Malolactic Cider and Priming

[hilltopper23]

I just made a batch of cider it turned out a little acidic (tooth enamel stripping really) so I put it through Malo to reduce the acid. It worked really well and now I am ready to batch prime and bottle it. I was visiting a professional cider maker and he stated if I prime it with sugar now to carbonate it the cider would turn to vinegar?? . I can find nothing on the net to support his statement and I know that wineries are now starting to put grape juice through malo before yeast fermentation with no ill effects. So my question is has anybody found that by putting a cider that has gone through malo and it primed with sugar to carbonate had the whole thing turned to vinegar???

 

[Yooper]

I just made a batch of cider it turned out a little acidic (tooth enamel stripping really) so I put it through Malo to reduce the acid. It worked really well and now I am ready to batch prime and bottle it. I was visiting a professional cider maker and he stated if I prime it with sugar now to carbonate it the cider would turn to vinegar?? . I can find nothing on the net to support his statement and I know that wineries are now starting to put grape juice through malo before yeast fermentation with no ill effects. So my question is has anybody found that by putting a cider that has gone through malo and it primed with sugar to carbonate had the whole thing turned to vinegar???

No, to get vinegar there must be acetic acid bacteria (aceterbacter).

The only thing to be aware of is that when you sweeten a cider or wine (NOT priming, but sweetening!), MLF combined with sorbate (to stop fermentation) will produce an off-flavor and smell called geranoil. It actually smells and tastes of geraniums. Perhaps that is what he is thinking of? Sorbate and MLF concurrently will ruin the mead/wine/cider. Still, you can add sorbate after MLF without problem, as long as the MLF is over.

 

[mwilcox]

I would assume this comes from the extra oxygen that would be added during the bottle filling process. Basically if acetobacter already had a minor position in the cider but there was no O2 for this aerobic stuff to work that the bottling process could give them the O2 they needed to get a real foothold. The function of the MLF in the matter would be lowering the acidity/raising the pH to the point that the acetobacter, again, has a more favorable environment.

compared with wine, well, not a lot of bottle conditioned carbonated wine out there, right?

that's all I've got in terms of hypothesizing a potential outcome like that...

 

[gregbathurst]

Sometimes MLF bacteria can turn sugar into vinegar, that is how the ciders in spain get their acetic flavour. It won't happen with cultured MLF or even with most wild MLF, and not with the amount of sugar used in bottle priming. I always use cultured MLF and bottle prime, and have never had a problem. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing I guess. The main problem with cultured MLF is you get some temporary off-flavours, but they dissipate jn a couple of weeks.