How to get started in Cider. The definitive(ish) guide to beginner&#39

[Johngee]

I've just joined up and have been doing some research this morning re: sweetness.
An American guy put extra suger in 2nd fermentation for a short period and then placed into hot water to kill the yeast thereby retaining the sweetness.
Has anyone tried this?

Also, I see that lots mention raw/brown sugar - my research from today said to only use white sugar?

Looking for thoughts/opinions - thnx

 

[Hangover68]

You can use lactose to add sweetness, most HB shops will sell it.

 

[Grmblz]

I've just joined up and have been doing some research this morning re: sweetness.
An American guy put extra suger in 2nd fermentation for a short period and then placed into hot water to kill the yeast thereby retaining the sweetness.
Has anyone tried this?

Also, I see that lots mention raw/brown sugar - my research from today said to only use white sugar?

Looking for thoughts/opinions - thnx

See #19 page one, until you have experienced bottle bombs you have no idea just how dangerous they are.

 

[golfandbrew]

I've just joined up and have been doing some research this morning re: sweetness.
An American guy put extra suger in 2nd fermentation for a short period and then placed into hot water to kill the yeast thereby retaining the sweetness.
Has anyone tried this?

If you want more sweetness why not just add some sugar after you have poured your cider into a glass. Works for your coffee, no reason it shouldn't work for your cider.

Also, I see that lots mention raw/brown sugar - my research from today said to only use white sugar?

Looking for thoughts/opinions - thnx

 

[golfandbrew]

If you want more sweetness why not just add some sugar after you have poured your cider into a glass. Works for your coffee, no reason it shouldn't work for your cider.

 

[postmaster]

You could pour it into a glass like civilised folk...

Or just leave a little headspace in the bottle for a shot of cordial.

Are you sure about wine yeast and maltodextrin? Wine yeast has difficulties with any complex sugar. One of the key differentiators is that ale yeasts will ferment maltose and wine yeasts won't.

Lactose is milk sugar so yes, not vegan. Is yeast vegan?

Your options are pretty limited. Something like stevia will work but I find it tastes nasty. If you can keep the bottles cold you can add whatever sweetner you like and just keep them cold enough to prevent fermentation. Otherwise you need to get into some extra processing.

Sterile filtering before fermentation finishes will leave a sweet cider but carbonation will be an issue. You would need to force carbonate which may not be an option if you are bottling.

Some people bottle sweet, carbonate then pasturise the bottles to stop fermentation. I think they are insane and asking for glass explosions.

There are some traditional methods like Keeveing which reduce the nutrients in the juice and essentially stall fermentation early but for those you really need to be pressing your own apples.

Malolactic fermentation will smooth out a dry cider by converting malic acid into lactic acid which reduces the perceived acidity and makes it less sharp. That could be an option.

Or just learn to like it dry.

Cheers
Dave

Dave, I have pasturised in the Keg by heating to 65 deg and leave for 10 mins. I don.t think from memory it was very successful. We do scrumpy cider with the neighbour each year and he bottles with the 750ml pet bottle and has pasturised without much success. I use Mangrove jacks yeast. I am wondering if I used say Safale S40 which does not attenuate fully or am I asking for off flavours with that. He suggested after fermentation to put the juice into a boiler and pasturise to 65 deg, but I am concerned about infection by doing that.
Any thoughts on those two. S40 and heating the actual cider. Cheers. p.s. I Usually cold crash it (4 deg c) at 1.015 for sweetness, but the yeast still keeps working.

 

[Grmblz]

Scrumpy isn't sweet, however if you want residual sweetness in your beverage:

https://www.livestrong.com/article/353871-adverse-health-effects-of-potassium-sorbate/"Potassium sorbate is also used to prevent yeast from continuing to ferment in the wine-making process, according to Virginia Tech's Food Science & Technology department."

This is just a pointer, do your due diligence/homework, exploding bottles have and will inflict serious injury.

I make verjuice (bugger Maggie Beer and her $20 for 750ml of what is in effect waste product) and scrumpy, there's no need to kill everything, just prevent it from multiplying.

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

Can anyone recommend a wine press for apples ?

I' m gonna kill the juicer if I stick 10 kilos through again.

 

[Grmblz]

There's an article in BYO where some guy uses a waste disposal unit to pulverise the apples, after that your juicer might be able to cope?

 

[clarkejw]

I seem to remember reading somewhere about adding a litre of fresh apple juice to the brew immediately before kegging it. Don't know about bottling, and even that info could be wrong.

 

[ballantynedewolf]

Great 19 page thread. Admirable restraint and good advice from Airgead/Dave.
If you love Breton cider like I do, you might try keeving, but otherwise sweetening in the glass is surely the safest and easiest if you can't take it dry.
My question concerns conditioning in timber. Are timber barrels airtight enough? Would glass carboy and timber chips be better?

 

[BullseyeEBF]

For those using the Lavlin 71B, are you adding yeast nutrients too? Or not required with that particular strain?