Re: [mba] Cider Discussion Part 1 - Got your juice...now what?

Great! Thank you! ------------------------------ *From:* beckel &lt;beckel(a)gmail.com&gt; *To:* MBA &lt;mba(a)thebarn.com&gt; *Sent:* Monday, October 27, 2014 10:44 AM *Subject:* Re: [mba] Cider Discussion Part 1 - Got your juice...now what? I have typically added yeast nutrients of the same quantity as I do for normal batches and have found that they ferment at about the same rate resulting in a very similar gravity. Cheers! Jonathan Beckel On Mon, Oct 27, 2014 at 8:48 AM, Mr Paul Illa &lt;zip100473(a)yahoo.com&gt; wrote: I was thinking I might just roll with wild yeast. Any hints do's or don'ts? Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android <https://overview.mail.yahoo.com/mobile/?.src=Android> From:"beckel" &lt;beckel(a)gmail.com&gt; Date:Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 1:33 PM Subject:Re: [mba] Cider Discussion Part 1 - Got your juice...now what? Dave, I think those are some good general suggestions. Like Don, I don't bother inhibiting the natural yeast, the commercial yeast is plenty good at overpowering it. Not to mention I always enjoy fermenting one batch with said natural yeast. But with that said I know many club members make great cider and do kill the natural yeast. Over the years I have also stopped using pectic enzyme and have no clarification issues. Scott, I'm guessing the yeast you pitched never got fermenting healthily enough. I know most people had slower initial fermentation last year. I wonder if there was still too much SO2 present when you pitched. I know 1/1 gallon is the recommended amount, but I think many people use less. Chris Smith can clarify what he does if he sees this as i know he uses campden tablets. Infections are no fun, sorry to hear. Cheers! Jonathan Beckel On Fri, Oct 24, 2014 at 12:21 PM, Scott Trenda &lt;korisu(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote: Thanks, and yeah, it was. It sucked not being able to trust my equipment to put out clean beer. I think the bottom line is that if you have the option, you might as well just use pasteurized cider to begin with. You avoid the risk of contamination at all levels by doing so. ~ Scott through the club buy. I have been experimenting with NOT using camden tablets at all, the last couple of years, and just pitching yeast immediately when I get home. I have had great results. It turns out just as well as when I used the camden tablets. So I'm not sure what happened with your cider, but that is a bummer. Sounds like a pain in the ass to get your system all clean again. gallons of unpasteurized cider from Pine Tree in Dellwood. I crushed and used one Campden tablet per gallon, waited 48 hours and pitched. It apparently wasn't enough, because the cider ended up tasting VERY infected - I had to dump the whole batch because it was so undrinkable. What's more, the bacteria from that cider ended up infecting my siphon, which in turn infected several (7-8) subsequent batches of beer I brewed. The bacteria in there is nasty stuff that can even infect a beer in the secondary, and will leave a sharp throat taste in any beer if infected. The only good result I had out of that cider was when I took the remaining six gallons and boiled it in my kettle before pitching. Beware! the club website and would love some thoughts/comments/suggestions from all the cider experts in the club here. I posted this to the Facebook group as well. I'll compile the suggestions and answers and share with everyone. thoughts on the process. I'll stagger these over a couple days to cover the specific steps. Here's what I have. What did I screw up or what would you suggest doing differently? _______________________________________________ mba mailing list mba(a)thebarn.com http://www.thebarn.com/mailman/listinfo/mba _______________________________________________ mba mailing list mba(a)thebarn.com http://www.thebarn.com/mailman/listinfo/mba