To sieve or not to sieve...?

[Somersby Brewery]

Just made a TC following a recipe I found online. Unfortunately I can't find it again now, but the gist of it was 18L of shop-bought AJ with a couple of jars of honey, and a few chopped and blended bramley apples shoved in as well which would apparently 'give it some body'. Never having made a cider before I don't really know how accurate that claim is, but I thought I'd give it a go. It also had the usual pectolase, nutrients, cider yeast etc. Oh and a cup of strong tea for the tannin. I've got the SG written down somewhere but not to hand, but from what I worked out

A few weeks later it'd fermented down to 0.990, and had a load of tiny chunks of apple lying at the bottom. Again following that recipe I racked it off into another fermenter with a crushed CT in the bottom (which I'm now thinking is a mistake if I wanted to carbonate it, or let it ferment more - I've read about malolactic fermentation, have i stopped all possibility of that now?), and topped it up with a couple more litres of AJ to sweeten it a touch. It's still got maybe a dozen tiny pieces of apple floating in it though. That was about a week ago, it had a few more days in the warm, but is now on my garage floor, tucked away in a corner.

Firstly, do I need to get those bits of apple out before leaving it for months, to stop myself having rotten fruit in my brew? Or will they be fine in the AJ? And does it matter that the fermenting bucket isn't full?

Secondly, now that it's had a campden tablet, am I right in assuming that malolactic fermentation won't happen? If so, are there any other benefits to maturing in bulk? Would I be better off just bottling it now? I'm not too fussed about having it carbonated.

Cheers!

Nick

 

[Somersby Brewery]

Dunno how I've missed half a sentence there. I worked out it'd got to just under 7% ABV.

 

[HLA91]

In regards to the CT I can't see a problem as all they do is stun yeast not kill it so you should be ok in that respect. I would personally say yes get the chunks out but its up to you. When you topped it up with more AJ in theory it should have carried on fermenting more,but you don't mention anything about that. You say "fermenting bucket" do you mean that the bucket is a simple brewing bucket? If so then the fact that its not airtight and you have air sitting on your cider, I take it that's what you mean when you say =>

And does it matter that the fermenting bucket isn't full?

If so then the air will spoil the cider and I would recommend bottling.
Hope that makes sense

 

[Somersby Brewery]

Hmmm, just took a reading, and I think it may have gone down a couple of points since I last checked. It's pretty much 1.000 now (i think it went up to about 1.004 with the extra AJ). I was mistakenly assuming it wouldn't have fermented cos of the tablet...

It's in a 25L bucket with a lid, and the lid has a hole drilled in, with an airlock and bung, so it is airtight. But there is a fairly large gap at the top of the vessel cos it's nowhere near full, so I suppose it does have air sitting on it.

Would you still recommend bottling? And then just leave it in the cold for several months, where it'll undergo malolactic fermentation etc etc etc?

Thanks.

 

[HLA91]

Airlock and bung is good but the head of air is a problem once the initial big ferment is over so yes I would say bottle. Although i don't know if leaving it a bit longer for that reading to drop a little more, I haven't made cider so I don't know what FG is expected so wait till someone who knows answers in regards to the reading.