piloncillo

[pelletben]

Has anyone made a cider with piloncillo (Mexican brown sugar)? I made a 4 gal batch using 1/2 lb & Windsor ale yeast. It finished at 1.004 (highest FG ever) & tasted great. Wondering if it was the yeast or the piloncillo?

 

[AzOr]

I’m bumping this because I’d like to know. I recently used some piloncillo to cook with and was blown away by how much more flavorful it was vs other sugars.
I was also wondering if I could throw a whole cone in fermentor- would the yeast eat through it or should I cut up first? It’s a royal pita to cut it up.

 

[jtratcliff]

I'd at least break it up a bit... Put it in a Ziploc bag, wrap a towel around it, then whack it with a hammer a few times...

 

[AzOr]

Yeah I figured but I’m lazy. It would be cool if I had a see through fermentor to see the yeasties attack the cone.

I was also wondering how much color a cone of piloncillo would add to a 3 or 5 gallon batch.

I’m considering backsweetening with some as well.

 

[bernardsmith]

I don't think yeast can transport solids through their cell walls - only liquids so I very much doubt that you could see the yeast cells "attack" the cone. Honey -which has about 18% moisture is too concentrated for yeast to ferment without significant dilution so solid sugar would be impervious to yeast - which is why the cone is not fermenting in the store or in your kitchen.

 

[ten80]

A hard sugar will slowly dissolve in cider because of the sugar concentration gradient between the sugar (high conc.) and cider (low conc.). It just takes a while and/or a lot of swirling of the carboy. I often add straight white sugar, honey, candy sugar, or LME to my ciders and I have to swirl them daily for about a month for 3-5 lbs of sugars to dissolve. This is fine with me since I like slow ferments.