Apple Cider in Nepal

[4score]

Hello,

I'm a grape winemaker with no experience outside of grapes....maybe a couple batches of Skeeter! I have a friend, @Bijendra Lal Dangol, who is located in Nepal and learning how to make wine and cider. He is a sponge for information. I recently informed him of this Forum and he just joined. I'm suggesting that he let this group (fruit wine) know what he's got and what his questions are. I told him how helpful this community is.

So, this is a placeholder for Bijendra to chime in and bring us up to speed with his situation. I think it's late there now, but hopefully we'll hear from him tomorrow. Generally, I think he has pre-fermented juice with a pH of 3.65 and he's considering options of an acid adjustment.

Looking forward to Bijendra's upcoming post here!

Thanks

 

[Bijendra Lal Dangol]

Hello everyone,
Thanks a lot @4score for creating new topic on Apple cider for discussions. By the way, I am planning to have two small batches of cider for the trials to see their respective outcomes. I want to make acid adjustment in two batches with tartaric acid and malic acid respectively while i am thinking to use fining agent i.e Bentonite during primary fermentation in one batch while after secondary in next batch. But my question is if i am about to adjust acid and pH of the must then What pH and acidity would be better to maintained at? How much dose of bentonite should be used? And anyone have some changes or modification in respective batches then please suggest me. I would try each and every advices so that i can tell you all that finally i have made superb Apple cider and this is all due to your presence.

Thanks,,,

 

[Scooter68]

With most fruit wines the preferred pH prior to starting the fermentation is usually best between 3.4 and 3.6. Lower is ok if not too low but higher is normally considered risky in terms of protecting the wine from spoilage and for taste reasons. A pH below 3.00 can be troublesome for some yeast varieties buy personally I've had a blueberry wine ferment just fine with starting pH of 2.87 and 2.98.

Since you are doing an Apple wine the primary acid variety there is malic acid so if you need make it more acidic (lower the number) that' would be the best choice of acid to add to the must.

Also with Apple wine be sure to use plenty of Pectic Ezyme, even double or triple the normal dosage as Apple wine can be a challenge to clear. As you mentioned Bentonite is also a good fining agent to help the clearing.

 

[4score]

I agree, I think the malic acid is the right choice. Maybe don't waste one of your experiments on the malic vs tartaric, but rather 3.65 no adjustment vs 3.5 adjusted with malic.

 

[Bijendra Lal Dangol]

If it is so then okay fine i will perform as you suggest me to do. But the one thing i have experienced the problem that when i am going to adjust pH of the must for the primary fermentation then the desired acidity would not be set. For example; when I made pH about 3.55 then the acidity would be just 0.67 gm/liter. I have found somewhere in the wine making site that The pH and acidity for the red and white wine during primary:
Wine type pH TA TSS
Red 3.4-3.7 0.6-0.7 g/100ml 22-25 degree brix
White 3.2-3.5 0.6-0.9 g/100ml 17-24 degree brix
How much is this right or wrong? I could not set with in the given range of acidity while maintaining inside the given range of pH. Would you please clear on that what the actual matter is ?

 

[4score]

I think you are right. Any acid adjustment to lower your pH will increase your TA. I don't get caught up in the numbers because I don't try to make "massive" adjustments. Small pH adjustments should be planned, then use half of the plan in tasting trials before adding the full adjustment.

 

[Rice_Guy]

TA is the dominant contributor for flavor. More TA means it takes longer to wash off the taste buds. pH is involved in chemical reactions/ micro growth so it is important but very low pH with very low TA (ex a distilled water lab test) has very low flavor impact. Luckily they trend together in natural foods so we can simplify.
You are starting a cider. Traditional cider was produced with a variety of flavored apples. Fresh eating apples are low tannin so consider adding a source of tannin. This year I am using bittersweet crab apples which are planted for decoration. Last year I planted a bittersweet cider variety which I hope to use for tannin flavors in all my fruit wines when it starts producing.
My flavor preference is to drop the pH to 3.2. (TA up to 1.00%) To balance the acid flavor this forces me to back sweeten to 1.010 or even 1.018. This style of wine has lots of fruit aroma/ low added water.

Have fun! a lot of things (flavors) can be fermented.

 

[Bijendra Lal Dangol]

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences and knowledge regarding Apple cider making. I have got even more confidence level so that i have got much more hope to making cider of much more quality.

 

[4score]

Bijendra, here is a good article for reference: https://www.homecidermaking.com/hard-cider-acidity-ta-ph/