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nwaite · 12-23-2011, 06:12 PM

My mother in law has given us a crap load of sweeten Apple sauce . Can I use this for cider making ? It has nothing added to it..

Tw0fish · 12-23-2011, 06:59 PM

hmm. Strain some (pour it in a muslin bag and squeeze out as much fluid as you can?) and take a specific gravity on it.

I mean, yes, it'll ferment like crazy with apple-y bits and a ton of sugar.. but I'd be worried for the texture. that's a lotta pectin you know

(eagerly following)

Daze · 12-23-2011, 08:51 PM

I would treat it with Pectic enzyme and add water to it... maybe about 4:1 (4 parts water to 1 part sauce to start) Let it sit covered, over night, in a cool place like the fridge and then I would pore it through a straining cloth and taste the liquid that comes out. if it has good flavor than I would check the SG if the SG is high enough bring the temp up to 160º to kill any contaminants, let it cool, pitch the yeast and go. If it does not taste good enough increase the sauce to water ratio and let it sit again. Repeat the process until you have a good flavor. If the SG is to low add some sugar. The best advice I can give you is...

1. use pectic enzyme
2. make sure it tastes good before you pitch the yeast as what you start with will have a direct effect on the final taste.
3. Make sure you check the SG AFTER the pectic enzyme has done its job AND AFTER you filter out the sauce chunks as these two things will give you a reading that is not accurate.

GinKings · 12-23-2011, 09:50 PM

I wouldn't suggest adding water. It would just dilute it.

I'd be tempted to ferment it as apple sauce. Fermentation will liquify it a bit. When fermentation is almost done, you could hang it in a muslin bag and let the liquid drain into a bucket. I probably wouldn't have suggested this a month ago due to oxidation concerns, but we recently did something similar. We crushed some apples in a grape crusher and fermented the apple pulp. When fermentation was almost done, we put it in a wine press. I was skeptical, but it worked pretty well.

Daze · 12-23-2011, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GinKings

I wouldn't suggest adding water. It would just dilute it.

because the apples have been already processed and sweetened it will probably need to be diluted, especially since part of what make applesauce apple sauce is you cook out a lot of the water. Obviously you want good flavor and you don't want it diluted to the point of being week, that is why I suggested trying it and then sampling the liquid you get to make sure you have a good flavor BEFORE fermenting. if not it will be what it is, good or bad. If you ferment the sauce directly you will have a hard time getting the solids out of the liquid because of them being so broken down.