Critique my apple-pear cider recipe

[bernerbrau]

I just found myself in the unhappy situation of having one empty keg and one keg with an undrinkable beer I've finally (after several months) decided needs to be tossed (it smells and tastes just like burnt rubber which I take to mean autolysis).

I just re-brewed my pale ale last weekend, and I hope to have it on tap in two or three weeks, and I don't feel like another brew day right away, so I'm thinking of doing an apple-pear cider since I can get it done and kegged without much hassle.

Here's my recipe:

5 gallons pasteurized apple juice (preservative-free)
6 or so fresh pears, pureed
2 cups dark brown sugar
2 quarts water
Campden tablets
Pectinase enzyme
WLP775 with 48-hour juice starter

Puree the pears, whole, in a food processor. Add to fermenter.
Boil brown sugar in 2 quarts water, chill to 68F, and add to fermenter with pectinase enzyme.
Add 1 campden tablet, wait 24 hours.
Add apple juice to fermenter and pitch yeast.
Ferment at 68F for 3-4 weeks and rack to keg.

What do people think? My only concern is that wine and mead recipes generally call for a much longer bulk aging. I've never used wine yeast before so is there anything different I need to be aware of?

 

[BoomerCreek]

In my experience, the wine yeast will produce a more wine like cider while ale yeasts will create a cider with deeper notes to it. IMO the wine yeasts age very well but can be hard to drink early on if extra sugar is added. The alcohol needs time to mellow.

 

[bernerbrau]

In my experience, the wine yeast will produce a more wine like cider while ale yeasts will create a cider with deeper notes to it. IMO the wine yeasts age very well but can be hard to drink early on if extra sugar is added. The alcohol needs time to mellow.

So you'd suggest an ale yeast then? Any preferred strain?

 

[BrewinME]

I agree, stay away from the wine yeasts. I'm liking the S-04 ale yeast myself.

 

[oldmate]

I use wine yeasts, they come out perfect for me every single time. It's drinkable young, but definitely improves with age. I would say it's personal preference as to which flavour you're going for. Also, I would add the pears to a secondary in a mesh bag, it might take a while to clear up otherwise (even with the pectinase).

 

[Pappers_]

Let us know which way you decide to go with the pears, and how it turns out. I'm very interested in this

 

[bernerbrau]

I used 9 pears, I put the pear puree right in the fermenter, and I ended up using 3 whole pounds of dark brown sugar boiled in a gallon of water for 15 minutes. 4 gallons of apple juice got it up to 6 gallons. I don't think I need to worry about clarity, though, because the brown sugar made the cider VERY dark.

I have the metabisulfite working its magic right now. Around 5 tomorrow I'm going to pitch some S-04.

 

[oldmate]

I did a 20L batch with 4 kilos of brown sugar, it looked like a freakin' black lager going into the fermenter. Came out the colour a little darker than a Corona.

 

[pimento]

you might consider upping your pear count substantially, it takes 30-40 apples to make a gallon of cider and pear flavor tends to be a bit more delicate.

 

[manticle]

Contrary to others I think white wine yeast can be fine. It will make things a little more 'winey' but the main things that I find makes cider drinkable quicker is omitting the sulphites and fermenting cool. Cold conditioning doesn't hurt either. Whichever yeast you go for, ferment at the cooler end of the scale and consider cold conditioning. I find the necessity of sulphites is overstated in cidermaking, at least on a small HB scale.

The sugar is unnecessary - soft cider will start at 1050 - 1060 and ferment down to 1000 or lower if you let it so plenty dry and plenty of alc. Save the sugar for your porridge.


AND!!! I just realised how late I am replying to this post. Next time.

 

[bernerbrau]

S-04 pitched last night, and fermenting away now.

you might consider upping your pear count substantially, it takes 30-40 apples to make a gallon of cider and pear flavor tends to be a bit more delicate.

I'm kind of hoping that the long infusion will leech out more flavor from the pears than I would get from pressing the juice. Right now the pears are all I can smell when I open the fermentation fridge.

The sugar is unnecessary - soft cider will start at 1050 - 1060 and ferment down to 1000 or lower if you let it so plenty dry and plenty of alc. Save the sugar for your possidge.

For one thing, last time I used store-bought apple juice I had a pretty low OG resulting in a weak hard cider. I wanted higher alcohol and some residual sweetness (though I have some lactose to back-sweeten if necessary).

When this one's done, I'll probably go ahead and brew another, maybe with more pears, and try the White Labs English Cider yeast. As it is, I'm a little concerned about S-04 fermenting out all the apple and pear flavors.

 

[manticle]

Sugar won't give much residual sweetness. If anything it will dry it out more. US05 has been used with success. My recent attempt uses WY4766 (poossibly equivalent to the WL) and has some residual sweetness and apple flavour.

I'm surprised you had a low OG with the last. What was it and what was the FG? I'd expect 1040 minimum and to drop to 1000 depending on the yeast. Most of my ciders (no sugar) will end up around 6%. If I need it stronger I'll mix with apple brandy.

 

[bernerbrau]

Sugar won't give much residual sweetness. If anything it will dry it out more. US05 has been used with success. My recent attempt uses WY4766 (poossibly equivalent to the WL) and has some residual sweetness and apple flavour.

I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before but I don't believe sugar can ever lessen the FG ("dry out" the cider); it can only up the alcohol content. But... the molasses in brown sugar has a lot of unfermentables which should contribute to the flavor profile. As I said before I can backsweeten if necessary, or rack to keg before fermentation completes and cold crash.

I'm surprised you had a low OG with the last. What was it and what was the FG? I'd expect 1040 minimum and to drop to 1000 depending on the yeast. Most of my ciders (no sugar) will end up around 6%. If I need it stronger I'll mix with apple brandy.

It was a long time ago now, but it must have been around 1.040. The US-05 dried it out to ~0.999.

 

[bernerbrau]

Opened the fridge this morning for a whiff of the nice apply-peary smells this morning and HOLY MOTHER OF SATAN I'm enveloped in a cloud of sulfurous gas.

I read elsewhere that yeast nutrient or boiling some baker's yeast to kill it and putting it in will help mitigate the sulfur smells, so I'll probably do that tonight.

 

[manticle]

I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before but I don't believe sugar can ever lessen the FG ("dry out" the cider);

It won't lessen the FG but perceived dryness will be effected. Perceived dryness/sweetness/bitterness is as important if not more than actual dryness/sweetness/bitterness.

 

[bernerbrau]

I pulled a hydro sample of this last night. Gravity is 1.022 after 4 days, but the bubbles have stopped. Yeah, yeah, bubbles are no indication of fermentation activity, but I'm still nervous. Guess I'll take another sample in a couple days and if it's still around 1.022 I'll crank it up to 70 and see if it finishes out.

Alternatively, I thought the hydro sample tasted pretty good. Sweet and cidery, with a subtle hint of pear, lightly effervescent, but almost no hint of alcohol. Only problem is it smells a little funky, like it hasn't gotten rid of all the dissolved H2S gas. In its current state, what effect would racking to secondary and cold crashing a couple weeks have? Would I be able to keep the flavor profile and have the sulfur go away?

 

[bernerbrau]

It's been 10 days in the fermenter now. Putting it up to 70 fermented it right down to 1.000.

Hydro sample is ... interesting. I don't detect any soapy off-ness like I did with my holiday cider back in '08. The apple flavor and a subtle hint of pear are there, and there's a slight estery-alcoholic finish, but there's absolutely no sweetness which IMO throws it out of balance. I was sort of hoping the high gravity would poop the yeast out before it dried the cider completely. I'm going to have to boil up some lactose to back-sweeten, or cold crash and back sweeten with sucrose/dextrose??

I cranked the freezer down to 50 for now since fermentation is complete (not sure why, seemed like a good idea). Figured I'd keg on Friday and be serving it within a week or two.

Will the cider continue to condition after cold crashing and kegging? If it continues to age, doesn't that mean the yeast are still alive? Is there a risk that dextrose added after crashing will be consumed?

 

[bernerbrau]

I didn't keg this weekend. After 3 days of cold crashing at 34F it wasn't all that clear, so I mixed up some gelatin and poured it in. I think I might have added too much gelatin, though, because now it's cloudier than it was before.

 

[robodeath]

How did this turn out? I'm wanting to make some Apple/Pear cider

 

[eponai]

BUMP. how did this turn out? my asian pear tree is fruiting, but not enough to make 5 gals, so i am thinking of combining it with some apples we're pressing next saturday.