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Author Topic: Cranberry cider help  (Read 5367 times)

Offline woody8620

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Cranberry cider help
« on: November 04, 2012, 07:09:50 am »
I want to make a cranberry cider, but I'm not sure how to proceed.  I have 5 1/2 gallons in primary right now.  I want to add 6 pounds of cranberries to the secondary.  Do I purée them?  Cook them?  Purée them, and cook them, or just heat to pasteurize?  Also how long do I leave in secondary? 

Offline realbeerguy

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Re: Cranberry cider help
« Reply #1 on: November 04, 2012, 09:04:23 am »
Rinse, freeze, chop in food processor when ready.  the freezing will break the cell walls and make the chopping easier.  No need to cook.  I estimate you will need 5-6 bags of whole berries.
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Offline jeffy

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Re: Cranberry cider help
« Reply #2 on: November 04, 2012, 09:17:25 am »
Good call on freezing them.  Don't heat them or you will end up with pectin haze.
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Offline woody8620

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Cranberry cider help
« Reply #3 on: November 04, 2012, 09:43:55 am »
Rinse, freeze, chop in food processor when ready.  the freezing will break the cell walls and make the chopping easier.  No need to cook.  I estimate you will need 5-6 bags of whole berries.
Wow that much, guess I under estimated, thanks.

Offline hubie

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Re: Cranberry cider help
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2012, 03:29:29 pm »
If you have access to the big warehouse food outlets (BJ's, Costco, etc.), this is the time of year they sell the whole fresh berries in the big bags pretty cheap (4 or 5 lbs, maybe, it has been while since I bought the big bag).  If you buy them out of the freezer section, I believe those have been flash-frozen which means that the cell walls don't get broken up very much and you don't derive as much benefit than if you froze them yourself.  If you thaw a bag of frozen fruit and you end up with a sloppy mess, then either it wasn't flash-frozen, or it had thawed somewhere between the factory and the freezer.

Offline skrag6713

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Re: Cranberry cider help
« Reply #5 on: November 08, 2012, 03:50:58 pm »
Good call on freezing them.  Don't heat them or you will end up with pectin haze.


pectin haze isn't a huge problem, just add some pectic enzyme.  you can find it at your LHBS and it's fairly cheap.

Offline mpietropaoli

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Cranberry cider help
« Reply #6 on: November 08, 2012, 07:14:44 pm »
I would recommend putting the purée ina paint bag as well.  Much easier to remove the bag of pulp from the liquid than remove the liquid from the pulp :-)
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Offline Jimmy K

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Re: Cranberry cider help
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2012, 06:43:35 am »
Rinse, freeze, chop in food processor when ready.  the freezing will break the cell walls and make the chopping easier.  No need to cook.  I estimate you will need 5-6 bags of whole berries.
Wow that much, guess I under estimated, thanks.

Beware that 'bag' is not a standard unit of measure.  Also, if you freeze them you really don't need to chop them.
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Offline woody8620

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Cranberry cider help
« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2012, 07:24:43 pm »

 
Beware that 'bag' is not a standard unit of measure.  Also, if you freeze them you really don't need to chop them.

So 18lbs is too much?

Offline realbeerguy

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Re: Cranberry cider help
« Reply #9 on: November 10, 2012, 10:03:25 am »
Sorry, standard supermarket bag is 12 oz, so 60 - 72 or so ounces.
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