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Cider Digest #1515
Subject: Cider Digest #1515, 27 June 2009
From: cider-request@talisman.com
Cider Digest #1515 27 June 2009
Cider and Perry Discussion Forum
Contents:
Non-keeve clarification (Charles McGonegal)
Sucker Growth ("Rich Anderson")
Early Racking ("Rich Anderson")
Rotten egg smell in recently bottled cider (John Simmons)
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Digest Janitor: Dick Dunn
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Subject: Non-keeve clarification
From: Charles McGonegal <cpm@appletrue.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:34:36 -0500
Duncan and Tim,
I've been watching your conversation on spontaneous clarification with
interest.
Someone with a more subtle grasp of the chemistry may correct me, but
I don't think it's the anthocyanins doing the clarifying trick. I have
watched the bleaching by sulfite ( and cried over it) , but in hybrid
grapes - not red fleshed crabs ( which I also use)
The cases of non-keeve clearing I've seen were all in barrels that had
been sent to frozen storage, then retrieved and thawed slowly. The
other thing I noticed was that in these barrels jelly eels had formed
where juice had seeped out the top knot of the liner. I've also done
this with pear, but never found pear jelly eels or had a sweet perry
clear. For that matter, I've never seen pectinase have a noticable
effect on pear juice.
What I don't recall is if these barrels cleared before or after adding
a pectinase, or both. But I suspect this clearing is pectin related.
Something to experiment on this fall!
Charles
AEppeltreow winery
Sent from my iPhone
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Subject: Sucker Growth
From: "Rich Anderson" <rhanderson@centurytel.net>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:38:56 -0700
Casey, as long as the new growth is above the graft, I think your trees are
in good shape. I would suggest that you prune to a single leader and it
should start to feather next year. You want to remove all the low feathers
so that you can work around the trunk and that you do not have to stoop to
prune and pick.
There are a number of thriving cider apple orchards in wet, clayey Northwest
soils, the one thing you may need do is insure that there is no standing
water; apples trees do not like wet roots.
I remember planting some of our orchard in December, when the very fine
silty soils were nothing but wet gruel; the trees survived as there was
ample drainage on either side of each row to carry off excess water.
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Subject: Early Racking
From: "Rich Anderson" <rhanderson@centurytel.net>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:09:08 -0700
Well here is my 2 cents worth on early racking. The cider I make is fairly
tannic and high acid and fermented at ambient temperature here in the
Northwest. I worry about the new cider sitting on the yeast lees and tend to
rack after about 6 weeks regardless of the SG. I am often disappointed to
find few lees but a fair number of solids that have dropped. The downside of
racking early is the juice loss. However, I believe that overall I get a
slower fermentation and a softer cider when all is done a month or so later
and the quality of the cider is what is important.
------------------------------
Subject: Rotten egg smell in recently bottled cider
From: John Simmons <32bituser@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:44:22 -0400
I recently bottled two carboys of cider from last Fall's harvest. When I
bottled them, I did not NOTICE any off taste or smell. I bottled them
"still". This was two weeks ago. Last night I opened one, and I notice that
it has a sulphury/rotten egg smell, that also seems to be noticable in the
taste. Everything I have been able to find on the 'Net on this essentially
translates into "I'm screwed"... I have 6 other carboys from last Fall, that
I am afraid to sample from, for fear of what I will find.
So, the question... does anyone have any experience that indicates the
possibility that something like this needs to just age out?? I found a
reference that indicates that if you catch this problem in the carboy, you
can add sugar and yeast nutrient, and let the renewed fermentation drive the
smells off.. have any of you ever had to do this?
Any thoughts/advice would be appreciated.
John Simmons
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End of Cider Digest #1515
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