Temperature of must at yeast inoculation

[Matthew F.]

Hello all,

I'm purchasing juice from a local cider mill where the juice is currently being held for me in a refrigerator at roughly 37F (2.78C).

Once I have the juice home, should I allow it to warm up a bit before inoculating it with yeast? I'm trialing a number of different yeasts--most with low end ranges at 50F (10C) with a few closer to 60F (15.6C).

I wasn't sure if adding the yeast to a must that is too cold would harm the yeast. 

Thank you!

Matthew

p.s. As a follow-up question, will any degradation in the quality of the final product result from having had the cider stored at 37F (2.78C) for three days?

[Vince Wakefield]

The instructions I have read suggest they should be the same temp when adding.

 

Vince

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[rhand...@rockisland.com]

Yes, it seems like you hydrate the yeast with warm water and do not want to put it in a much colder juice since it will “shock” the yeast. If I remember the hydrated yeast should be about 10F  +/- of each other. It’s been a while since I have done this. Read the directions!

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[Kelly Rivera Meyers]

I do not recommend waiting. As a professional, we use a protocol similar to the one outlined here: 

https://scottlab.com/saccharomyces-yeast-rehydration

[Matthew F.]

Thank you Vince, rhanderson, and Kelly!!

[Kirk Evans]

Matthew, 

The protocol Kelly mentioned is fairly standard in large cideries. We had a similar situation at my last cidermaking job where the juice was stored in cold storage and would come into the cellar at ~37°F...I would run a heat exchanger in-line between totes and tank which would raise it to about 50°F, and then once all the juice was in tank, would recirculate the juice through the heat exchanger to get it closer to 60°F.

In a smaller home setting, you could potentially wrap a heating pad around a carboy to bring the juice to temp quickly. Time is your enemy though, so waiting for it to warm naturally is not a great option.

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[James]

The juice should be heated however you can to at least 50 deg, there will be little yeast activity at 37. I would not pitch at 37, you don't have to be afraid, I regularly let juice sit in tank at 50 degrees for a few days before pitching to add enzymes and rack off some of the solids to lower my overall pectin load without any problems. Modern yeast is very dominant, and you wontn be anywhere near the danger zone unless the juice has been mishandled i.e. come into contact with unclean surfaces. 

[Kirk Evans]

James,

As I understand it/recall each degree of temp that is raised by letting juice sit out to get up to temp doubles the bacterial load in the juice, so it is not preferred. 

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[James]

Kirk, 

Sure, but what does that actually mean in practice? Musts properly treated with so2 and properly handled are at extremely low risk of spoilage. When I was a winemaker every single red wine fermentation underwent a pre-fermentation maceration for up to  2 days to allow more aqueous extraction from the grapes absent the presence of ethanol, and this is an extremely common practice throughout the wine industry. Furthermore,  when macerating cider on the pomace it is generally understood that this process is to be done pre-fermentation for up to 24 hours or more. 

[Kirk Evans]

James,

You're absolutely right. The SO2 is the key consideration in that I forgot to mention. We didn't sulfite juice at that cidery as it was flash pasteurized and we used velcorin going into cans (although I pushed for sulfite additions as an additional kill step and lost that battle)...so time/temp was a big issue with the fresh juice...also, this was making modern cider, so it was a bit of turn and burn as far getting juice to the temp that I fermented at.

Carry on and thanks for clarifying.

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[Matthew F.]

Thank you James and Kirk!