clearing time

[fullmoonwinery]

hi, my cider (yes, its not beer but maybe the same principles apply) doesn't seem to be clearing very well. i took a sample today which was very cloudy and put it in the fridge and to my surprise, it started clearing in the glass straight way, noticeably different after just 3 hours.

my fridge is about 6 degC, same as the tank so i don't think its a temperature thing.

i'm leaving it in the FV to clear but i've drained a lot of yeast from the bottom. its currently 12 days old and stopped fermenting at 1005, 4 days ago

i keep it under pressure at 1.5bar and i wonder if its the suspended CO2 which is causing it to remain cloudy?

or maybe the top of the tank is clear already and the clear zone hasn't reached the sample port yet which is about 2m from the top (3000 liter tank).

any ideas? could the pressure be causing it to fail to clear or maybe something else? i was trying to keep the gas in so it would be naturally carbonated but maybe that is a problem?

thanks, steve

[fullmoonwinery]

thanks, i would if i could but i made a newbee mistake when ordering the chillers and it only goes down to about 5 degrees and i can't afford another one

when i did home brew it cleared fine at 10+ degrees so i didn't know

anyhow, i found an interesting article on spunging since i didn't know what that was

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Spunding

so i'm already doing this, i figure keep it closed and keep bacteria and nasties out anyhow

i guess i need to be a bit more patient and hope it does clear in a few more days. if i can find a way to get my chiller to chill a bit more, i'll do that too

steve

[beerking1]

1. The pressure will actually encourage flocculation of the yeast.
2. It does take some time for the yeast to flocc out, the amount depends very much on the type of yeast.
3. Anything ~40*F or below should be cold enough to fully encourage flocculation.
4. Are you sure fermentation is fully complete? I have seen ciders get to 0.990 gravity, and as long as the yeasts are still active they can be hesitant to flocc out, depending the strain (see #2 above).

[Moonlight]

I see the same behavior sometimes, and the performance in the glass just lets you know that patience will be rewarded eventually. Worry when it does not settle in the glass!
I have found that my ale yeast is slower to settle under pressure, my lager yeast doesn't seem to care.

[fullmoonwinery]

hi, i took a sample from the top of my tank about a week ago and it was obvious to me it was not even slightly interested in clearing by itself.

so 2 days ago i added some keiselsol and chitosan which seems to work well on everything (beer, wine, cider)

anyhow, i just looked and its starting to clear now, i'm hoping 2-3 days should see it ready for the filter.

i have it at 7 degreesC, that's as low as my chiller will go. my friend said he cleared his beer in the UK (microbrewery) at 11-12 degrees and said i should raise the temp a bit.

i'm a bit reluctant to do that because everything i've read indicates colder means faster clearing but what do you experts think? worth a try or just wait it out?

thx steve

[gitchegumee]

Colder is better. Is this from 100% apple must?

[fullmoonwinery]

Colder is better. Is this from 100% apple must?

concentrated apple juice and some sugar to get the OG up

[gitchegumee]

My experience with cider is blending several varieties to get the profile you want; sweet, sugary apples with tart, acid apples plus aromatic apples plus tannic apples. Don't know if your haze might be tannin complexes. Let's see what it filters like in another week.

[rudge75]

You might want to try a little pectic enzyme next time around. You can add it in during fermentation and it'll mop up any pectins that could make up haze in the cider. Patience is a virtue. In my experience, cider making is all about patience.