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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Rob Gardner, Digest Coordinator

Contents:
  cider (Donald P Perley)

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Date: Sun, 23 Jul 89 08:17:10 EDT
From: perley at glacier.crd.ge.com (Donald P Perley)
Subject: cider

>as if it was beer" isn't quite clear to me, however. If two stage
>fermentation is used, how clear will the resulting beverage be? My
>experience with wine and cyser is that you need to rack several times
>before you'll get a nice, clear beverage.

Adding pectic enzyme before fermentation will break down the pectin
and help clear things up.

I generally keep it in the secondary for 5-6 weeks at about 55 degrees.
At this point it is still just a little hazy.  This will settle out
after a few months in the bottle.  The sediment looks like a coagulation,
so if you jostle the bottle accidently it doesn't take long to settle
down again. Since you are going to have the yeast sediment anyway,
it isn't too bad esthetically.  You could do a champaigne style 
disgorgement to get rid of it.

> I'd also like some more info
>about when to bottle the result (when fermentation is finished? or when the
>cider is clear?) and how much priming sugar to use (3/4 C per five
>gallons?).

I let it go a few weeks after fermentation is finished.  I use 1.5
cups of sugar.  Since the cider doesn't have the body of beer, this
higher level won't lead to a glass full of head.

One good thing about this procedure (as opposed to many rackings) is
that there is some fermentation after each transfer, which will use up
the minor amount of oxygen introduced in a carefull racking.  That
means you don't have to worry about maintaining a constant level of
S02.

-don perley

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End of HOMEBREW Digest #209, 07/24/89

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