Too Much Pulp...Will It Still Work?

[SirPublius]

So I made two separate batches of pear cider over the last few days from my own fresh pears. What I did was pulverize them with a food/type processor attachment off of my Kitchen Aid mixer. What it does is squirt out sort of an apple sauce texture pulp out of one spout, and it squirts out the dry pulp and seeds out of another spout. I then took the applesauce and strained it through some cheesecloth. I won't be doing it this way again. WAY too much work, way too long, and not very efficient. I put yeast in yesterday (I let it sit a day since I added Campden tabs), and today I noticed it is bubbling away at a rate of maybe a bubble ever 3 minutes or so through the airlock. It has a few inches of sediment, but it seems to be working fine.

THEN I did 2 more one gallon containers yesterday but used a COLANDER for the sauce instead of cheesecloth to try and save time. I was about to add some yeast to them here in a few minutes here since they've been sitting a day, and I noticed BOTH of them are like HALF sediment. Mind you, I added pectic enzyme to all of them about 6 hours after the Campden tabs, though I don't know how long it takes for it to work, but just so you know.

Any reason if I add the yeast it might not work? Anyone had that sediment problem, and if so, what was your experience? Will it still ferment properly with all the pulp, or should I rack them into ONE container so I have one full gallon?? I'd rather just leave them if it will work, but, I dunno. Pretty disappointing considering how much time I spent to get such a small amount of juice.

 

[SirPublius]

So I just posted this question in the cider room, which I just discovered....man I love this forum, but since I wanted to get this done today, I was hoping to post in here and up my chances for a quick response.

The skinny is I squeezed my own pear juice, and did in such a way that when it settled, and I just noticed it now since I WAS just about to put the yeast in, that it is like HALF sediment. I did a few separate one gallon batches, and like I said, its HALF sediment. I added a cup of brown sugar and a campden tab to each gallon, and shook it up yesterday, so that's basically my recipe. Will it still ferment properly with that much pulp in there??? Anyone have any experience with this, and if so, what happened? Any suggestions? should I just add the yeast maybe and then rack it into smaller containers?

 

[SirPublius]

I forgot to mention, I also did add some pectic enzyme to each gallon. I know that is supposed to made sediment drop so as to make it clearer I believe. Not sure how or if that would change my predicament, but I thought I'd mention it.

 

[Yooper]

Oh, yes, using a food processor will create a TON of sediment. I know it seems like you're getting more of the goodness out by doing that, but the truth is that you'll just have a ton more sediment to rack off of.

Even with using a press in my last plum batch, the carboys were nearly 1/3 pulp/sediment- but that's rare.

For apples, hand crushing, while a pain, and then putting them in a mesh bag, really does work great. Then removing the bag in 5 days or so, and squeezing the bag, means some sediment but not nearly as much as trying to ferment on the applesaucy pulp.

To hand crush them, I freeze them first, and then put them (still frozen) in a santized mesh bag in a sanitized fermenter. Then, I use a sanitized big heavy pestle and smoosh them up when they thaw. I add the campden, and the other ingredients, and the yeast 24 hours later and it works out pretty well.

 

[SirPublius]

...that's curious....I don't know why the first two posts above posted on the same thread. I could have sworn I posted the my post that starts "So I just posted..." in the beginners room not the cider room, but they both appear to have posted in one thread....hmmm....

 

[Yooper]

...that's curious....I don't know why the first two posts above posted on the same thread. I could have sworn I posted the my post that starts "So I just posted..." in the beginners room not the cider room, but they both appear to have posted in one thread....hmmm....

Yes, because we don't allow multiple posting of the same content in different threads. This is a cider issue, so it's in the cider forum.