Cider settling out question

[lucasmc]

Hi all. First time user here. I pressed six gallons of cider a couple days before Christmas. I had them fermenting in pails for a couple weeks before transferring into these one gallon jugs. I let them sit in the jugs for another two weeks and transferred them again. Anywho, here is what most of them look like now. They are slowly settling further down as the weeks go by. Just looking for some input to see if this kind of settling is normal, or if things have gone bad on me.

 

[SeeAliceBrewery]

I have never used the real cider to make mine...but from reading the forums...the real stuff takes awhile to settle out. I will wait to see what others say in response...but to me..this appears normal.

 

[HopSong]

I have not figured out how folks get clear cider in such a short time. I brewed a batch on Jan 14.. recipe and process shown in another post. Still looks like the OP pic on the right. So, today I did two experiments. In that one I will add 1 tsp gelatin flowered and dissolved. Still cooling off and I'm re-chilling it. In the second one, also posted in that other post I added another tsp of PE dissolved in warm water. It'll be interesting to see the results and time for this experiment.

 

[SeeAliceBrewery]

I have not figured out how folks get clear cider in such a short time. I brewed a batch on Jan 14.. recipe and process shown in another post. Still looks like the OP pic on the right. So, today I did two experiments. In that one I will add 1 tsp gelatin flowered and dissolved. Still cooling off and I'm re-chilling it. In the second one, also posted in that other post I added another tsp of PE dissolved in warm water. It'll be interesting to see the results and time for this experiment.

I think the biggest reason why folks like me get faster results is the fact most of us are using apple juice and concentrate as our base...most the folks that use the real stuff have described the issues with clarity.

 

[lucasmc]

Hopsong, your cider looks like mine? If you wouldn't mind posting up your results it would be awesome if you did. I've heard you gotta let it sit a while but I just don't know how long.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[HopSong]

Yes, I'm speaking of the clarity of the one on the left. As mentioned, I just did an addition to both my latest cloudy ciders. Below are the pics. I brewed the one on the left on 1/14. As you can see, it has settled a bit.. it was also racked once. The one on the right, I brewed on 1/26 and it has not been racked. Both are slightly different recipes.

I added 1 tsp of dissolved gelatin to the one on the left an hour ago. I added 1 tsp of dissolved pectic enzyme to the other about an hour ago. The change on the left is not yet due to the gelatin.. it's just had more time to settle a bit.

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[lucasmc]

Hopsong, any updates on how the fining agents effected your cider?

 

[HopSong]

Yep, should have taken a picture. The one on the left (Cider#2) dropped out very well in one day with the gelatin. Not perfect.. but very close. Possibly one more day and it would have been glass clear. I racked to another 3 gal BetterBottle that I purged with CO2 added 1tsp of sorbate and back sweetened with a can of frozen apple/raspberry concentrate. I may have over sweetened because I keep forgetting notes others post about bitterness mellowing out in time. I was trying to overcome the bitterness.

The batch on the right (Cider #3) is less than 3 weeks in the primary. The added pectic has helped drop more lees but it still looks about the same as the picture. No longer bubbling. Been still for a bit over a week now. I'll let it sit until the 22nd and rack into a CO2 purged better bottle and lit it sit for a couple more weeks.. Mid March and will then decide how I want to work with it. I may wind up kegging this one for some variety. I'll just have to decide how much and what to back sweeten it with.