Calcium Lactate effect on Apfelwein?

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bergman1118

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I made a batch of Ed Wort's Apfelwein for the first time the other day, and everything is going nicely.. fermentation has been going strong for a few days now. My only concern is, 2 of the 10 bottles of Apple Juice I used (grocery store was out of 1 gal AJ, so i had to buy 10-64 oz bottles :) ) contained calcium lactate (even though the labels were all the same!). Someone else made a post regarding this and its effect on the yeast (which I may add it definitely has had no ill effects, the fermentation looks strong), but my concern is its effect on the TASTE of the finished product...

it seems to me that the presence of calcium lactate may provide the potential for a reaction to occur forming lactic acid, and thus causing a sour taste... although this is just speculation, it seems possible. a guy in the huge apfelwein thread complained of a sour taste when using apple juice w/ calcium lactate (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/index248.html#post489699, last post on that page).. I was just wondering if anyone else ran into this problem, or has any insight..
 
anybody? i'm not overly concerned about it, just wondering if i could get some veteran apfelwein opinion on this :)
 
There is indeed a possibility that the lactate will be converted into lactic acid. The yeast is living anaerobically and as such have no way of removing the lactic acid/lactate. If you really worry about this you might use the tiniest of amounts of bicarb to raise the pH a little bit. Give it a taste first. If it's really to acidic you might add some bicarb.

Another option is to just carbonate the Apfelwein, sour drinks often taste better when you carb them and serve them chilly :)
 
ok cool, that makes sense that the sourness would mellow w/ carbonation.. i suppose its the same principle as with beer, when co2 helps mesh the flavors of the beer together during bottle conditioning and eliminates off flavors (to an extent). i planned on carbing this one anyway so hopefully that'll help. and i have access to sodium bicarb through the chem dept. so that's always an option.. you know i was thinking that might be something i could do but i didn't really know if sodium bicarb would be ok for beer.
 
Sodium bicarb can be bought from grocery stores. Look for arm and hammer brand for instance.

Too much of it will make everything gross though. Use tiny amounts at a time.
 
How did this end up going? The only gallon jugs of apple juice at the local grocery store are the store brand, and they contain calcium lactate and calcium gluconate. Will these affect the flavor? Do I need to hunt around for a another source of apple juice?
 
How did this end up going? The only gallon jugs of apple juice at the local grocery store are the store brand, and they contain calcium lactate and calcium gluconate. Will these affect the flavor? Do I need to hunt around for a another source of apple juice?

yeah i want to know how it went as well.
 
sorry for the delay. i just tasted the 2nd batch of apfelwein, brewed with apple juice containing no calcium lactate (at least, it wasn't in the list of ingredients), and there is a noticeable difference from the calcium lactate batch.

This recent batch turned out a LOT better than the first. The first batch had a noticeable grape-like taste, which I was told by an experienced homebrewer that this is an indication of some residual sugars left over from fermentation. Also, the first batch was noticeably a lot more tart and sour than the 2nd. This leads me to believe that lactic acid had indeed built up during fermentation from the presence of calcium lactate; the lactic acid buildup probably adversely effected the yeast and retarded fermentation, leading to a lower attenuation, which would explain the residual sugars. Also, another reason that makes me believe the yeast pooped out was because I didn't get any carbonation. I definitely bottled my 5 gallon batch with 5 oz of corn sugar like I always do, but none of the bottles were carbonated. And the sour taste obviously is from the lactic acid buildup.

SO, moral of the story:don't use apple juice with calcium lactate! that is, unless you want an unfinished, sour product. Granted, the first batch was not HORRIBLE. it was definitely still drinkable, but the second batch turned out so much better, and I'm sure it's because of that calcium lactate.
 
ugh,... I wish i have found this earlier....

making my first batch... but I'll try and carb it up and serve it to my 'friends'.... ;)
 
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