When to use wine tannin?

[WadeNasty]

What stage of fermentation is best too add wine tannin to my cider. It will be around 11%ABV (high and dry) then I plan too age for about two months. But I will also want to back sweeten then bottle and pasteurize after aging.

 

[Chalkyt]

Google "The Beverage People". They have an excellent range of articles on cider making, including one on adding Tannins. They suggest adding tannins at the start, although I have done this (but not very often) at the end of secondary fermentation to get an idea of what the final product will taste like.

 

[Raptor99]

Here is the article from The Beverage People: https://www.thebeveragepeople.com/pdf/webwinepdf/Tannins.pdf It gives a great overview of the different times you might add tannin and the reason for each.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

You can add tannin both before and/or after.
Adding tannin in cider is similar to adding tannin in wine.

There are two types of tannins and both have their place ... one is the type of tannin from grapes and the other type is from wood - usually oak.
The tannin powder most people get from the brewers/winemakers store is generally the *grape* type unless specified otherwise.

Grape tannin is typically added before ferment (particularly with wine) ... Oak tannins typically after ... although if all you have is the grape type, you could use that after as well to carefully adjust to taste.

Grape tannin in particular adds a more bitter element as it is derived from catechins in the stems and seeds of grapes.
This is why if you are *not* getting the tannic bitterness from the apples, and decide to add grape tannin powder, you should be careful with the additions. Grape tannin can make your wine or cider bitter quickly if overdone.

You should also be careful if you add oak tannin too, even though the “hydrolyzable” type of tannins that oak adds are softer and add more favorable flavors and aromas without the tendency to quite as much bitterness.

While the bitterness of both types of tannin will mellow over time, the corresponding rise in astringency in that molecular change as it ages will seem greater with the grape tannin because it already has added more astringency to begin with. (astringency is the perception of dryness in the taste of wine or cider - or if really too astringent, "roughness")

 

[passedpawn]

^^ agree, be careful. I did some tests on a recent batch of wine and it sure was easy to go from undetectable to a 10 on the pucker scale.