Recent content by pimento

On friday I bottled my latest cider, it's just a simple 6 gallons of fresh cider, 2 lbs of turbinado sugar and a pack of ec-1118, backsweetened with 6 cans of AJ concentrate. I don't have all the data yet, but I can see this is going to be a short test because of the ec-1118. I bottled friday...

Good, one variable down. From now on I won't squeeze the air out and I'm going to mark my bottle so I always get the same headspace.

Something just occurred to me while looking back at the first thread, when I filled my gauged bottle I squeezed it to get all the air out before capping, just like i do when using them to test for carbonation. From your picture I can't tell if you did the same. That might also have contributed...

In thinking about it, I'm not sure the residual co2 from fermentation really impacts the experiment, since all we are looking for is a safe pressure to pasteurize at. All the residual co2 does is help us get to that number quicker. In fact, that initial burst of pressure we both saw, 5psi...

A full degass is generally done for wines. As long as you don't go overboard, oxidation isn't a problem since as you said, the co2 coming out is heavier than air and will push any oxygen out of the bottle/bucket leaving a nice blanket of co2 over the wine. You do have to be more careful...

You're correct, when it's heated the co2 comes out of solution and crowds into the headspace causing the pressure to rise. As it cools it slowly returns to equilibrium dissolving into the liquid. The co2 in solution doesn't cause as much pressure as it does out of solution. The co2 left...

As long as you're ok with a dry cider and don't plan on backsweetening, using a standard amount of priming sugar will carbonate it just like a beer. After fermentation is complete, 3.6 ozs of table sugar added to the 5 gallons will give you normal carbonation. That amount won't add much to...

I just cracked open my gauged pop bottle and it had less carbonation than the rest. It may be that when I split the batches the priming sugar wasn't mixed well and that bottle got a bit less. I won't be splitting this coming batch, so we'll see how it compares.

Did you even bother to read your own link? Can you point to me where hightest mentions mead fermentation slowing down because of lower sugar levels in the last 10%? Notice that he never says that. In fact he's saying the same thing I did, that yeast with to little nutrients will slow...

They were room temp, before pasteurizing. I expect they will get less foamy once refrigerated, but still a higher carb than i'd like. I'm bottling another cider next week, so we'll see how that stacks up.

If you'd bothered to read my full post you'd see that only half my graff was done dry, the other half was backsweetened to a level similar to RukusDMs. I have just now finished pasteurizing the whole batch and there was very little difference in carbonation between the two. Your theory...

I forgot to post the yeast pasteurization temperature links earlier. Advances in Applied Microbiology on google books The Biological Impact of Flash Pasteurization Over a Wide Temperature Interval The Handbook of Food Preservation They all recommend that 60-65C or 140-150F for 30-40...

I've been following and replicating RukusDMs experiment since last week and he asked me to post my data here as well. I bottled a batch of graff on 11/4/10, half I backsweetened and half I bottled with the standard amount of priming sugar for 2.5 volumes. There were a few differences...

For those who've used it, Do you put it in during the boil, primary or secondary? And how do you prepare it, shredding, thin slices, thick slices?

This is important. Sulphury = can be dealt with Bready/yeasty = same Moldy = worse, but may be recoverable Vinegary = just walk away. Most random comment ever, welcome to the forums :D