Oddbean new post about login | logout It was really was. I usually prefer cider that's fermented flat with no residual sugar but this was sweet but not too sweet and really fruity. Have tried any keeving with your stuff yet?
Not yet. Should make it a strategic priority next year to practice keeving. But like you I prefer my cider bone dry.
I think every person involved in making cider for long enough ends up like that 😆.
For keeving you need fruit from old trees as it's lower in nitrogen.
If you haven't got old trees you can play around with my seemingly still novel cider making method as it will be a few years till I can afford an orchard.
It's basically carbonic maceration a technique from winemaking. You get a clean tank fill it full of fruit, perry pears are best but you can use apples too but you will still need to press them. Then you fill the tank with C02 and leave it for months. Siphon any juice off and press any solid material that remains. The fermented juice tastes different in a interesting fizzy way has more colour and greater aroma. It's also useful to do if you get a bumper year and you dont get the time to press everything all at once. This method of making cider is super interesting and looks like something I'll experiment with. I just finished up some pear wine. Its been in secondary for about 2 months. I plan on using a pear variety that has a short season and its hard to find any other time of year. I'm thinking of buying enough fruit to make 6 or so gallons but I don't want to make it all at once. Have you ever frozen fruit or fruit juice so you could have more iterations throughout the year? I'm thinking of just throwing pounds of whole pears into a deep freezer so I can pull them out, press them, and iterate with different techniques and ingredients throughout the year. Ever heard of anything like this? Does it work? Is it better to freeze the juice instead?
Yeah go for. I know someone who freezes apples on purpose and presses them and ferments them into cider and the result it excellent, its the same idea as ice wine. He is freezing them and not pressing them months later but I can' really see it being any different at all. The only downside is the energy and time cost. The plus sides are that usually you don't have to scrat (mill the fruit to small pieces) and any undeveloped sugars like starches are broken down with the freeze /thaw. This really makes for a much higher quality juice which ferments better and just has a much cleaner flavour after fermentation, hence why its done at all.
Does your buddy freeze them whole? Does he just drop them in the freezer with no container or anything else? Thanks for the info!
Yeah whole, he usually just puts them in a crate for ease of removal. He has another freezer that's clearly for small ice-creams and it doesn't allow for access of a crate. However he was doing eating apples when I saw his setup, if you are doing pears they will likely collapse under their own weight when defrosting so load then straight into the press and/ or anothercontainer to defrost there to catch the juice.
Also you could potentially macerate them before (or after) freezing if you wanted to try it he isn't doing that. Perhaps it's too messy to use a mill and just smashing it up a bit by hand will work.
Normally if you leave the macerated pomace to stand for 12-24 hours at room temperature there is an enzymatic process that helps it separate. You can then pour the pomace into the press and a lot of juice just comes straight through the press bag, which if you have a small press can make it quicker despite the time delay. So if you are pressing over a couple of days it might be worth trying, the effect is more pronounced with pears over apples