Killing yeast

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Firelion70

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Just making first cider and still a bit of a brew noob!
I know I have to kill the yeast off before drinking but should I do it before racking or after a week of racking or what?
I would like a sweet carbed cider, cheers
 
Firelion70 said:
Just making first cider and still a bit of a brew noob!
I know I have to kill the yeast off before drinking but should I do it before racking or after a week of racking or what?
I would like a sweet carbed cider, cheers

Do you have a kegging setup? It's really the only realistic way to kill the yeast and still be able to carbonate, otherwise you NEED the yeast in order to carbonate.

If you have a kegging system, you can heat pasteurize the cider and then sweeten before force-carbonating. You can also use a combination of K-Meta (campden tablets) and potassium sorbate. I'm not going to give specific instructions, because frankly, a search will find you a ton of info, and I don't even know if you have the ability to force-carbonate.

If you don't have a kegging setup, you can still use either of the two methods above, but you will have to be okay with still cider (uncarbonated). The other option is to just leave the yeast alone and use some sort sweetener. Sucralose (Splenda) is the most popular these days, and stevia (Truvia, PureVia) is also very common. There are also a ton of other options as well, including aspartame, acesulfame potassium (Ace-K), neotame, saccharin, sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, glycerol (NOT glycol!), and even lactose... but, although these are just a small fraction of the sweetening products available, thls is probably representative of 99.999% of all beverages sweetened with an unfermentable sugar substitute, and you'd be extremely hard-pressed to ever run into beverages using anything else. Personally, after a ton of research into the health effects of calorie-free (as in negligibly caloric) sweeteners (combined with reasons of taste and body), I'd stick to sucralose, neotame, and possibly Ace-K, which, in combination with sucralose, tastes much more like real sugar.

If you're really adventurous and want to try the most traditional sweetener, try and get a hold of lead acetate. But good luck with that! Governments stopped allowing its use ages ago, when they discovered the amazing healing powers of lead. The conspiracy theorists obviously got this one right - you know, with the government outlawing the curing of diseases with any natural product because it can't be patented! :D :rolleyes: I'm just not sure if the yeast could survive being poiso- errrrr, being so happy that they could literally burst with joy.
 
and if you don't have a kegging setup you need to let the yest carb up your cider in the bottle and then become very inactive either by 1. becoming very dead or 2. becoming (and remaining) very cold, neither method is foolproof and you run the risk of exploding bottles. read the sticky thread at the top of the cider page on bottle pasteurization and you will see what you are up against
 
Firelion, every beginning cider maker should read www.makinghardcider.com - follow her advice and you'll have a great start.

The folks above have identified the conundrum of wanting to do semi-dry (sweet), carbonated, bottle-conditioned cider. I make a draft-style cider with only juice, pectic enzyme, and Nottingham or similar yeast. The method is simple, but requires some attention. I let the fermentation go until the cider is at around 1.012, bottle, then monitor the bottle carbonation and pasteurize the bottles when they are carbed up, stopping the yeast.
 
This worked for me when making an all natural Cider:
After primary fermentation and some secondary aging I cold crashed my 4 gallon Cider that was around 1.000. I added apple juice frozen concentrate (thawed) until I got up to 1.012 which took two cans (made the cider perfectly semi-sweet). I then put it back in the fridge and later kegged it to keep the yeast from fermenting. When I was getting ready for a competition I bottled the cider with a wand at a 2psi, capped it, then put a pie pan (which I drilled holes in) upside down in my brew pot, I put the bottles on the pan with a thermometer inside an open bottle of water that is the same temp of the bottled cider, heated the water at a medium heat until the middle bottle was 166 degrees which I held for 10 minutes and turned off the stove. Once the bottles cooled a bit I took then out of the water and put on the counter until they were room temp. I kept the cider at room temp and sealed in a box for 1 month and opened one to confirm the yeast was killed and no it did not continue fermenting. No off flavors or bottle bombs. I'll let you know how I do in the competition.
 
Kind of ghetto but it works... I rack and let clear, add the necessary sugar at bottling to produce carbonation, bottle and I generally let sit at room temp for a week; crack one to see if the carbonation is to your liking and if it is load all the bottles in the dishwasher and run it on the hottest cycle. That will kill the yeast and hold the original carbonation.

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