French Cidre Doux

[al...@cidermonger.com]

Hi,

 

Can someone explain to me how the French stabilize Cidre Doux to get a sparkling, yet sweet Cider? I understand how through keeving and multiple rackings you get the residual sweetness, but how do they then make it sparkling without having it go dry in the bottle? I would figure the dosage would have enough yeast to ferment it dry in the case of Cidre Brut, no? I would also think that they are not pasteurizing the bottles...Or is that how it's acheived?

 

If anyone knows the specifics of how it's done in Brittany or Normandy, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

 

Cheers,

 

Alex

[Andrew Lea]

On 07/05/2014 19:07, al...@cidermonger.com wrote:

> Can someone explain to me how the French stabilize Cidre Doux to get a
> sparkling, yet sweet Cider?

> If anyone knows the specifics of how it's done in Brittany or Normandy,
> I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Extract below from my chapter in "Fermented Beverage Production" 2003...

"The juice is kept
cool after the addition of calcium chloride and
commercial PME to encourage the formation of
the chapeau brun. The juice is then clarified by
centrifugation or tangential ultrafiltration into tanks for an initial
(natural) fermentation that
lasts for one to two weeks. No sulfiting is used at
this stage. The action of keeving followed by
clarification reduces the nutrient level by at least
50 % and also effects a total reduction of the
yeast microflora down to 10^3 cells/ml so that a
relatively slow fermentation is ensured (Beech &
Davenport, 1970). This is regarded as important,
not only from the viewpoint of overall flavor
development but also because French ciders
must retain a proportion of their natural sugar.
The ciders are centrifuged from the lees at a
sugar level of 80 g/l for ciders intended to be
sweet and 40 g/l for other ciders. A portion of
these part-fermented ciders is then kept cool
(3–4 °C) to arrest the fermentation as far as possible—
if the sugar loss exceeds 1 g/l per month,
the ciders are further centrifuged to remove the
yeast crop and to inhibit the fermentation even
more. These sweet ciders are then blended before
sale with dryer ciders that have been allowed to
continue their fermentation at ambient temperature
with a typical sugar loss of 5 g/l per month.
Everything is done to ensure that a slow fermentation
continues for as long as possible (Revier,
1985; Drilleau, 1988, 1989)"

Andrew


--
near Oxford, UK
Wittenham Hill Cider Portal
www.cider.org.uk

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Alex wrote:

Can someone explain to me how the French stabilize Cidre Doux to get a sparkling, yet sweet Cider? I understand how through keeving and multiple rackings you get the residual sweetness, but how do they then make it sparkling without having it go dry in the bottle? I would figure the dosage would have enough yeast to ferment it dry in the case of Cidre Brut, no? I would also think that they are not pasteurizing the bottles...Or is that how it's acheived?

If anyone knows the specifics of how it's done in Brittany or Normandy, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

Andrew's description is more of a pro's way to do it. If you are a hobbyist, you could read sections 15.1 and 15.2 of the New Cider Maker's Handbook, which gives a less technological way to achieve a similar result (although probably with less reliability).

Also, we have discussed this subject recently on this forum. See this thread
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=fr#!topic/cider-workshop/vwbhQ00WhXE
Claude

[cider...@gmail.com]

Thanks guys! I have both your books and will read up tonite. 

Cheers,

Alex