Tannin....?

[Ottis]

When I mixed my batch of Johnny Jump Up Hard Cider, the recipe called for 6tps of Tannin. My local brew store only had Wine Tannin so I used that. Is it all the same thing? or are there different kinds of tannin?
And while I'm on the subject, what does it do?

I worked at a large leather tannery once, (talk about a disgusting place to work) we bought tannin by the truckload, don't know if it was the same thing.

 

[david_42]

The wine tannin was the correct compound, it adds an astringent bitterness which balances excessive sweetness. There are hundreds of related chemicals in wine tannin and they are similar to the tannins used in leather making.

 

[Ottis]

Thanks for the info.
So I could leave it out or cut back on the amount if I wanted a sweeter Cider?
I'm just trying to understand what everything does so I can adjust to my own taste.

 

[CandleWineProject]

Tannin also increases body - it is one of the reasons they leave red wines fermenting on the skins, so it has more mouthfeel. A lot of time, they tell you to add more tannins to country wines like strawberry because otherwise it comes out too thin.

Different apples have different amounts of tannin and acid. They are then classified into sweet, bittersweet, sharp, and bittersharp by these two categories. Ideally, you want a blend between the four kinds. For example, a Golden Delicious is very low tannin and medium acid... probably a sweet but sometimes a bittersweet. http://www.cider.org.uk/appledat.htm

In this case, tannin isn't going to affect the sweetness - back sweetening will. Chances are, you are going to be working with juice from sweet apples, so I say to add the tannin.

 

[ChshreCat]

Take a big piece of apple peel and chew it up. That taste and feeling in your mouth is the tannin in the peel.

 

[CandleWineProject]

Tannin is also described as sucking on a cold damp tea bag. It isn't acid, but it still makes you pucker a bit.

 

[Yooper]

6 teaspoons sure seems like a lot. What size batch was it? I use 1/8 teaspoon of the powdered stuff in a gallon of apple wine. Maybe the liquid tannin has a different "dose", so I guess check the package directions.

 

[Ottis]

6 teaspoons sure seems like a lot. What size batch was it? I use 1/8 teaspoon of the powdered stuff in a gallon of apple wine. Maybe the liquid tannin has a different "dose", so I guess check the package directions.

6 gal, I got the recipe from the "cider Recipe database", (johnny jump up hard cider) I followed the recipe exactly for my first try.
I also made another 1 gal batch out of leftover ingredients that I have just bottled, except I used half a pack of quick-rise bread yeast instead of the called for Red Star Cuvee wine yeast that I used in the 6 gal batch, it tastes like an apple-ly white wine.. good, but not what I was expecting.
I haven't tasted or bottled the 6 gal batch yet, it's due to be bottled this weekend.

 

[lthursdayl]

Johnny jump up is really good. Wait about 4-6 months before drinking. Will taste the best