Clarify hard cider that began as cloudy apple cider?

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Hexadecimus

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I made hard cider and apfelwein with Musselman's because it was cheap and there is little else available here. I cold crashed, and they're about as clear as the Musselman's was to begin with, but darker from the brown sugar in one and turbinado in the other.

I ordered chitosan and colloidal silica to precipitate anything else out, but should I expect the cider & wine to clear any more than the cider I started with?
 
Definitely. The cloudy farmers-market style apple juice (aka cider) will clear up during/after fermentation. The additives help the process. Personally, I use pectic enzyme, but I'm sure the others work.
 
Thanks. So the chitosan/kieselsol will work?

It was completely opaque after about 2 weeks with 2-3 rackings. Fermentation was complete at about 10 days. Then I cold crashed about 5 days and this is what it looks like now (below). I'm using glass btw, just racked off into a jug to get a comparison of the clouding.

dsa0.jpg
 
Yes, it still should clear. I didn't use any finings at all for this cider, but I did use pectic enzyme in primary. I used S04 yeast, which clears quickly.

The cider started out as fresh pressed cloudy (but tasty!) cider that we pressed.

Here's a hydrometer reading at day 7:
DSCN1641.jpg

Not all ciders clear that fast! But using pectic enzyme (1 teaspoon per gallon) really helped. You could try taking out a sample of the cider, dissolving/stirring the enzyme into it and adding it back to the cider (to avoid it volcanoing up due to nucleation points). That should help.

Then, if it's still not clear after that and after cold crashing, you could try finings.
 
I've just made two gallons from freshly blixered apples from the orchard at work. Just squeezed it through a muslin, quick pasturized it on the stove then cast the yeast. Bottled it yesterday and it still looked like soup but tasted fantastic. It has a week to condition in the boiler room, then I'm serving it as mulled cider for our Christmas fayre, with a cinammon stick.
Should go well.
 
I've just made two gallons from freshly blixered apples from the orchard at work. Just squeezed it through a muslin, quick pasturized it on the stove then cast the yeast. Bottled it yesterday and it still looked like soup but tasted fantastic. It has a week to condition in the boiler room, then I'm serving it as mulled cider for our Christmas fayre, with a cinammon stick.
Should go well.

It does sound good!

If it was stove-top pasteurized, it probably will never clear.

Heating cider changes it, and sets the pectins, so the cider changes a bit in flavor (think cook apples vs raw apples flavor), and generally won't clear after that.
 
Thanks. So the chitosan/kieselsol will work?

It was completely opaque after about 2 weeks with 2-3 rackings. Fermentation was complete at about 10 days. Then I cold crashed about 5 days and this is what it looks like now (below). I'm using glass btw, just racked off into a jug to get a comparison of the clouding.

While I've never used chitosan or kieselsol, they should work. It does take some time. I've never recorded the date, but I feel like about 2-3 weeks is when my cider would clear.

If it was stove-top pasteurized, it probably will never clear.

Heating cider changes it, and sets the pectins, so the cider changes a bit in flavor (think cook apples vs raw apples flavor), and generally won't clear after that.

Great point! I buy pasteurized cider to start with, which clears just fine. If you don't (or didn't) I would recommend pasteurizing with campden tablets rather than heat pasteurizing.
 
I used the same AC and I didn't think it would clear. This is good info.
 
I use Super Kleer KC post fermentation and it works like a champ. Has cleared every cider I've used it in after 48 hours at most. Amazing stuff...

I've never heard of this til now, so I looked it up. Looks like it's a mix of chitosan and kieselsol.

Good to know, I may try this on my lighter beers sometime. Thanks for posting!
 
I have doubts about getting the Musselman's to completely clear since it's pasteurized.

The 5 gallons of graff (using 4 gallons of Musselman's) I put on tap a week ago fermented on Notty, cold crashed a week, got hit with gelatin at kegging and it still has some residual cloudiness to it. I'm not all that concerned about that since it turned out so tasty. :D
 
Sorry, don't want to hijack the thread. Please move it if neccesary.

The Organic mulled cider went down an absolute treat at our christmas Fayre. Just warmed it up in a bain marie an hour or so before with some cinammon sticks and a couple of halved oranges studded with cloves. Santa had a couple of cups, he certainly had a rosey glow.
 
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