cider a bit dry

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crannman

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hi all first brew on the go pear cider I have a allotment and had a glut of pears so made cider pressed 1 ltr of juice topped up with water yeast fermented well now racked off into demi johns had a quick sample tastes ok but a bit dry is there anything I can do to liven it up
 
If this is pear juice from this year the best advice would be leave it a while. At least Christmas but better still the spring. It will improve with age!

If it's anything like my 2 week old cider that I racked off last weekend it will be tart and something that reminds you of pears but not much else.

So give it some time. That will take the edge off it. If you still need to sweeten it a bit you can use non-fermentable sweetener, or add potassium sorbate to stabilise then add sugar to sweeten.
 
If this is pear juice from this year the best advice would be leave it a while. At least Christmas but better still the spring. It will improve with age!

If it's anything like my 2 week old cider that I racked off last weekend it will be tart and something that reminds you of pears but not much else.

So give it some time. That will take the edge off it. If you still need to sweeten it a bit you can use non-fermentable sweetener, or add potassium sorbate to stabilise then add sugar to sweeten.
racked it off into demi johns put in some non fermenting sugar see how it goes :thumb:
 
Does the non fermenting sugar not leave that sweetener aftertaste you can get? I have some battery acid, I mean rhubarb wine that I need to try and sort out, but a bit nervous about adding sweetener incase I get that aftertaste.
 
Does the non fermenting sugar not leave that sweetener aftertaste you can get? I have some battery acid, I mean rhubarb wine that I need to try and sort out, but a bit nervous about adding sweetener incase I get that aftertaste.

Providing you have used a stabiliser to kill off the yeast you could use sugar if you want. Some people dont use stabilisers as it could affect the taste of the wine.

I suppose it depends how delicate your palate is. :mrgreen:
 
Does the non fermenting sugar not leave that sweetener aftertaste you can get? I have some battery acid, I mean rhubarb wine that I need to try and sort out, but a bit nervous about adding sweetener incase I get that aftertaste.

Did you not drop the acidity with precipitated chalk before you started?
I found rhubarb wine to be nice but honestly not worth the bother of dealing with the pulp.
 
Did you not drop the acidity with precipitated chalk before you started?
I found rhubarb wine to be nice but honestly not worth the bother of dealing with the pulp.

Nope, I asked about adding chalk in my local HB shop, but they said it wasnt really needed. I did think I should be adding it. Can I add it now or is it too late?
 
I don't see why not but you may have to wait a while to get it clear again. Don't overdo it though as whine needs some acidity.
 
I'm going to start doing ciders but I'm kind of understanding the process but the thing I get stuck on is stopping the yeast. Will cambden tablets do the trick? In Japan we don't have much access to chemicals as you guys do.
 
Why do you want to stop the yeast? It will stop naturally when it runs out of sugar.
 
bottled cider yesterday its not as dry as before used 1 tsp of sugar to prime them try in a Cpl of weeks let you know how it goes thanks for all advice
 
Why do you want to stop the yeast? It will stop naturally when it runs out of sugar.

I would go even further - for a beginner I found that bottling with light carbonation was a really simply way to store and mature the cider without it oxidising. To achieve carbonation you need the yeast to still be live such that light fermentation in the bottle will happen once priming sugar is added. This creates CO2 and means the cider can safely be stored for some time.

Obviously to avoid bottle bombs you need to use a hydrometer to check the yeast has chewed through all the sugar pre bottling.

Hope this helps, it's the sort of basic information I found really useful when making my debut last year.
 
I thought I'd force carb my cider so I wanted to end the yeast so I could blend apple juice or sugar to sweeten it a bit. If the yeast is still active then they'll start fermenting those sugars.
 
If you sweeten with lactose the yeast will be unable to ferment it avoiding the glass grenades we have all had at some stage,you can add a measured amount of brewers sugar or carbonation drops if you want some fizz but I usually drink my cider flat,incidentally it's only cider when made from apples ,if it's exclusively pear juice then it's Perry.
Contrary to popular marketing there is no such thing as pear cider , it's like calling wine grape cider.
 

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