Sweet, sparkling cider with a keg

[rifraf]

Hi all... I'd like to try to make a pumpkin/apple cider for the fall. My wife and I both like a sweet cider, and I plan on kegging this one.

Is there a way to stop fermentation of a 5 gallon batch at around 1.020? I can keg carbonate but I don't want a super day cider. My understanding is that campden/other chemicals won't actually stop active fermentation.

Could I simply rack to a keg and drop the temperature down to the high thirties and assume I've put the yeast to sleep?

 

[Sewer_Urchen]

Potasseum Sorbate will do the trick. Add one teaspoon per gallon (or recomended dosage on the bottle), gently stir and let sit for two or three days for it to take effect. It's true, it doesn't actually kill the yeast, but what it does is prevent the yeast cells from splitting, or, making babies...so if you let it take effect for two or three days, the yeast that is still active in your cider will finish their cycle, die off and leave no offspring...so...it kills the yeast...essentially...

I did this with a sweet cider that I used champagne yeast (could've easilly kept fermenting for a long time) for a few years ago and I still have a regular wine bottle in the basement and the cork has not blown out and never will. FG was something like 1.028. I wanted a sweet, desert wine like cider. It works, and, potasseum sorbate is a preservative so you can let the cider sit longer, will not affect the taste at all. Just be sure to give it a few days to be sure it's taken full effect before you keg.

Cheers!

 

[Yooper]

Sorbate won't stop an active fermentation- it inhibits yeast reproduction, but of course in an active fermentation the yeast don't need to reproduce to ferment the cider. It's not a preservative, in the sense that sulfites are, though.

Keeping the cider cold will do the trick, though. I do that with my hard lemonade. Crash cool it at 1.020 (or wherever I want it) and the either keep it in the kegerator from then on, or in a few days, jump to a new keg and keep that one cold. At that point, after transferring of the yeast, and if the cider is completely clear, sorbate and campden may work if you can't keep it cold the entire time. But for me, I keep it cold (under 41 degrees) and no further fermentation occurs.

 

[Sewer_Urchen]

As I said, I've had good luck with potasseum sorbate, and I've know people who cold crashed, and ended up with bottle bombs...
As Yooper said, if you cold crash, just be sure you keep it cold from that point on. His method works, but you have to keep it cold. Should be easier since you're kegging. But if you're planning on letting it sit asside for a while, I'd add the sorbate per my directions above. In an active fermentation the yeast don't need to reproduce to ferment, but they do to ferment for more than a few days, then the life cycle of the indevidual cell dies out, if there's no next generation of yeast, there's no more active fermentation.
Anyway, I know the sorbate stopped an active fermentation in my cider and I ended up with a sweet, still cider (I still bottle) and the cork hasn't blown out in three years, so I'm sticking with that method.

 

[rifraf]

Thanks both of you (Yooper is a she by the way Sewer ) ! I think I'll rack to a secondary that I cold crash immediately, wait two days and then use Potassium Sorbate/Campden when I rack into my keg which will go right into the kegerator. I don't quite trust the temp in my kegerator yet...

Now to find pumpkin juice!

 

[Sewer_Urchen]

I know of people who have baked pumpkin in their oven with pumpkin spice added to it and used that in the primarry.

 

[Yooper]

I've NOT had good luck with sorbate stopping an active fermentation, but I don't doubt that Sewer has. One possibility is that the yeast was at or near it's ABV limit anyway, and the sorbate pooped it out or that the yeast were ready to die off and the sorbate finished the job.

One thing that I know will work, though, is to cold crash when you're happy with the SG. Hold it there until clear- often several days. THEN rack onto sorbate and campden in a new keg (or transfer via co2). That will do the trick as you've effectively reduced the yeast population and then sorbated.

Keep in mind that sorbate has a flavor. I don't care for it, but others don't seem to notice or to mind. My preference is to leave it out whenever possible, and to use a very small dosage if I have to use it. The smallest effective dose I've seen is about 1/2-2/3 teaspoon per gallon, but check your package.

 

[bob1852]

Since you're kegging, why not just ferment dry, stabilize, back sweeten to 1.020ish, and carb via keg?

 

[rifraf]

One thing that I know will work, though, is to cold crash when you're happy with the SG. Hold it there until clear- often several days. THEN rack onto sorbate and campden in a new keg (or transfer via co2). That will do the trick as you've effectively reduced the yeast population and then sorbated.

That's what I plan on doing, guess I wasn't clear.. thanks for the tip on the flavor, I didn't know it did that. I'll go light on that. I have plenty of campden tablets so I'll do full dose of that.

 

[rifraf]

Since you're kegging, why not just ferment dry, stabilize, back sweeten to 1.020ish, and carb via keg?

I wasn't sure if back sweetening would have a different flavor because you're adding some sort of sugar that wasn't there before or if you'd still have a dry mouth feel at all. I'm really sensitive to the flavor of artificial sweeteners so wasn't sure about throwing xylotol into the cider.

 

[Sewer_Urchen]

I know some brewers that have used xylitol or stevia, it's not my preferred method, but they are non-fermentable sweetners and those that have have said they had good luck with it. I had someone send me a cider that was sweetened with stevia and it was WAAAY too sweet, they said you've got to add just a pinch, taste, then a pinch at a time, because it's realy easy to overdo it.

I think yourself and Yooper have the right answer, cold crash to reduce active yeast, then rack and add sorbate. Myself, I haven't noticed the taste of sorbate, but then, I usually only use it with sweet ciders, so having not done a sweet cider without it, I have nothing to compare it too.

Good luck!

 

[roadymi]

There are lotsa ways......most work............here's my way.

Ferment dry

Cold crash, rack to new keg and stabilize only because I give lots away and I can't control how they store it. If I was kegging for only my use I wouldn't stabilize.

I then back sweeten to taste with frozen apple juice concentrate. Your not adding any funky flavors and actually brings out the apple flavor. 3 cans of AJC is what normally suits my tastes for 5 gallon batch.

 

[CvilleKevin]

You can cold crash and store at room temps if you do it carefully. I've been doing it for years and still have a few kegs in my basement from last Fall that made it through a very hot summer with no problems.

It does take some practice though. Of my dozen or so friends who have done this, about half of them have it down and the others just keep their kegs cold.

I've also use k-meta, followed by sorbate to stop an ale yeast fermentation. Its very effective at up to 1.010, but I dont like the taste at all.

 

[Clifton]

I fermented from 1.070 to 1.030 at 65-70 degrees. I transferred to the keg, sealed the lid and put it in the keg fridge at 44 degrees. After a couple of days I poured a tall glass of foam. I tried to relieve some pressure and some foam came out of the relief valve. No biggee I just wiped it up. I let it sit for a couple of hours and went back to try again. This time I pressed down on the lid as I pull the relief pin so I could break the seal on the lid. What ensued was a volcano of foam. I attempted to reseat the lid.

Sadly I succeeded. No foam was pouring out the relief valve, only with greater velocity. The valve was seated but I guess the sudden release of pressure overpowered the valve (as it is designed). I lost about two gallons of cider.

Well I didn't lose it, I know where it went. Needless to say next time I'll cold crash then transfer. I was trying to save a step. Oh well, live and learn. Hopefully someone else will read of my stupidity and save themselves the trouble of wiping up sticky cider from the floor.

 

[CodyA]

I've also use k-meta, followed by sorbate to stop an ale yeast fermentation. Its very effective at up to 1.010, but I dont like the taste at all.

What kind of taste are you getting? I thought these additives were not supposed to have any taste at all? (Then again, they tell me that Diet Dr. Pepper tastes like regular DP and Coke Zero tastes like regular Coke, all of which is bullcrap.)

 

[FATC1TY]

I make my cider, let it finish out dry, 1.000 roughly with Notty.

I then racked to a keg when it was really clear, back sweetened it with white grape juice to I think 1.010, is where my wife was happy with it.

Kept it cold, and it's good to go, no issues with it at all. I can fill growlers and transport them where need be and no issues.