Cider filtering and force carbonation

[bfbf]

Hi

Me Waffeling

I have just finished drinking my cider mark III made using home grown apples and Graffs great recipe.

Anyway of course the cider has always improved through the stages and this time I want to create a really grade cider where I don't have to have a few drinks first for it to taste good.

The main issue with my cider were

1) Tasted of Yeast YUCK!
2) It went flat when the keg leaked in a 4 hour car journey.

Also to make it taste it more like my fav ciders I want it to be a bit weaker and have more of a fruity taste. To achieve this I will back sweeten with apple and pear juice.

Question

I have been on a few cider farm tours and it seems they all filter their cider, add more juice and then carbonate then bottle (also from making beer it tastes less yeasty in bottles)

a) Is it possible to use a wine filter on cider
b) Can I then just add more juice without a fear it will carbonate and explode (will use shop brought juice)
c) how can I force carbonate bottles?
d) Will this stop the homebrew yeast taste?

Cheers

 

[CandleWineProject]

As for the yeasty taste, you may have left it on the lees too long.

a) Yes
b) You need to either filter out the yeast or use sorbate to keep the yeast from eating at your new sugars.
c) a keg. You can also get a "gun" to bottle it without bottle bombs with sweet cider.
d) Still think that was a racking issue.

 

[bfbf]

Could you like me to an example gun please?

Currently I own king Kegs with taps could these be adapted?

How long do you expect it would take to filter the cider?

edit - I have been looking at filters and they seem horrifally expensive if I plan on filtering the cider in a timeframe that will stop it oxidizing Kind of ruiens that plan

 

[CandleWineProject]

Here is a bottling gun example. I have no idea how well it works. http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/kegging/draft-bottling/blichmann-beer-gun.html

I don't own a keg system. If no one replys, go to the keg forum and ask.

I was going to say, filtering would depend the filter and how much cider you have.

 

[bfbf]

Ok - I have gone off the idea of filtering. Just going to go for lots of racking and chemical use instead.

Here is the plan:

1) Harvest Apples, press with home made press
2) Put in camdem tablets to kill of germs and natural yeast
3) After a day add pectic enzyme
4) Rack
5) Add Graff brew
6) Add yeast
7) Rack in 2 weeks
8) Add findings
9) Add chemicals to kill off the yeast (do I use cadem tablets here?, should this be before or after findings?)
10) After 24 hours rack into keg with some supermarket AJ to sweeten.
11) Force Carb
12) Bottle with gun

Questions

a) Which chemicals should I be using at point 2 and 9

b) While findings and pectic enzyme be enough to clear the brew, any other things I could wack in there?

C) How long between 8,9 and 10

D) How long between 11 and 12

E) Am I missing anything?

 

[CandleWineProject]

9) yes, you ad camden tablets at this time. They help with prevent oxidization, and sorbate really needs the sulfites.

a) sulfite (camden) to start, sorbate/sulfites to finish
b) I don't think you need finings. Pectic enzyme should be enough.
c) You need to take a hydrometer reading and make sure it isn't changing before you go racking.
d) Can't answer that one.
e) um, yeah, you need to pitch yeast 12 hours after #3

 

[Edcculus]

Looks like you moved on from filtering. I just wanted to let you know that it is actually really easy.

All you really need is 3 kegs (1 full, 1 empty, 1 full of sanitizer), a filter, and a jumper hose and CO2.

There are 2 types of filters. Plate and cartridge. Most homebrew filter setups use the plate filter, but I think the cartridge type are becoming more popular. The jumper hose should be beer line with a liquid out QD on both ends.

Process:
-cold crash the cider a few days before filtering. This will knock out a lot of yeast and ensure you don't clog the filter.

-Put jumper hose on keg with sanitizer and empty keg. Pressurize the sanitizer keg and pump sanizer into empty keg. Either leave the lid off of the receiving keg, or make sure to vent as liquid comes in. You will want to push with only 2-4 psi, especially with a plate filter, since they are not made to withstand pressure.

-once you have sanitized the filter setup/recieving keg, hook up the keg with UNCARBED cider. This is important. Trying to filter carbonated beer or cider will result in a foamy mess! The first time use a coarser filter. If you go too fine, you will clog it too quickly. It will probably take ~20-30 min to push 5 gallons through. Monitor the recieving keg, and let the pressure out as more liquid comes in.

After that, you can put your filtered keg into the kegerator and hook it up to gas to carbonate like you would any other beer. To bottle, I like using the Biermuncher Bottle Filler (BMBF) from his thread "We dont need no stinking beer gun".

 

[bfbf]

Cheers for the replies

Filter

Do you reckon this makes a difference to the drink? I have never force carbed before but how do I work out the pressure that is in the keg?

Will this filter work?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VINBRITE-MK3-...t=Home_Brew&hash=item439fa7fb8c#ht_500wt_1154

How thin do the papers have to be to block yeast?

Keg to bottle

Will this work with a top tap keg?

After I have filled it with cide do I slam the lid on straight away, in the guide does not mention the lid till you have filled all the bottles surely it would go flat?

Cheers again
Ben