an Alt way to get sweetness in a carbed cider

[phug]

I just bottled what is my easiest sweet, soon to be carbonated "cider"

It uses no additional added unfermentables.

2 litres Heinz Pear juice from concentrate w/ ascorbic acid added. Topped it up with
2 950 ml Tetra packs of Oasis 100% juice, not from concentrate, canada choice apples.
Lalvin ec1118 yeast added, no hydration.

Fermented between 55F and 63F as the basement temperatures cycled daily

OG was 1.052
FG 2 weeks later was 1.009 and stayed there until over a week later when I bottled.
I primed with 55ml of AJC which should give me a little over 2.5 vols of carbonation.

The end product is crystal clear, and while it seemed a little bit thin and lacking body, that may have something to do with the icecubes in my short pour left over from my bottling.

 

[Yooper]

Once they are carbed up, I'd either pasteurize the bottles or keep them cold.

Using EC1118 yeast, once the cider warms up a bit, it will ferment again and the likely FG would be .990. In other words, bottle bombs! So be cautious with them.

 

[phug]

I think it's the naturally occurring sorbitol from the pears, which should be non- ferment able. None of my other ec1118 batches have stopped there, and I didn't skimp on the yeast. Still, I'll keep an eye on them



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[ThorGodOfThunder]

I always add a few pears when I press my cider (5% or so, it adds a certain smoothness to it), and with ec-1118 it has never fermented out below 1.000.

 

[Yooper]

I have made pear wine, and perry- and with EC1118, it finished at .990-.994. Pears will ferment.

 

[phug]

Alright then I'll keep an eye on them and pasteurize


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[ThorGodOfThunder]

I'm not sure what it is, but my cider has never gotten below 1.00, no matter how long I let it go. I'm not familiar enough with pears to know their effects, but something is adding weight to my cider.

 

[phug]

ok, so, doing some research. Pear juice on average contains approximately 2.1 grams per 100 ml of sorbitol. which is significantly more than is found in apple juice.

Now, the pear juice I picked up may intentionally have a higher sorbitol content, as I picked it up from the baby / pediatric section of the grocery store. With infants it's used a a diuretic, to help "unblock them" so to speak.

based on an average amount of sorbitol in pear juice, there should have been 42 grams total in this cider, which really would only be enough for about 2 gravity points in a 1 gallon batch of cider.

I may put in a call or an email to Heinz to find out what the sorbitol content of their pear juice is.

 

[phug]

email sent to heinz

 

[phug]

from consumer affairs at Heinz.

As per your inquiry, we do not test for sorbitol in pear juice, and none is added to the juice. There would be some naturally occurring. based on our recipe: ~2 g of sorbitol / 100g of juice, which is ~3g / 125mL (1/2 cup) of juice.

 

[phug]

so at this point Ive done two of this batch, including one that was a 17 litre batch, which was fermented sometime back in the June July Timeframe.

I just finished off the last bottle of that batch, which still had the sweetness, and did not continue to carb in the bottle despite spending most of it's time in a less than cool condo with a friend, and making several car trips once in bottles, twice across town in stop and go traffic and then another trip of 200 kms to go to a family event.

I'm going to give it another round, and ensure I thoroughly degas my sample via the yooper method (shake it like it owes you money until you don't hear it go poof anymore) to make sure I'm not getting a misread from residual co2.

if it comes out the same for round 3, I'm going to post this as a nice offdry/semi sweet cider recipe that doesn't require any stovetop pasteurizing.

had some of this batch in swingtop 750s, and some in 220ml crown caps.

Maybe there is magic in them thar Heinz Pears.

 

[phug]

I have enough duplication of results now that I've posted my recipe. It finishes at 1.008-1.009 with EC-1118

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/easy-peasy-pear-520497/

 

[ohiochris]

Interesting. I didnt know that about pear juice. Thanks

 

[frankusb]

I look forward to the S04 results.

I don't have measured results, but from taste, a similar experiment with half apple juice and half peach juice produced a sweeter than expected cider.