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Cider Digest #0676
Subject: Cider Digest #676, 23 July 1997
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #676 23 July 1997
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Scrumpy!! (Andrew Lea)
Sweet cider and low attenuation yeast (Andrew Lea)
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Subject: Scrumpy!!
From: Andrew Lea <andrew_lea@compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 15:33:17 -0400
In this part of the world (South and West England), 'scrumping' still
retains its original meaning of gathering small or windfall apples. Hence
'scrumpy' was a derogatory term for a rough cider made from poor quality
fruit! In recent years it's been hijacked by marketing men and the West
Country tourist industry to confer a bogus 'rustic' status on their
products!
Frankly it makes me wince every time I hear it used - but perhaps I'm just
a little too sensitive!!
The part about the meat, by the way, is absolutely true, and many West
Country cidermakers did deliberately suspend a leg of lamb in the vat to
release nutrients to get the fermentation to go quicker. Ammonium
phosphate and thiamin are a much safer modern alternative!!
Andrew Lea, nr Oxford, UK
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Subject: Sweet cider and low attenuation yeast
From: Andrew Lea <andrew_lea@compuserve.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 15:33:16 -0400
In Digest #673, Pickleman asked
>>Has anyone tried to make a sweet cider by using a beer yeast
>>with low attenuation?
I'm going to stick my neck out here and say that this just doesn't work.
The reason is as follows:
In wort, most of the sugar is in the form of glucose, maltose,
maltotriose, maltotetrose etc.. A so-called 'low attentuation' yeast is
simply one that can ferment the glucose and maltose but cannot easily
digest the other (higher) sugars. Hence these remain and the beer can be
racked off still containing large quantities of these unfermented sugars
and thus remains sweet.
In apple and grape juice (must) the only sugars are fructose, sucrose and
glucose. These are totally fermentable by all Saccharomyces cerevisiae
yeasts, hence all ciders and wines will tend to go to absolute dryness,
whether or not you use a 'low attenuation' yeast. The term is only
applicable in wort, not in cidermaking , whose biochemistry is so
different. For the same reason it's impossible to make a naturally sweet
wine with a 'low attenuation' yeast either - if it could be done, it would
have major commercial applications! As Marc Montefusco wrote in Digest 674:
>>Cider making is far closer in spirit (sorry for the pun) and
>>technique to wine making than it is to brewing.
So you brewers out there need to exchange your brewers mindset for a
winemakers mindset to help you make cider!
Ways to make a naturally sweet cider by arrested fermentation are:
1. Ferment very cold and rack off repeatedly so all the non-sugar yeast
nutrients are removed and the yeast cannot grow.
2. Use juices from big old trees which aren't fertilised and are very low
in nitrogen. Don't add any nutrient salts.
3. Use a 'natural' fermentation which will be conducted by 'wild' i.e.
non-Saccharomyces yeasts or by non-adapted Saccharomyces types.
This latter is what I do and it works. If you're clever (and lucky!) you
can even get it sweet and sparkling! See my Web page (part 4 - customising
your cider) for some details
Andrew Lea, nr Oxford, UK
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/andrew_lea
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End of Cider Digest #676
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