Frozen berry mix

[dave306]

Hi all, it's my first post here so please be patient with me if this question has been asked before.
I'm about to make a batch of cider from pressed Apple juice, can I add a pack or two of frozen berry mix into the fermentation bucket at the beginning. I was going to pour all the Apple juice and berries into the bucket, add Camden tablets, wait 24hrs, warm it up and then add yeast. Sound like a plan?

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi dave306 and welcome. It does sound like a plan but while adding K-meta (the campden tabs) is not going to hurt anything, I am not sure that it is so necessary. The apple juice has almost certainly been pasteurized in some way (best by UV ) if sold commercially (at least here in the USA and I would think the frozen fruit too would have been sanitized before being flash frozen (if only to ensure that e-coli and the like would not require any "re-calls"). If you are planning to pitch commercial yeast and are planning to add a large enough volume of viable yeast cells those cells will absolutely dominate any wild indigenous yeast within a few hours if you rehydrate dry yeast (the lag time is then short).

I know that many home wine makers bathe their fruits and juice in K-meta to eliminate all indigenous yeast but I am not sure that commercial wine makers treat the need to do so as religiously. Again, cultured yeasts will dominate the environment very quickly but there are advantages (in terms of added complexity of flavor) to allow wild yeast to snack on a little sugar for even a day or two. Your call, of course.

 

[MarkKF]

I’ve added frozen berries to unpasteurized fresh pressed cider plenty of times. Just pitch your yeast and let it go. Fresh berries you can wash with starsan if you’re worried about wild yeast or bacteria.

 

[dave306]

So when should I sieve it? Shall I ferment in bucket for a week with berries then pour into demijons through cloth or do I just pour the whole lot in the demijons and rice out when fermentation has stopped?

 

[MarkKF]

I let it go a 10-14 days in a bucket and check the S.G. If under 1.010 I rack to a smaller carboy taking care not to suck up berries & lees.

 

[Grad]

One way you can add fruit is by putting it in a nylon bag from your LHBS and just push it down into the cider a couple times a day. This way you dont have to worry about sucking anything up when racking. Just grab the bag with a sanitized utensil and let it drain into the cider before racking.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

Or, if you want more berry flavor, rack your cider on top of the berries after it has fermented 2/3 of the way.