pressed, then bottled.
(This is a test batch, I have 4 more gallons that I want to do.)
OG was 50, and I added some actively fermenting beer wort (~100ml) to it, and
added a fermentation lock. (Yeast in the beer was Whitbred Ale.)
Fermented at or around 72F.
5 days later, SG is now ~10, and I have basically a very dry semi-flat wine.
My roomates say it has some off alcohol flavor or nose, but it smells fine, and
(thankfully) doesn't taste like vinegar to me.
My question now is, I want to transfer it to a new container (the jug has about
1/2 inch of trub now) and sweeten it up.
I was thinking there were a few ways I could do this:
1) Rack to a new container, airlock it, use vodka for liquid in airlock, and
refrigerate the cider down to about 35F. This would, hopefully, kill all
the yeast. I could then warm up the right amount (???) of sugar and
water, add it to the cider, and force carbonate in a Cornelius keg.
2) Rack to a new container, airlock it. Add ~.5# of Corn Sugar in ~250mL of
water that has been boiled and cooled. Wait for it to ferment out, and
hopefully the yeast will stop working before all the sugar is gone?
Then transfer to Cornelius keg and force carbonate.
(my calculations for Corn Sugar are 35 SG points/lb/gallon. Is this right?)
3) Use potassium sorbate (how much, again...), add x lbs of sugar to sweeten?
4) <<Your erudite suggestion goes here.>>
Thanks to all,
Marc Tamsky
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Date: 21 Oct 92 11:25:00 PST
From: John Fitzgerald <johnf@ccgate.sandiegoca.NCR.COM>
Subject: Re: chemical use in sweet cider
I've tasted some production (Bulmers) medium sweet cider, and I think I
could get used to the stuff! My main concern is the difficulty in producing
a sweet cider - i.e. at bottling time, killing the yeast, adding 'some' new
yeast, priming with 'just enough' priming sugar, waiting for the explosions,
etc. It sounds all too risky (I've had some 'ginger beer' grenades go
off in my closet, I decided I don't like it). So here's my idea. Ok it may be
un-orthodox, but why not let the cider ferment out, prime with just enough sugar
to carbonate, and also add some artificial sweetener to adjust the taste. My
guess is that aspartame/Nutrasweet would be the best candidate, and since it
really isn't sugar, it just stimulates the senses of sweetness, that the yeast
would probably leave it alone. Is this plausible? Would it work? Would I be
violating the yet-unwritten Reinheitsgebot-de-appls?
Any replies/posts are welcome.
John.
(alternate email address: john.fitzgerald@sandiegoca.ncr.com)
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