Batch 17: Home pressed pear cider with commercial yeast

Batch Timeline

Batch #	Batch Type	Date in Primary	Date in Secondary	Date Racked	Date Racked	Date Filled
17	Pear Cider	10/27/12	1/8/13	2/15/13	3/19/13	3/19/13

Yeast Type:  Premier Cuvee

Ingredients:  1/2 gallon of home pressed pear cider
1/2 campden tablet
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient

Comments:  Sister batch to 18, this one is sulfited and has commercial yeast.  This batch stayed a golden color as the sulfite was added right away and not much oxidation occurred while batch 18 turned a dark brown.

Did not take measurements, anaerobic primary under airlock, slow to secondary, all due to laziness.

12/3/12 update:  Did not rack yet.  One big chunk of schmutz floating on top, compact layer on the bottom, clear and yellow liquid.  Planning to rack by decanting.  The big chunk fell to the bottom after gentle shaking.

1/8/13 update:  Racked by decanting.   Color is very close to straw and similar to batch 18, which was much darker after initial pressing.

2/15/13 update:  I racked by decanting, stabilized, and backsweetened with sweet pear cider which I did not pasteurize or kill with metabisulfite. I added about 1:4 by volume.

2/28/13 update:   It has some pretty fantastic contamination growing.  The contamination was probably present in the previously frozen juice and took over on that sugary alcoholic juice because the yeast had been stabilized.  I'll get a pic before I dump it.  It is less than 1/2 gallon and I was careless.  When tasted at bottling, it was too tart, even after sweetening.

3/7/13 update:  Turns out it was not contamination, just a thick layer of protein on top, formed some big bubbles I thought were blooms when I looked at it casually in a poorly lit corner of the room.  Looks like the brew survived sweetening with unpasteurized cider.

3/19/13:  Cleared very nicely.  Bottled 4 each in 6 oz crown caps.  Drinkable with very low alcohol content, some residual sweetness, and not much in terms of off flavors.  Sour, though.  Very acid.  Going to freeze concentrate a tiny bit of this combined with some from batch 18 to see what I get.

Update 4/10/13: The freeze-concentrated product was too sweet and too acid.  It concentrated to a volume approximately 1/3rd to 1/4 the original volume, so I'm guessing about 20%ABV.  But since the starting perry was acidic and sweetness was adjusted prior to freeze concentrating, the end product is overacid and cloyingly sweet.