A question about "Old Rosie" and it's malolactic benefits.

[jimblob]

Hello I've made a few turbo ciders, (several varieties now). But they all seem to taste weak/thin, and boring. Maybe this is because I live in an area that has some great farm's producing scrumpy cider. They are fairly close to where I live, one of the closest is a cider museum where people take their apple's to be juiced in press that is (as far as I remember) hundreds of years old.
http://millhousecider.co.uk/cider.html

To me cider isn't apple juice and it's not the "turbo cider" that I have made in the past, I'm guessing this is because of the alcoholic apple juice not going through the malolactic fermentation process.


I NEED REAL CIDER :

I'd like to know if I could simply add a bottle or two of "Old Rose" to a turbo cider type recipe and expect to see the malolactic fermentation after a few months? Could the £1.89 I spend on a bottle of "Old Rose" act as the necessary culture I need?

 

[graysalchemy]

It could some people have done this I think, but what you do need also is the malic acid 1 tsp per gallon. Without it it won't work as the apple juice used in the cider will have next to no malic in it. Also do you add tannin to your TC. If not I find again 1 tsp per gallon is best or more if you like a lip smacking cider.

I would also culture up the old rosie yeast in future as yeast does impart some flavours to the cider as well.

Hope that helps.

 

[jimblob]

Thanks you Graysalchemy, i was hoping to get your input.
I've a batch of cider going for a month now (using your directions from another post), it's looking good, smells like scrumpy too.
That batch was from using "old rosie" as a starter. It took a while to get it all going, but it works. All I need to do now is to wait 4-6 months.

I just wanted to start a new fresh batch using different yeast, I'll use all sorts of yeast until I find a favorite. I've just started another today with sn9 yeast.

One more question for you if I were to pour a bottle of "old rosie" into my brew, would it be best to do it before or after the main fermentation? Could I put it in when I put all the other ingredients in at the start?

Many thanks

 

[wilsoa1111]

if u have already done a batch and its going the way u wnat it to siphon some of the crud off the bottom of it (1ml prob equiv to a bottles worth of old rosie, so a cup will do wonders) and use that in the new one, will work miles better than bunging a bottle in( a bottle would have too few cells to be safe/predicatable) this is why they reuse the spec cider barrels for the crud