How do I prevent infection during wild fermentation?

[Michael Clifford]

I'm doing my first batch of cider with wild yeast this year. So far, it's gone well. I've seen some film yeast in primary fermentation, but no off smells or other signs of infection. The carboys are still bubbling strong, even after four weeks.

My concern is that once I rack to secondary, and the yeast slows down, other bacteria could take hold and ruin the batch, either during secondary or in the bottle. Is there a way I can prevent this without sulfites? I will need yeast to carbonate.

[Vince Wakefield]

Don’t rack, I never rack with wild yeast until I am ready to bottle.

 

Vince

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[Duncan Hewitt]

Same here - rack straight to bottle. Either when finished fermenting, and then add 5g of sugar per bottle if I want fizzy, or bottle at 1.005 if I catch it in time. I like fizzy dry so it works or me.

Duncan Hewitt
Merrybower Homestead
07941 905796

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[Eric Tyira]

Duncan,

Without adding SO2, how are you controlling the unwanted organisms from doing damage?

Eric

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[luis.ga...@gmail.com]

You can rack your cider without any adverse effect, and this is true for natural yeast and commercial yeast.

If you want to control unwanted microorganism, you should sulfite your must prior to fermentation. Partial dose is recommended with natural yeast.

In most case, if you have problems with unwanted organism in your fermentation process, this is caused by the presence of oxygen. If your cider is still fermenting, the CO2 generated should keep yuor cider away from oxygen - hence, from problems. 

If you want to ferment your cider to dryness, maybe you don't need to rack it. Personnaly, I would still do it to slow fermentation down. The first racking also allows you to clear the mess generated by primary fermentation. 

In my experience, you should not need yeast to carbonate even a dry cider that has been left for bulk aging for months. Just add sugar and the remaining yeast should multiply and give the wanted fizz. They can sometimes take months to acheive this.

[Michael Clifford]

Thanks. How do you compensate for the tannins that would come from sitting in an oak barrel for several months before bottling like a regular cider?

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[Duncan Hewitt]

Ah sorry, I'm not that sort of expert, I use Speidel fermenters, so all plastic. It's part of the 'keep it clean and simple' that suits my lazy way of making cider!

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[Vince Wakefield]

I don’t ferment in oak.

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[Johan Strömberg]

I do keep cider in 225l oak barrel with full lees 8 - 10 months before bottling (natural fermentation, minimal or zero so2) and amount of tannins extracted from about 10 times filled barrel is really close to none. As for the original post; A couple of big factors with dealing unsulphited spontan fermented cider are amount of acidity, pH & temps. With constant temps closer to 5 than 10 (I do bottle when my passive barrel cellar temps are reaching 15 which in my case is usually in june) high(ish) acidity and low ph you can age your cider for months even years without adding sulphites in any type of good quality vessel that can be topped frequently to keep air away.

-Johan

Michael Clifford <mjpcl...@gmail.com> kirjoitti 02.12.2021 kello 21.58:



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[Courtney Meier]

Not sure what sort of volume you are dealing with, but if you are at the hobbyist scale, you can experiment with various toasted oak spirals or sticks if you don't have access to barrels and you want the taste of oak tannin. For example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064OBGEA/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_1B2M8X6ADH1K5NP6J1TR

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Courtney Meier | Plant Ecologist | Cider Hobbyist | Boulder, CO