Step 1 in Clarifying
Two weeks have passed and rather than take daily photos of bubbling cider fermenting, I thought we would allow it a little privacy to mature and tell you about the next steps we took toward clarifying the cider.Two days ago, Bernie & Elaine came over to decant the 5 gallon carboy into a different, freshly sterilized carboy. This allowed us to throw away the sediment which could lend bitter notes and unpleasantness to the cider (left carboy).
After decanting the original carboy, we added 1/2 teaspoon/gallon (2.5 teaspoons) of pectinase to help the sediment drop. We also topped off the carboy with fresh pressed cider that had been treated with a campden tablet.
Step 2 in Clarifying
Today (October 4) we decanted the carboy for a second time. This is the carboy before its second decanting. While it is a lovely color, it is still very sediment-heavy.
So, we siphoned the cider into a clean carboy.
And waited for the second carboy to fill.
After decanting the cider, we decided to sweeten it with honey from Bernie's own carefully tended beehives (Pete's Mountain Honey). We're aiming for our cider to be 4% sweetened by natural honey.
As we were adding the honey, the fermentation process went wild and bubbling in the airlock resumed at an even faster pace. You can see the process starting with white frothy bubbles in the carboy below.
In retrospect, I wish I had waited a couple of weeks to make the cider, because today's freshly picked apples had a sweeter, juicier quality than just two weeks ago.
Esopus Spitzenberg
I'm with Thomas Jefferson. This is one of my favorite fresh off the tree eating apples. It is deliciously sweet with a nice hard flesh that is beautiful golden yellow inside. We harvested some from the tree top today and they were sun-warmed and very sweet.
In my orchard, the pollinators for this apple are the Winter Banana and the Calville Blanc.
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