Gelatin for clearing cider

[terryc...@gmail.com]

I have read a few comments on other places regarding using gelatin for clearing cider. Are there any adverse side effects from doing this? I usually press my own apples and end up with lots of suspended matter that does settle over time. However the background to my question is that  this year, unlike the U.K. which seems to have an outstanding year, our apple crop here in the mountains of  S.E. Oz is a complete fail due to a killer -7C frost just as the fruit was forming. So I have just trialled a bought (from a commercial orchard) single variety Pink Lady juice to get a handle on what I might do later in the year given the few good apples left (cider making here is usually from March onwards). It was all fermenting as expected until at 1.020 I added fermaid which was quite cloudy.. The cider is slowly settling after a few weeks but I have read about using gelatin and wondered if it is worthwhile. Any comments and suggestions gratefully accepted.

[gareth chapman]

It will most likely clear itself naturally, but finings can also strip some flavour compounds, too.

I'm not sure how great a cider Pink Lady will make, whilst they are nice and sweet as an eater they are also quite acidic and a bit one dimensional fkavour wise

[terryc...@gmail.com]

Thanks Gareth. I was afraid that using finings might affect flavour. The Pink Lady was just an "experiment" as there are a couple of such products here. I certainly find that they need a bit of work with added tannin. With my own apples I have found that Granny Smith works o.k. as a single variety, also with added tannin, but nothing beats a mongrel collection of odds and sods. Sadly this year I won't have my odds and sods so I am searching for single variety juices that I can cobble together into something worthwhile.

[Claude Jolicoeur]

In the tests I have done, gelatin didn't work very well with cider. It did work well with perry though.

For cider, I prefer to use Chitosan combined with a silica solution (such as Kieselsol, or Bevasil).

[Mark Fitzsimmons]

I only use gelatin if I have excessive bitterness, as it is very good at removing tannins, but better fining agents include: sparkolloid (often my first choice, mix it in boiling water or cider and pour it in hot), bentonite (use similarly to sparkolloid, and I often use this second, as it is oppositely charged to sparkolloid & compacts the fluffy lees left by sparkolloid). Dual-Fine, aka Super-kleer, aka kieselsol + chitosan are a two part oppositely charged liquid often sold in single-use packs, but you can buy each component in 1 liter bottles. Also kieselsol and bentonite are opposite charge and work well together. With any of those two-part finings, complete the second one on the second day and then wait a week at least before racking.  PVPP (white powder) is good if you have bitter compounds and also works well and pretty fast.