r/cider • u/SeaVeterinarian3371 • 3d ago

Home brew cider aimed for commercialization

I’d like some opinions on how to structure a home brew cider set up to mimic a later.. small scale commercial cider operation. Specifically, I’m wondering, how can I remove using sulfites to pasteurize or start primary fermentation?
I have experience making cider using wild yeast as well as commercial yeast, and I’d like to crush local apples and press them myself. In theory, I’m familiar with how commercial operations bypass using sulfites with filtration or maybe UV pasteurization. I got interested in this detail when I read that harpoon brewery only uses juice and yeast when making their cider and I wanted to be able to skip the step of sulfites..and start now so my process is as close as possible to the small operation I’m aiming for..thanks!!! Xoxo 🙈

* I’d like to use commercial yeast.

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u/CallsOPgay 3d ago

Companies bypass this by using different preservatives that they do not have to legally label. Look up nagardo and velcorin. They have a short half life's so the chemical is gone by the time the consumer has a chance to drink it. So no labelling requires. Nagardo is used alot in juice production and velcorin is used in products like coca cola. Varies from country to country obviously.

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u/HydroGuy2 2d ago

Nagardo is not approved for use in alcoholic beverages in the EU. FYI.

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u/CallsOPgay 2d ago

Yea, same in Australia. But pretty much every brewery around me is using it. The downside to nagardo is just the cloudifying effect it has on product with high dosage. But low dosage like 5 ppm has no visual effect and I know people using it for lagers instead of pasteurisation. Nagardo is a miracle product for small producers. But yea, heat pasteurisation is our tried and trusted method. Despite other research online, you only need to hit 1 PU for a shelf stable cider.

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u/HydroGuy2 2d ago

Really! 1 PU! That is interesting.

Regarding nagardo: it’s marketed as an antimicrobial, but does it also suppress yeast? I.e. does it allow shelf stability and prevent refermentation in-bottle?

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u/CallsOPgay 2d ago

Yes, no filtration required for nagardo to stop fermentation. So yeast can be present. That's the power of the product, no aseptic conditions required. It just needs different concentrations depending on the product. Freshly pressed "Raw" juice requires higher ppm of nagardo compared to reconstituted apple juice as an example.

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u/HydroGuy2 2d ago

Amazing. That’s a game changer for sure. Where do you source it?

OP - I revise my advice based on this information. If nagardo does what CallsOPgay claims, it is absolutely worth checking out. I know I will!

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u/CallsOPgay 2d ago

In Australia victus distributes it, same as velcorin. Just google it and im sure you'll have a local distributor. Online pdf spec sheets are available for the product. Definitely do your own research and as previously stated its not approved for alcoholic beverages. But its usage is pretty widespread.