Pasteurized Peach Cider??

Evan! · 07-01-2007, 07:22 PM

I've never made cider before. Plenty of beer, but no cider. I'd like to start.

Today, we went to a peach orchard to get some peaches, and they had peach cider. I tried a small bottle, and it was very tasty, and I thought it'd make good alcoholic cider. Though it's made fresh at the orchard, it does have a few additives. Ingredients are:

Peach juice, sugar, natural peach flavoring, citric acid, and erythorbic acid to promote color retention.

So, if I got a gallon of this stuff and added some dextrose and cider yeast, would it make good peach cider? Or are those acid additives gonna hurt it? And is there anything else I need to know about making cider? The closest I've gotten so far is EdWort's Apfelwein.

**Yooper** · 07-02-2007, 12:02 AM

Sounds like it would work. I'd check the s.g. before I added the sugar though. You probably don't want to add sugar unless the s.g is under 1.060 or so. You might have to look up erythorbic acid to make sure it's not a preservative, first.

flowerysong · 07-02-2007, 12:16 PM

Erythorbic acid is a stereoisomer of ascorbic acid (vitamin C). It is commonly used as an antioxidant in prepared foods, and should not adversely affect fermentation.

JimC · 07-02-2007, 12:42 PM

The peach flavor in Perry tents to be very subtle. Perry tends to taste very white wine like.

Evan! · 07-02-2007, 01:08 PM

Citric Acid shouldn't cause any problems, right?

I thought "perry" was made from pears. Or is that label applicable to peaches, etc., as well?

**Yooper** · 07-02-2007, 01:43 PM

Citric acid won't cause problems- it's just a flavoring. I've added it to wines at times.

I thought perry was just pears, too. I'm certainly no expert, though!

Evan! · 07-02-2007, 01:46 PM

Yeah, I didn't think it'd cause problems. I just have a friend who is a winemaker at a local operation, and she said she uses citric acid to sanitize her barrels...so I wanted to make sure it wasn't too caustic.

Thanks, Lorena!