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Cider Digest #0986
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Subject: Cider Digest #986, 12 August 2002
Cider Digest #986 12 August 2002
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues
Dick Dunn, Digest Janitor
Contents:
Malo-Lactic Fun! (Andrew Lea)
Tannin addition (Andrew Lea)
NSW Website; chill requirements (Tim Bray)
Keeving (Tim Bray)
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Subject: Malo-Lactic Fun!
From: Andrew Lea <andrew_lea@compuserve.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 15:15:50 +0100
I said I would report back on my trial of an added malo-lactic culture
this year. This is what happened:
I started on 5th May with a fully fermented cider at pH 3.3 and TA
0.80%. I added a powdered L oenos culture (Bio-Start Oenos SK1) which I
got from Vigo here in the UK. It's made by Lallemand France and
distributed by Erbsloeh in Germany. The recommended procedure is to
suspend it in water for 30 mins and then add to the wine - that's just
what I did, using the suggested dose (10 g to 500 litres).
The acid started to drop steadily and after a month the TA had dropped
to 0.66%. After a further month (end of June) the TA was down to 0.54%
which was just about where I wanted to be for organoleptic balance. I
monitored it by TLC and there was still some unconverted malic acid left
at this stage. In mid July I had the bulk of the cider bottled (TA
0.50%), carbonated and pasteurised - the remainder will be naturally
conditioned and has been blended back with some more acid cider for the
MLF to continue to its natural conclusion.
I had an uninoculated 'control' sample which went into spontaneous MLF
in parallel with the inoculated sample. This lost its acid much more
slowly and was lagging a good month behind the incoculated sample.
There was some flavour difference between the two - the inoculated
sample seemed somewhat more rounded and 'buttery' (and hedonically
preferable) but since we all know that this character of Chardonnay
derives mostly from MLF it could just have been wishful thinking on my
part! Certainly there are no off-flavours (yet!) which was a major
worry with these cultures up to a few years ago. Evidently the
technology is now mature and reliable!
I am very impressed and would certainly use the culture again if I
needed to be sure of reliably dropping the acid by half in a reasonable
time span. The minimum recommended temperature is 17 C but apart from
one week towards the end of the trial, the cider was significantly below
that value (probably about 12 C) for all the two months.
Andrew Lea
- ----------------------------------
Visit the Wittenham Hill Cider Page at
http://www.cider.org.uk
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Subject: Tannin addition
From: Andrew Lea <andrew_lea@compuserve.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 13:27:54 +0100
I have had some limited professional experience years back of adding
grape tannin to low-juice ciders for 'product development' and sensory
profiling purposes. It was horrible! All the commercial tannins which we
could source here in the UK had nasty 'woody' off-flavours.
I have also recently been analysing the commercial so-called grapeseed
procyanidins which are now being widely marketed into the health food
industry. These are a by-product extracted from grape and wine
'marc'. Some of them are high in procyanidins, some are mostly free
gallic acid and catechins. So their 'tannin' properties vary widely, and
there is no easy way for the buyer to know this.
The extract quality is immensely variable and it is impossible to
generalise. All you can do is to get a sample of a number of them, and
try them out in a bland wine to see which, if any, would be anywhere
close to usable at the levels you need. I suspect you will be sadly
disappointed!
In Germany, they get around this problem by using the high-tannin fruits
of a wild Sorbus species (the Speierling or Sorbus domestica) to add to
their low tannin ciders, which has been done for centuries. IMHO, this
is a much better route than adding commercial tannin extracts. North
America must be stuffed full of wild Sorbus and Prunus species whose
fruits could be used. Time for you guys to get experimenting!!
Andrew Lea
nr Oxford, UK
- ----------------------------------
Visit the Wittenham Hill Cider Page at
http://www.cider.org.uk
------------------------------
Subject: NSW Website; chill requirements
From: Tim Bray <tbray@mcn.org>
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 22:38:25 -0700
>You can check the two at the NSW Agriculture website
>Brown Snout at http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/reader/11585
>and Browns Apple at http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/reader/11584
Thanks for posting this link - I had not seen this site before. One
interesting thing is the reference to chill requirements for cider
apples. In general this seems to be a neglected aspect, as compared to the
information available for dessert apples. I notice that both Stoke Red and
Kingston Black are said to require lots of chill, and don't do well in
warmer areas. This is consistent with my experience with Stoke Red - it
almost would not break bud here in the maritime California climate. But my
Kingston Blacks have been doing quite well, showing no symptoms of chill
deficiency.
I think I can also assert that Yarlington Mill and Porter's Perfection do
well in a mild-winter climate. Noel des Champs definitely needs more chill
than it gets here. Sweet Coppin was very late this year also; it must be
self-fertile, as I have a few apples on one tree, and nothing else bloomed
in June!
Cheers,
Tim
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Subject: Keeving
From: Tim Bray <tbray@mcn.org>
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 22:45:07 -0700
DrewZimmer wrote:
>Cider made at 55F is usually very good, the early apples ferment a bit too
>quickly, but the late ones seem to ferment slowly enough. I do keeving in a
>15 gallon plastic garbage can in a refrigerator with all the shelves removed
>then move the clear juice to the closet to ferment.
You keeve successfully? Tell us more, please! What varieties, do you
macerate, do you use additives? What temperature?
I haven't tried it yet, but the information in Warcollier is confusing, and
Andrew Lea's experimental results seemed to indicate that a certain enzyme
had a significant effect. I would really like to hear from someone who has
done this with juice from American apples.
Cheers,
Tim
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End of Cider Digest #986
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