Adding fresh pomegranate juice?

[Greytop]

I've got 5 gallons of fresh pressed apple juice from a local orchard. It's been flash pasteurized. I also have a gallon of pomegranate juice from my own tree that's not pasteurized. I plan to add campden to the pom juice to knock out any bacteria and wild yeast. Fermenting with Nottingham. Planning to keg this for Christmas.

I've read different opinions on when to add the pom juice. Should it go in the primary? If so, will the campden in the pom juice hurt fermentation. Should I add it to the secondary or wait until I keg? Thanks in advance for any advice you care to give.

 

[friarsmith]

If I was in your situation, I'd:

1) Add a pinch of campden to the gallon of pom and refrigerate it
2) Meanwhile, ferment the apple juice with Notty for 7-10 days. Notty leaves good apple flavor plus some residual sweetness compared to wine/mead/cider yeasts (in general)
3) When the hard cider from #2 is at 1.000 or below, rack it to a keg, then add potassium metabisulphite & sorbate to stabilize per label recommendations. Then add the pomegranate to back sweeten. Then force carb.

Or, instead of #3, you could rack the hard cider to a keg and then immediately add the pomegranate juice. Close up the keg and wait a week or so. You'll get some natural carbonation with this method. In regards to final gravity, flavor, etc with this method... who knows? But it won't suck

 

[Greytop]

Thank you. My first criteria is that it not suck. Everything after that is cake. If I go with your first suggestion, should I pull it off the lees after 10 days and put it in the secondary for a slow ferment to 1.00 or leave it in the primary until it gets there?

 

[friarsmith]

Check the gravity after 7-10 days. You'll most likely be at 1.00 or slightly below. I'd leave it on the lees until it hits at least 1.00

 

[Greytop]

Thank you again for your advice. I put the campden in the pom juice today. I was surprised at how much it changed the color. The juice went from a deep red to a blush pink. I'll probably have to back sweeten when I move from the secondary to keg. I realized that I shouldn't have any issues with continued fermentation because the keg will go directly into the 39° keezer.