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| Maceration of pulp at 15 C |
The milling process break down the apple into small pieces and enhance the surface area. The interior of fruity flesh is now exposed to the real world consisting of potent reactants as oxygen and light. Enzymatic reactions as browning and other oxidative processes will now take place – and this happens fast. The process where apple pulp is left over time in contact with oxygen is called maceration.
I asked my good old friend Kai what he does in his production at Kernegaarden. Kai mill the apples and leave them for a couple of hours before pressing. According to my good old book “The Principles and Practice of Cider-Making” the maceration should last for 24 hours. So what to do?
I guess the maceration process is about extraction of aroma compounds and pectin. Pectin is important in the traditional cider making process as this, in the presence of calcium ions, form a jellylike network (the brown hat) wherein important nutrients are entrapped. As nutrients are removed from the must yeast are not able to metabolize all the sugar and this result in a cider with a natural sugar content.
For my experiments I decided to macerate for 24 hours. To the modern ciders I added pectinolytic enzymes (polygalacturonases and pectine methyl esterases). This enhances the extraction of juice and nutrients as well as breaking down the pectin. Do to this the modern ciders are not able to form a hat and the must will therefore ferment to dryness.
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