NW Brewing: Archives for November 2005

NW Brewing

A Beaverton homebrewer shares his views and experiences on NW brew culture.

11/13/2005

Cider Update, November 13

Approximately two weeks ago, I added a clarifying agent called Sparkaloid to the carboy of cider. It comes as a gray powder, and you prepare it by first boiling it in a cup of water for ten minutes, add it directly to the carboy, and mix well.

It clarifies the cider/wine by sticking to the non-soluble bits of things floating around in the liquid, which increases their weight and causes them to sink.

Two weeks later now, I can see a tremendous difference. What is even more interesting, however, is how the cloudy bits have settled to the bottom of the carboy. Looking at the base of it, you can clearly make out distinct sendimentary layers -- my take on this is that certain particulates settled out at different times, creating distinct layers as they dropped out of the solution and onto the base of the carboy.

I'm going to wait another week or two before transferring and bottling, but so far, this process has really shown the potential in using a very simply clarifying agent that has near-professional results.

Wouldn't you rather read about this than the crazy ramblings of some 'nw conservative', anyway?

Cheers!

Posted by Dave at 11/13/2005 11:02:21pm
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11/02/2005

Wine Update, October 30

Transferred the Viognier to secondary fermenter carboys. Still fizzing away. S.G. now reading 1.025.

Posted by Dave at 11/02/2005 1:31:54pm
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