Grease spots on my cider

[aurora_colony_cider]

Hello everyone,

I'm new here.

I've been making cider for four years now and getting better and better.

One thing that's puzzled me is the appearance of what i can only describe as shiny grease posts on my cider. Please see attached photo.

This has been happening pretty much every batch I've ever made and I really want to get to the bottom of it as my cider tastes and smells and looks like a store quality product.

I've seen various explanations on here for sheen on cider - like Starsan residue etc - but as there never was a photo I could never be sure that the user here was having the same issue as me and I don't know if I'd describe this as a sheen. More like the grease islands you get on homemade soup.

It's more prevalent in some bottles than others so I'm thinking sanitation issues, but the cider tastes fine.

Thanks for any tips folks.

 

[Maylar]

Describe your process in detail.

And is that a glass of finished cider?

 

[aurora_colony_cider]

Hi Dave, thanks for the response.

For this cider, I used Brewcraft Pectic enzyme and Wyeast yeast nutrient in 5 gallons of unpasteurized cider with Champagne yeast. It was 3 weeks in primary, secondary for two months, in the bottle for 6 weeks with sugar drops to carbonate.

It went into a recycled 22oz bottle that was brushed in a Starsan solution. I also used Issinglass to clarify. Used crown caps that were soaked in Starsan.

Yes, that's the finished cider but it's the dregs of a bottle so fairly cloudy with yeast residue. The grease spots get worse as the bottle goes down by the way and some bottles are worse than others.

And it's not just this batch, I've noticed this on other batches with apple juice from other suppliers.

I can't see anything similar on The Wittenham Hill Cider Pages that adequately describes this.

I hope someone can help cast light on this. The cider tastes great, but the looks let it down drastically.

R.

 

[Maylar]

So, your photo is the bottom of a clear bottle?

The odd thing about the spots is that one is a perfect circle. So it's not something growing. Did you rack after adding isinglass? Did you add a campden tablet? If you pour it out what does it smell/feel like? Is it grainy, or slippery or what?

StarSan is liquid, it doesn't clump like that.

Very odd.

 

[aurora_colony_cider]

Hi Dave,

This is a photo looking down on the top of a glass that I poured from a bottle. This was the dregs of the bottle. The large white object is an overhead light reflecting in the glass - thank god that's not something growing in there.

The greasy spotty stuff I'm talking about is the little gold colored specks on the surface. Doesn't it look like grease islands on soup?

I added isinglass after about 6 weeks in secondary on advice from local supple store (since read that's not a good move due to the difference in pH) and left for another 3 weeks or so afterward.

No campden tablet as it was pasteurized store bought unfiltered cider.

The very first time I made cider I saw this exact same thing. I thought it might have been oil from the press I borrowed. Since then, I've been using store bought or local orchard bought cider and still I'm seeing this residue.

No idea what it smells or tastes like. The cider tastes good - maybe tastes a little yeasty and smells a little sulphury - but that disappears with time.

Could it be unconsumed sugar from the priming tabs? I condition in the bottle.

R.

 

[Maylar]

Gold specs - honestly I have no idea.

 

[aurora_colony_cider]

Ha. There's gold on them there hills.

Thanks, Dave.

 

[jerbrew]

Could it be residue from those priming tabs? Never used them, maybe they have some kind of oily filler to bind them together. The only thing I can suggest is changing one thing at a time until it disappears. try using a different sanitizer, maybe use corn sugar to prime, change one ingredient at a a time. Sorry I can't be more help.

 

[CanadianBacon]

Im in the same boat, I had the "oily film" on some stuff. Time has been my only solution.

 

[aurora_colony_cider]

Thanks, jerbrew and CanadianBacon.

I did use sugar previously and still saw the oily stuff. I guess time is a good cure, the only issue being it;s hard to ignore 30 22oz bottles of cider sitting in the basement on a hot summer's evening.

Onwards.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Could those gold flecks be residual bits of isinglass?

 

[aurora_colony_cider]

I don't think so, gratus. I have seen these before when i was still using iodine (yuck).