# Does Cider Get Light Strike? Or Oxidise?



## ekul (2/7/10)

My sister gifted me with about 150 crown seal bottles that she saved from uni. They are all blueish clear. I was going to put cider in half of them for her but as she won't have places to store them out of the dark so i need to know if cider gets light strike. If it does i can keep those bottles and give her some of my brown boys.

thanks


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## O'Henry (2/7/10)

It will not get light struck. You need iso-alpha-acids to be present for light stirke to occur. No hops=No light strike. 

It will benifit from not being in the sun though, as most foods would.

Edit: Any product with alcohol present will oxidise if care is not taken. Treat it the same as you would your beer.


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## gap (2/7/10)

It is the hops in the beer which causes the problem. So
unless you intend to put hops in your cider you should be ok.

regards

Graeme


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## kevin_smevin (2/7/10)

ekul said:


> My sister gifted me with about 150 crown seal bottles that she saved from uni. They are all blueish clear. I was going to put cider in half of them for her but as she won't have places to store them out of the dark so i need to know if cider gets light strike. If it does i can keep those bottles and give her some of my brown boys.
> 
> thanks




Light strike is usually to do with hops. Cider has no hops so will not become light struck. The UV light still might effect it somehow but cant say for sure.


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## brendo (2/7/10)

ekul said:


> My sister gifted me with about 150 crown seal bottles that she saved from uni. They are all blueish clear. I was going to put cider in half of them for her but as she won't have places to store them out of the dark so i need to know if cider gets light strike. If it does i can keep those bottles and give her some of my brown boys.
> 
> thanks



I can't see why, lightstrike/skunking is more about a reaction between UV rays promoting a a chemical reaction that results in the isomerised hops in your beer being altered into a different compound which is not entirely desireable.

So... unless you hopped your cider, you should be fine. 

As to oxidisation, this isn't a function of bottle colour, but rather your transfer practices.

Hope that helps,

Brendo


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## ekul (2/7/10)

Thanks guys. Now i can use all my clear bottles for cider 

Also, will there be any benefits if i boil down the juice to increase sugars per volume. as opposed to just adding dextrose? By my calculations it should come out at 5-6% which is fine, but my sister is a uni student so the stronger the better for her! Not that taste is at the top of her list, she drinks goon


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## SpillsMostOfIt (2/7/10)

ekul said:


> Thanks guys. Now i can use all my clear bottles for cider
> 
> Also, will there be any benefits if i boil down the juice to increase sugars per volume. as opposed to just adding dextrose? By my calculations it should come out at 5-6% which is fine, but my sister is a uni student so the stronger the better for her! Not that taste is at the top of her list, she drinks goon




1) Why not take a blue/clear bottle of cider and put it on the window sill for a few weeks and leave one of its siblings in a cupboard. Taste and report the difference, if any?

2) If you boil your apple juice, will you not be effectively cooking it? I would think that if you want to increase the alcohol content, you could/would add sugar to the juice or vodka to the cider. Either way... Ummmmm...


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## ekul (4/7/10)

SpillsMostOfIt said:


> 1) Why not take a blue/clear bottle of cider and put it on the window sill for a few weeks and leave one of its siblings in a cupboard. Taste and report the difference, if any?
> 
> 2) If you boil your apple juice, will you not be effectively cooking it? I would think that if you want to increase the alcohol content, you could/would add sugar to the juice or vodka to the cider. Either way... Ummmmm...



1) the bottles won't be sitting in direct sunlight, but they won't be in darkness either. Was just worried about exposure to ambient light. So it should be fine.

2) Cooking it? What is this? I didn't know that you could cook apple juice. What happens? I thought that people boil apple juice when its been crushed to kill bugs/wild yeast. Its not a necessity to boil it down, i thought it may be a way to up the sugars without having to add anything. It would probably make it a little thick though.

I tasted the small 'aldi apple juice special' batch that i made. It tasted delicious! In fact it tasted just like sparkling apple juice, couldn't taste booze at all. The booze is in there though, i could feel it.


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## DU99 (4/7/10)

i store mine in cardboard boxes with the top closed..no light issues..or you could cover them an old blanket or towels keeps the light away..


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## praxis178 (4/7/10)

ekul said:


> 2) Cooking it? What is this? I didn't know that you could cook apple juice. What happens? I thought that people boil apple juice when its been crushed to kill bugs/wild yeast. Its not a necessity to boil it down, i thought it may be a way to up the sugars without having to add anything. It would probably make it a little thick though.



It's to do with pectins, if you boil/heat fruit juice you muck with the pectins present there in. When you now ferment this juice the alcohol reacts with the pecin/yeast by products (is there anything yeast won't have a crack at eating?) to produce a condition called ropieness where visible "cords" are present in the finished product. Nothing bad as far as consumption goes, but a bit unsightly in the glass is all.


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## manticle (4/7/10)

And possibly a cooked flavour. Juice is not boiled when the apples are crushed - it may be pasteurised at temperatures of around 72 (exact figure I forget - could be 75 but thereabouts) for a short time which might be what you're thinking about. Storebought juice will most likely be pasteurised already.

A straight cider from juice will hit and OG of around 1050 and unless you stop fermentation early will ferment down to at least 1000 which gives a reasonable alcohol content. I would avoid boiling your cider to get a few extra gravity points - you'll change the flavour and probably not for the good. If you really need it above 6%, mix the finished product with apple brandy.


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## ekul (7/7/10)

The small batches of apple cider i made fermented quickly and got to a low fg. The full (23L) batch that i have made appears to have stalled at 1020. 

I thought the fermentation would be wuick as i made a nottingham starter from 2L of apple juice and pitched it when it was fermenting ferociously. However fermentation was slow and it stopped at 1040. I tipped in some saved US05 yeast that i had in the fridge, this brought it down to 1020. The only yeast that i have now to hopefully bring it down further is some coopers kit yeasts, but i don't want to use them in case it imparts offf flavours.

Would adding enzyme help kick things off again?

Am i using the wrong yeast?

Should i bottle and pray they don't explode?

The little batches were so easy!! And tasty. I might go buy some more juice, a cider yeast and start again. Would be a shame to lose all that half cider though.


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## /// (7/7/10)

Did you add Nutrient. Ferms stoping in the 20's are a good indicator the yeast has run out of additional nutrients, cider must unlike wort is nutrient deficient. 

The yeast may also keep ticking, add more and maybe some nutrient if you can. 

Cider can be oxidised like any product, but like strike is based around the lights affect on hops, so no need to worry there.

Scotty


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## the_yobbo (7/7/10)

Interesting developments. I too have done a few 2L cider trials with store bought juice. I'm yet to upscale it to a 23L brew yet and find it interesting that you've run into troubles when upscaling to a larger brew.

I'm unsure if it's too late to add at this stage, but I would have added some sort of yeast nutrient to the mix when pitching to give the yeast something to munch on to keep them healthy.

I'll be paying attention to others suggestions on this thread.

As far as light strike, I previously thought (from some thread on here ages ago) that it effects the yeast. UV rays killing yeast leading to off flavours. Is this not the case at all?


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## ekul (9/7/10)

I went and bought some champagne/wine yeast at the recomendation of the lhbs. Dropped another 10 gravity points to 1010. Going to stir it up tmo and hope it goes down the final 10 to 1000

Does anyone know if having three different types of yeast (i've got nottingham, US05 and now wine CL23) in my yeast cake will be dtrimental to brew health?

Next time i am def going to add some yeast nutrient to make things run smoothly!


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