Pommeau and SO2

[Wes Cherry]

This is my first year making pommeau and I’m wondering if it would be advisable to add SO2 to the pommel aging in a barrel? I believe the added alcohol should provide protection against microbial spoilage, but I wonder if the antioxidant effects of SO2 would be a good thing for pommeau.

I added a light dose of SO2 to the juice, added yeast and fermented it til it dropped about 0.008 points SG. I then killed the ferment by bringing the ABV up to 18% via 130 proof distilled cider. It has been in a neutral oak barrel for a couple months and it tastes great. I plan on aging it for 1 to 2 years.

-Wes

[Mark Rogers]

Hiya,

I've a few friends in Normandy who make pommeau. None of them use so2. They seem to drink it quite fresh. They often give us a bottle to take on and I don't often get around to finishing the bottle before it's gone over! I've also bought bottles of commercial stuff and found it the same. It seems to deteriorate even if unopened? Don't know if that helps any?

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Le mercredi 27 janvier 2016 06:24:06 UTC-5, Wes Cherry a écrit :

This is my first year making pommeau and I’m wondering if it would be advisable to add SO2 to the pommel aging in a barrel?   I believe the added alcohol should provide protection against microbial spoilage, but I wonder if the antioxidant effects of SO2 would be a good thing for pommeau.

It is certainly not standard procedure to add SO2 to aging pommeau. It is probably also quite normal to have some limited oxidation in there, as part of the traditional flavor... Some pommeaus in Normandy are aged 5 years or more in oak barrels - you certainly can't ask such a product to be free from any oxidation...

I added a light dose of SO2 to the juice, added yeast and fermented it til it dropped about 0.008 points SG.   I then killed the ferment by bringing the ABV up to 18% via 130 proof distilled cider.   It has been in a neutral oak barrel for a couple months and it tastes great.   I plan on aging it for 1 to 2 years.

This is going to be quite dry for a pommeau. True "Pommeau de Normandie" is sweet, being made from mixing unfermented clarified juice with apple spirit. One could also use keeved juice that has just started to ferment. What you are making would be some other product.
I am not saying it won't be good, but it will certainly be quite different from traditional pommeau.

Claude

[Wes Cherry]

Ok, i’ll skip the SO2.

So the juice started out at 1.060.   With a drop of 0.008, that makes it 1.052, which is well over even the French minimum SG of 1.042 (or 1.044?   My copy of the excellent Colvados book is out on loan).   It was mostly bittersweet juice with low TA, so reducing sugar is a good thing.  It certainly is still quite sweet.   I think getting some fermentation flavors from the yeast has added complexity as well.

FWIW, at least one other Pacific Northwest pommeau maker does the same technique of killing an active ferment.   A close reading of the US TTB rules indicates one must fortify a wine, not a juice, so killing a ferment may even be required by TTB.   I’m not 100% sure on this.

Another local winemaker uses the same technique when making port, except he adds the brandy in stepwise doses over a few days.   I wonder if killing the yeasts softly has an advantage?   I felt like hammering it would be better because the yeast would die quickly rather than enter stressed states where sulfides could be produced.

-Wes

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[Claude Jolicoeur]

Le mercredi 27 janvier 2016 21:46:34 UTC-5, Wes Cherry a écrit :

So the juice started out at 1.060.   With a drop of 0.008, that makes it 1.052, which is well over even the French minimum SG of 1.042 (or 1.044?  

Sorry, I misunderstood, and thought you meant it was almost dry at 1.008!
This is in fact going to be a perfectly "in the norm" pommeau. And I agreee that a bit of fermentation does add complexity.
As of adding the alcohol to kill the yeast, another way that could be tried is to cold shock the cider to make the yeast fall to the bottom, rack and then add the alcohol.
Claude

[Richard Anderson]

Wes is correct, in the US, Pommeau made with unfermented juice is taxed as a spirit, with fermented juice taxed as fortified wine. Having tried several methods, I find that using a partially fermented juice gives a more complex result and also aids significantly in clarification. As to when to crash with spirit is going to be a matter of taste. I have gone as low as 1.040, this year at 1.050 and thinking it a bit sweet. You can measure the end point SG but I think it is meaningless in absolute terms but useful as a reference point. I think Claude is right, Normandy Pommeau' are sweet as I remember, but this was 15 years ago. There is very little Pommeau available it the US and is in my opinion poor quality. I would not use SO2, nor age in new oak as some are want to do. Made with bitter apples it will be interesting.