sppeding things up

[metalmickey]

Hi All.

I want to try the hard lemonade listed in the recipes section, but wondered if it was possible to speed up the process a little.

Ive just started some turbo cider and its already reached 1.000 after 3 days from 1045 so it weighs in at about 6%, and i figure the hard lemo might do the same. The Turbo cider recipe suggests to leave it to settle for about 4 weeks before its ready, and i was wondering if there is any way to speed up the clearing process.

Is there a finings that i could add that would cut the process down a bit. Im off on holiday in 3 weeks id like to take the lemo with me.

thanks for your help

Neil

 

[dpile1]

If you don't intend on priming the bottles or whatever, you could chuck in a campden tablet, some potassium sorbate and some finings.

Might speed things up a wee bit. I'd add the finings the day after the campden & PS went in.

 

[metalmickey]

any particular brand of finings and should i simply add at 1.000?

id like it to be fizzy so will the ct and sorbate affect this?

thanks

 

[Moley]

No particular brand of finings.

If you use campden and sorbate it won't get fizzy.

 

[dpile1]

As Moley says if you do add Campden and PS then they'll kill the yeast, hence your bottles won't be fizzy as there'll be no yeast to consume the extra sugar (that you'd put in to make it fizzy in the bottles).

I guess it's a choice between fizzy or clearing quicker. You could split your batch and have one fizzy and one clearing quicker......?

 

[dpile1]

any particular brand of finings and should i simply add at 1.000?

If you do decide to kill the yeasties and do it at about 1.000 then it'll be quite a medium taste and about 6.1% alcohol, if you kill 'em at 0.9.... then it'll be that bit more stronger and you could always add more sugar to sweeten back to medium if you prefer that instead of dry. :thumb:

I normally use something like Harris Vin Clear - but as Moley says anything'll do it.

 

[metalmickey]

Thanks alot. Im not too worried about the strength

it reached 1.000 yesterday and its now inthe larder which is slightly cooler.

ill just check the gravity and report back. its a smidge under 1.000.

So does CT and sorbate will kill and sterilise the lees and then the finings drag all the crap to the bottom.

can i fine without ct or sorbate

 

[Moley]

It's best to rack (syphon off, leaving the sediment behind) before you add anything, otherwise you're just stirring up muck which you don't need.

CTs kill off most of the yeasties, sorbate stops any survivors from reproducing, which means you won't get a secondary fermentation in the bottle or keg and your brew will be flat.

As you say, finings drag all the crap to the bottom, and yes, you can add those without stabilising, but rack first.