Step 9: Bottling of Modern Cider

The idea of the modern approach to cider making was to do a secondary alcoholic bottle fermentation in the bottle following the making of a dry base apple wine. From this I will make a wine higher in alcohol and with more fizz. Beside this I have the idea that the autolysis of yeast will contribute to the overall flavor of the wine.

The modern cider was to be bottled when all sugar was fermented and the wine was dry. When bottled the SG was below 0 g/cm3. Ildrød Pigeon was very slow fermenting and has therefore not been bottled yet. However all other cider was bottled and added yeast and sugar. Sugar is important to allow the secondary fermentation to go on. I added 15 g/L in form of white table sucrose sugar. The yeast was the same Saccharomyces bayanus as used for the alcoholic fermentation.

For some of the ciders (AB-M, IM-M and SVA-M) I divided them in to two groups, to investigate the importance of nutrient level. Group 1 was only added yeast and sugar (as describes above) and group 2 was furthermore added Brillant flüssig, Tannin flüssig and Vitamon Ultra.

The bottles was closed with crown caps and laid down for secondary fermentation. I will take out samples on day 14, 35 and 66.

Calculations

Group 1:
Sugar are weighted on scale and added to the bottles (each bottle). 15 g/L x 0,375 L (the bottles used) = 5,6 g sugar.

Yeast: Calculations: 4 g yeast / 10 L wine = 0,4 g / 1 L. One bottle is 0,375 L = 0,4 g/L / 2,67 bottles per L wine = 0,15 g yeast per bottle. The solution is added to the bottles. 1 mL per bottle. So 1 mL should contain 0,15 g yeast. Therefore 15 g yeast should be added to the 0,1 L water and this solution is added as 1 mL to the cider.

Group 2:
Sugar and yeast as above.

Brillant flüssig. Calculations: 70 mL / 100 L wine = 0,7 mL / L wine = 0,26 mL per small (0,375 L) bottle of wine = 0,26 x 1000 = 260 microliter per bottle wine (added with automat pipet).

Tannin flüssig are added after Brillant flüssig. Calculations: 60 mL / 100 L wine = 0,6 mL / L wine = 0,23 mL per small (0,375 L) bottle of wine = 0,23 x 1000 = 230 microliter per bottle of wine (added with automat pipet).

Vitamon Ultra is a powder. Calculation: 60 g/100 L = 0,6 g / L wine. When small bottles 0,6 g / 2,67 = 0,22 g per small bottle. The powder is weightet and added directly to the bottles.

Step 9: Bottling of Traditional Cider

All ciders were monitored by density and brix value. In my good old cider handbook I found that bottling cider with a density between 1020-1018 would give a sweet cider, 1019-1015 a normal sparkling cider and 1013-1010 a light sparkling cider. From this I decided to bottle when the cider was at 1015 g/cm3. However, I only managed to do this for some of the ciders. The ciders was bottled at:

Ingrid Marie: 1017
Ildrød Pigeon: 1019
Dronning Louise: 1001
Sukkeræble fra Vaalse and Søde æbler fra Aalsrode: 0,9989
Aston Brown Jeresy: 1016

Dronning Luise and Sukkeræble fra Vaalse and Søde æbler fra Aalsrode fermented so fast that I didn’t managed to bottle it before it was to late.

The ciders was bottled in 0,375 L bottles and closed with crown cap, laid down in plastic boxes for further fermentation.