This week let’s look at one of those flaws that I posted about a few weeks ago. Acetaldehyde. That distinctive green apple flavor.
Acetaldehyde
Category: yeast
Nutrient Notes for the Cider and Wine season
Stepped Nutrient Additions
Cider mead and wines need a bit of help in the nutrient dept to both get started and finish out. Luckily any homebrew store with have just what you need.
The approach is similar in wine, cider and mead. But because of differences in gravity and the varieties of yeast chosen, there are sometimes slight changes in procedure.
Ideally you would use both Fermaid-K and DAP (diammonium phosphate) But that can be hard to find. If you cannot find Fermaid-K, doubling the amount of DAP will greatly help.
These amounts are for 5 gallons
(currently working on a standard plan for using Kviek yeast which is a whole other animal)
Wine and Mead
Day 1- Pitch yeast as normal. After 8 hours stir in ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 2- Stir 5-10 minutes to release Co2. (be careful if using a carboy. Think mentos here)
Day 3- Stir in ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 4- Stir to release more Co2
Day 5- Another ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 6- Stir
Day 7 One more ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
-Your yeast is now on its own to finish its primary ferment. 2-5 weeks is normal
Cider basically the same just shorter (ale/cider/wine yeast..Not Kviek)
Day 1- Pitch yeast as normal. After 8 hours stir in ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 2- A good stir and ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Day 3- Another stir and ¼ teaspoon each Fermaid-K and DAP
Kviek yeast Cider– (in progress) The thing with Kviek is the speed at which it works and the amount of nutrient it requires.
Kviek can take a 1.080 cider down to .999 in 3 days. But it needs much more nutrients to stay clean.
In 3 gallon batches I have been using 2 teaspoons of DAP at pitch, and then another teaspoon 8-10 hours later. Even only 8 hours after pitching you are at full on, violent ferment with Kviek. So just chucking dry DAP into a carboy would not be advisable unless you have a mop ready. A bucket type fermenter or something with a wide mouth or a few gallons headspace is your friend here.
I have not seen a reason to try and stir this because its so fast. I am thinking any stirring after the first day would probably start to cause oxidation. So I am already questioning that 8th hour addition. But I have had no ill effects yet.
I will be starting a Wine made with Kviek this week as well. This 2 teaspoon at the start and another a few hours later will be my starting point as well.
Stay tuned
Yeast problem
This past Saturday I stirred up a cider. Just the normal store bought juice that I use all the time, and a bit of the raspberry wine base. Pretty standard stuff.
Usually I use Nottingham yeast for my ciders. Finishes a bit sweeter and has the apple-ish esters that go great in a cider. But this time I used new yeast.
The Brewer’s Best Cider House Select. This is the yeast that comes with those fantastic cider kits. And while I couldn’t find much info on the yeast it’s self, I have had the ciders made with those kits many times and it was great.
There isn’t much to do in cider when starting with bottled juice, except to add some nutrient, stir and put in the 67F chamber.
I do a staggard nutrient, meaning add some at pitch, some on the third day with a good stir to release some Co2. This helps the yeast out, and really keeps the fusels down.
Day 2. No signs of life from this yeast. If this would have been my normal Notty yeast I would have been worried. But this stuff is new to me so maybe it’s a slow starter.
Day 3. Still nothing. Now I’m worried. But it’s also nutrient day, so I’ll be opening it up to see whats going on. Maybe my lid just wasn’t on right.
Nope. Nothing going on in there at all. Even stirring got no push of bubbles from Co2 escaping like it normally would if there was activity. Some yeasts are slow starters, but after 3 days…time to do something.
Well I gave it another dose, and threw in the Nottingham. Next day, blam! We got the normal Notty heavy action.
I don’t know what was up with that cider yeast. Dont know if it has a super lag. But 3 days is a looong time with nothing. But from the stir it didn’t look like anything bad took over. So we should be good.. I hope
9stripe Brewing 