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What type of apples are you using? and do they make good cider?
My better half is looking at buying a 'Katy' apple tree for her allotment for eating and maybe a cheeky bit of cider on the side.
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Nov 10, 2009 13:01:54 GMT
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What type of apples are you using? and do they make good cider? My better half is looking at buying a 'Katy' apple tree for her allotment for eating and maybe a cheeky bit of cider on the side. Katy - and indeed other similar sweet-sharp eaters - will make you a very nice cider in the eastern counties style, that is a clean apple hit without the tannic bite you'll find in west country ciders. |
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor |
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Our apples are a mix of, i think katy, and coxs for a bit of sweetness.
You don't have to add any yeast, but if you want a quicker and more commercial style cider then you need to, to boost the alcohol up quickly for fast bottling (resulting in a light fizzy cider rather than a dark brown flat cider).
You would usually pasturize the apple juice first though, as the natural apple yeast would just keep fermenting in the bottles.
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Nov 12, 2009 14:25:05 GMT
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You don't have to add any yeast, but if you want a quicker and more commercial style cider then you need to, to boost the alcohol up quickly for fast bottling (resulting in a light fizzy cider rather than a dark brown flat cider). You would usually pasturize the apple juice first though, as the natural apple yeast would just keep fermenting in the bottles. ] Not 100% true  What happens with either type of yeast is that the yeast keeps fermenting until it either runs out of sugar or runs out of nutrients. Fast cultured yeast or slower natural yeasts, those two factors remain the same. The result is a dry cider once fermentation has finished, if you've got it fermenting in the bottles then you've bottled too early. The French cidermakers perfected the technique, called keeving, of starving the yeast by removing the pectin to finish fermentation before all the sugar has gone, resulting in a naturally sweet cider. Some fermentations will do this naturally, but that's a much riskier business as hungry yeast can start doing silly things like making H2S (bad egg smell) from other compounds in the cider The norm in the real cider world is not to pasteurise the juice but to add sulphites - campden tablets in homebrew parlance - to it. This kills all the bacteria that give your cider "off" tastes, and can kill the natural yeasts too if you add anough of it. Industrial ciders are pasteurised and carbonated as a matter of course. But in the context of this thread that can't really be considered cider |
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"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor |
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Nov 12, 2009 14:55:03 GMT
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I bow down to your superior cider knowledge.
I recently went to the cornish cyder farm, that make a traditional scrumpy and something called rattler, that is actually pretty good stuff if you can get a hold of it.
I was surprised to hear that there that all their apple juice was pasturized, and they used fast acting yeast that seemed to stop working at about 7%. IIRC they bottle it after about 14 days.
I always assumed that because it had only sat in the barrel for 2 weeks it didn't have time to take on any colour, and then they carbonated it for the fizzy stuff.
however, I thought the french would add extra sugar befor bottling, which the leftover yeast would use, causing some carbonation? is this not the case?
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Nov 12, 2009 16:05:46 GMT
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I only walk in the footsteps of giants: www.ciderworkshop.com/The nutrients are like fertiliser for a plant, without them there can be all the sugar in the world and the yeast still won't ferment. The French process merely removes the nutrients at the right point et voila! naturally sweet cider. I've never tried keeving so my cider is always super-dry. The process the Cornish place use, pasteurisation, very quick fermentation and carbonating, will make cider. It just won't necessarily make the best cider. It's analagous to you using supermarket carton juice and a SodaStream rather than your rather awesome scratter and press. |
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Last Edit: Nov 12, 2009 16:13:06 GMT by herald948
"Jeremy Clarkson, a man we motor enthusiasts need on our side like Lewis Hamilton's F1 car needs a towing ball and a Sprite Musketeer" My motor |
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