Tag: fermenting

Nutrient Notes for the Cider and Wine season

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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

Kviek Cider Bottling

stoutmakerLeave a comment

Pitched the dry Kviek two weeks ago. Its time to get this bottled up and see how it turned out. Kept this very basic so I could see what this yeast was going to do not only with cider, but at these temps. I only every used Kviek at the high end, 90-100F but down here the temps were only 60.

When I took the final gravity, I was surprised to see that. I didnt expect it to go that low. Was expecting it to act like a a regular beer yeast and stop much sooner. Normally a cider thats 0.996 is pretty damn dry. But this isnt. And I’m not sure why.

It has some sweetness AND a decent body. Its of course still a bit hazy from the Kviek, but not nearly as bad as the past liquid versions. Whether thats because this is a cider, not a beer, or there is something different between the liquid and dry versions I dont know. The yeast thats in suspension lends its typical “Kviek Taste” but that will go away as it drop out and clears. There is still good amount of apple character, poking thru, plus a quite a bit of fresh peach flavor which I assume is from the lower ferment temps.

The )

OG on this was 1.070 and finished at .996 for an ABV of around 9.8%… in two weeks. While there is juuuust the slightest bit of alc hotness, it is very drinkable right now. A bit of age on it should smooth all of the rough edges on it,, but two weeks for as simple as this was is pretty amazing.

So, right out of the bottling bucket I am quite happy with the results. And I know it is going to get better in the next couple weeks, so Ill come back and give the final review of this batch then.

Kviek Cider

stoutmaker2 Comments

So I needed to brew something with Kviek yeast for a club monthly brew. I figured everyone was going to do some kind of beer. So I decided to do a cider.

The lhbs has a few choices in Kviek, but the dried Voss is one I didn’t use before.

Other than that, I’m just going to do as simple of a recipe that I can. 3 gallons Juice, 1 lb brown sugar and the Voss. Of course will be doing the nutrient program with it.

(yes this is juice)

Starting gravity was 1.070. but hopeful that I’ll be able to get this bottle primed for the August meeting. We will see!