To refrigerate or not ?

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DSeibel

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Question,

When I purchased cider for home brewing, or have purchased it in the past un-pastuerized with no preservatives they tell me to refrigerate it and there is also a best before date. However this is the type I am doing my first cider with and it is sitting in my recroom at 20 Deg C for about 4 weeks (in primary fermentation). How is it not going bad? Can someone explian to me the chemistry behind this?

Thanks

Dave
 
You're supposed to refrigerate un-pasteurized cider because it has wild yeast and bacteria in it that will alter the flavour if they're allowed to grow, which happens at room temperature. While it's in the fridge the majority of these bugs go dormant, the ones that stay active multiple much slower. They're in the refrigerator but they're still multiplying and that's why there is a "best before" date. After that date the active bugs will have changed the flavour of the cider enough that the producer considers it to no longer be any good.

You're going to have to kill all the bugs in your un-pasteurized cider. Do some research on campden tablets, I think that would be the best way to go about killing most of the bugs and getting your cider ready to ferment with store-bought yeast.

You could always let it ferment naturally... Although you might get vinegar as easy as you would cider.
 
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