Thanks for all the good info on cider making on here! Am a newbee to the forum so a quick bit of background,
we have been making a light fruit sparkling wine/cider for a few years using a basic country recipe + whole fruit+ coopers home brew fermenter( we live in orchard country so have unlimited access to seconds fruit year round)we are quite happy with the results but now that we have the wonders of the internet and all this info I,m now wondering if a few tweaks will make it even better.
Basic recipe used for all fruits is ...Wash and then Crush about 10kg fruit, add a couple litres hot water to bring to a reasonable temp (looking for 18-20c)
stir in sugar as necessary to get SG over 1050 ,pitch in yeast(SN9 or EC1118).
Stir for 5-7 days then rack and strain pulp ,return to fermenter and allow to ferment out, usually finishing at 998-1.000.
Bottle with priming sugar ,crown seal and wait ,usually try after 14 days or so.Any cloudiness settles with aging but I find that if carbonation is brisk then this causes the sediment to rise up quickly on opening the bottle ,still tastes ok!
Currently drinking a very fine perry bottled end august.
My questions are -
Will the addition of pectinase help with the cloudiness? If so when to add and how much,anything I,ve read says 3-5gms per 5litres but i start off with pulp not juice?also do I let the fruit sit for a period after adding the pectinase before adding sugar and yeast etc
-Cold conditioning...how cold ..how long..will it kill off any remaining active yeast cells and if so how to restart for bottle carbing?
- sometimes we add 500gm sultanas to initial must would a natural grape juice give a better result?
Sorry for the epic post and thanks for the opportunity
we have been making a light fruit sparkling wine/cider for a few years using a basic country recipe + whole fruit+ coopers home brew fermenter( we live in orchard country so have unlimited access to seconds fruit year round)we are quite happy with the results but now that we have the wonders of the internet and all this info I,m now wondering if a few tweaks will make it even better.
Basic recipe used for all fruits is ...Wash and then Crush about 10kg fruit, add a couple litres hot water to bring to a reasonable temp (looking for 18-20c)
stir in sugar as necessary to get SG over 1050 ,pitch in yeast(SN9 or EC1118).
Stir for 5-7 days then rack and strain pulp ,return to fermenter and allow to ferment out, usually finishing at 998-1.000.
Bottle with priming sugar ,crown seal and wait ,usually try after 14 days or so.Any cloudiness settles with aging but I find that if carbonation is brisk then this causes the sediment to rise up quickly on opening the bottle ,still tastes ok!
Currently drinking a very fine perry bottled end august.
My questions are -
Will the addition of pectinase help with the cloudiness? If so when to add and how much,anything I,ve read says 3-5gms per 5litres but i start off with pulp not juice?also do I let the fruit sit for a period after adding the pectinase before adding sugar and yeast etc
-Cold conditioning...how cold ..how long..will it kill off any remaining active yeast cells and if so how to restart for bottle carbing?
- sometimes we add 500gm sultanas to initial must would a natural grape juice give a better result?
Sorry for the epic post and thanks for the opportunity
