Racking on to dried Cranberries?

[AndrewTodd]

My cider is slowing. I had a OG of 1.081 and checked 16 days and I'm at 1.012. just over 9%. I tasted my sample and yep its got a kick and I know it needs to mellow. But I'm thinking of racking onto a pound of dried cranberries for couple weeks. Its still fermenting slowly and its still under its 11% tolerance. Thoughts?

 

[Native302]

I say go for it. I may just try that with mine

 

[AndrewTodd]

I'll likely boil a pound or so, cool and rack on the secondary this weekend. Watch it and see if it starts fermenting more rapidly again. If not I'll just let it sit a couple weeks after topping off the carboy. Rack to a third and let it age.

 

[usfmikeb]

Check the cranberries to see what kind of chemicals they have on them...

 

[AndrewTodd]

Check the cranberries to see what kind of chemicals they have on them...

I did, it says sugar, no listed preservitives.

 

[usfmikeb]

Awesome, sometimes dried fruits have chemicals on them that produce off flavors or aroma, especially apricots. I've never used dried cranberries before, please post back to let us know how it turns out.

 

[jonnyblurt]

hi i think cranberries have that chemical which you use to stop yeast growing . not metabisolphate the other one

 

[ryane]

dried fruits are usually coated with a tiny bit of oil to stop them from sticking. Why not just add fresh cranberries??

 

[AndrewTodd]

dried fruits are usually coated with a tiny bit of oil to stop them from sticking. Why not just add fresh cranberries??

Because I don't have access to any.

Should be no different from adding raisins.

 

[AndrewTodd]

hi i think cranberries have that chemical which you use to stop yeast growing . not metabisolphate the other one

Nothing on the label. Cranberries and sugar is all that is listed.

 

[ryane]

Because I don't have access to any.

Should be no different from adding raisins.

Most stores should be selling them this time of year in 1# bags for the holidays.

 

[pcollins]

I just stumbled on this thread and I'm doing a cranberry cider this morning. I fermented the cider about three weeks ago or so and this morning I'm adding about a third of a package of frozen fresh cranberries to a gallon of the cider.

I've put the cranberries in a pot with a bit of water and heated to 180ºF, mashed the cranberries and let them sit for a bit so they're pasteurized. They're cooling now and I'm going to rack on top of them into a gallon jug.

I'm doing exactly the same thing with some pomegranate.

 

[usfmikeb]

I'm doing exactly the same thing with some pomegranate.

My wife's been crushing pomegranate seeds into her apfelwein glass, so I've been considering doing a test batch.

 

[jammin]

I like the idea of the cranberries or the pomegranate. Hope to hear some feedback from those of you who try it!

 

[pcollins]

I'll definitely be giving feed back.

What I can say right now is that the cranberry-apple cider LOOKS amazing! Beautiful colour pulled from the cranberries already. The pomegranate, not so much. It got a little "brown" when I was heating the seeds so I'm not sure how it will turn out.

In this case, to paraphrase what I say about making beer: It'll be cider.

 

[AndrewTodd]

SG on mine is 1.006 today. Sweet but still very young edge on it. I'll be racking it on to the cranberries by friday I would say. I doubt I'll get much secondary fermentation as it looks like I'm at 9.86% right now. I expect to be a bit lower FG by friday. This yeast is supposed to be done at 11%.

 

[usfmikeb]

I'll definitely be giving feed back.

What I can say right now is that the cranberry-apple cider LOOKS amazing! Beautiful colour pulled from the cranberries already. The pomegranate, not so much. It got a little "brown" when I was heating the seeds so I'm not sure how it will turn out.

In this case, to paraphrase what I say about making beer: It'll be cider.

Good to know about the pomegranate, maybe I'll look into using POM juice.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

I'd let the must ferment out a bit before racking onto the cranberries to get it a bit closer to your target SG. Particularly if you did not use a wine yeast like Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the cider.

Cranberries are notorious to ferment for having benzoic acid in them. This is a cousin of the preservative Sodium Benzoate ... but is even a bit stronger antifungal/microbicidal ... so much so that, cranberry wine often needs to be made not only with an aggressive wine yeast, but the juice also sometimes needs to be pre-inoculated with a dose of the yeast to reduce the benzoic acid ... then a strong starter of the yeast is used. (yup, learned it the hard way)

I'm not sure if dried cranberries keep the level of benzoic acid that fresh cranberries do, but it's worth keeping in mind.

One thing positive for adding the cranberries to the cider is that in a higher pH cider must, the benzoic acid is not as effective. While your pH is not to the point of negating the benzoic acid effect, which is around pH 5.5 or so, it is probably well above the pH that the benzoic acid is most effective, which as I recall is in the mid 2’s (say, pH 2.5).

On the other hand, if your SG isn’t far off of what you were intending anyway ... and the fact that the pH is a bit higher ... and you are only using dried cranberries rather than fresh (or juice) ... I’d say it will turn out well either way.

 

[AndrewTodd]

I'd let the must ferment out a bit before racking onto the cranberries to get it a bit closer to your target SG. Particularly if you did not use a wine yeast like Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the cider.

Cranberries are notorious to ferment for having benzoic acid in them. This is a cousin of the preservative Sodium Benzoate ... but is even a bit stronger antifungal/microbicidal ... so much so that, cranberry wine often needs to be made not only with an aggressive wine yeast, but the juice also sometimes needs to be pre-inoculated with a dose of the yeast to reduce the benzoic acid ... then a strong starter of the yeast is used. (yup, learned it the hard way)

I'm not sure if dried cranberries keep the level of benzoic acid that fresh cranberries do, but it's worth keeping in mind.

One thing positive for adding the cranberries to the cider is that in a higher pH cider must, the benzoic acid is not as effective. While your pH is not to the point of negating the benzoic acid effect, which is around pH 5.5 or so, it is probably well above the pH that the benzoic acid is most effective, which as I recall is in the mid 2’s (say, pH 2.5).

On the other hand, if your SG isn’t far off of what you were intending anyway ... and the fact that the pH is a bit higher ... and you are only using dried cranberries rather than fresh (or juice) ... I’d say it will turn out well either way.

As sweet as this is at 10% alchohol I doubt it will make any difference. It will take on some flavor and the amounts of sugar on these berries is minimal. I see not much in the way of sweetness nor any fermenatation.. If it stops it, it is very close to the ABV I wanted. All it may do is make it a bit tarter. Being this sweet it can't hurt..

 

[jonnyblurt]

thats what i was trying to say lol

 

[smh]

You'll likely be fine. They tend to add sulphites to apricots because if you dont' they go brown/black. I expect that cranberries are a bit more resistant to that so they dont' need it...