Hi, my name is Cody Barthels, and I have been working on making a Perry cider at my work Wheel Line Cider. I wanted to do something different than I’ve done before, so instead of brewing a beer at home I took my practicum to work to make a cider.

I thought making a pear cider would be really fun since I love pears and they turn into a great cider. So on one of our pear pressing days we filled up one of our bourbon barrels with 53 gallons of fresh pressed pear juice and this set up my project for the quarter! Immediately after pressing I took samples and measured pH, the brix, temp and flavor of cider. The starting pH was 4.29 with a brix of 14.0 and the temperature was 63.3. I poured some in a glass and tasted it, it was a good perry flavor and had a syrupy texture and mouthfeel.

I inoculated it with a yeast called Melody which is supposed to enhance aromas. I went ahead and measured out 60g and put that into the barrel. I then added my first SO2 addition which came out to 61ppm (parts per million) which gave me 21 grams to add. I also threw in another addition called Cinn-Free which is an enzyme to help reduce formation of phenols.

After 2 days I went ahead and took samples to measure everything I needed and decide if it’s time for some nutrients or not. I took a reading of the brix and got 11.8 which was great, meant the cider was going through its process. The temperature was 65.6. I decided I wanted to add my first yeast nutrient addition which would be fermaid k, which is supposed to assist with fermentation. I measured 48g of fermaid k and mixed it with water then poured it into the barrel. The next day I took another reading and was at 8.8 brix and a pH of 3.79, I decided a 2nd nutrient add would be great for where the cider was at. I measured out 48g and mixed it up with water and poured it in. Now it’s time to let it do its thing inside the barrel while I continue to take readings to know when to add my second SO2 addition.

For the next few days the data looked like this:

October 17: Brix- 5.6 pH- 3.58

October 18: Brix- 3.2 pH- 3.73

October 19: Brix: 1.9. pH- 3.58

October 20: Brix- 2.0 pH- 3.73

October 22: Brix- 2.0 pH- 3.75

October 23: Brix- 1.9 pH- 3.65

October 25: Brix- 1.5 pH- 3.68

On October 25th it was time to rack the perry cider from one barrel to the next to get it off all the gunk at the bottom of the barrel. I set up the pump and got everything situated for the process. I cleaned and sanitized a barrel for my cider and then was able to rack from one barrel to the next taking my time and not rushing the cider into the new barrel. After the cider was finished racking into the new barrel I added 16oz of light oak chips into the barrel. Now I will wait and let the cider sit and I’ll keep an eye on it for my SO2 additions. Until next time!!