Clearing Cider with Agar

This video is all about my struggle to clear stubborn, loose sediment haze from my ciders. The conventional wisdom with cider making is that hazy juice = better cider. While I disagree with this to an extent, the variety of juice that is used in cider making usually comes in either a pre-clarified version, or a cloudy version.
The cloudy juices, in my experience, are typically very difficult to clear. I've waited as long as a year to get them to clear. This was a relatively non-problem until I started making brews for competitions.
One of the best additions to my cider making arsenal is Morebeer's UK Bittersweet Cider Concentrate. (www.morebeer.com/products/bri...)
This product creates a magnificent depth of flavor that is impossible to replicate without access to hard to find British Bittersweet cider apples. It turns out that this stuff also creates a very annoying stable haze.
I tried multiple things to clear it: bentonite, sparkolloid, biofine, and yes, pectic enzyme. I refuse to use gelatin in my ciders or chitosan / keisosol for ethical reasons. But it really seemed like those were the only real silver bullet clarifiers. Then I discovered agar clarification.
I did some experiments and adapted the clarification technique for use in my homebrewing. Wow, what a world of difference it has made. This stuff works like a charm to remove loose sediment!
Mixology: Clearing with Agar - punchdrink.com/articles/how-t...

[@metastable99]

Thanks for sharing this, it was super detailed and well explained !!

[@TheBruSho]

Super cool! I've seen agar used in some random vegan recipes but never thought about using it to clarify.

[@CiderWithKevin]

I had to try it when I saw the How to Brew video. It works really well at clearing loose sediment, but it struggles with protein and pectin haze.

[@anthonyburke5656]

Thanks, lead me to think about other uses for the process

[@CiderWithKevin]

Yeah, I haven't tested extensively on haze that isn't caused by sediment, so I'll be doing to that in the future. From the times that I've done it I can say it worked shockingly well

[@bardam830]

I’m using kieselsol and gelatin on fresh cloudy apple juice with good results

[@raymond-wk2gp]

Are you concerned about killing any yeast before bottle conditioning with the high temperature mixture or would it still work at room temperature

[@psicomush]

as he said in the final note, before clarification with agar agar it should be stabilized, for example with potassium metabisulfite (hence killing the yeast)

[@CiderWithKevin]

This would actually be a feature even if I did bottle condition. You usually should pitch a small amount of yeast for bottle conditioning just to ensure that it occurs.
The short answer is that the small amount of boiling liquid is unlikely to raise the temperature of the cider to pasteurization temperature.

[@Algorecon]

Would there be an off flavor if the agar ferments? If I were planning on force carbing, could I agar in the fermenter before transferring to the serving keg and adding sulfites and sorbates? Only 2 grams of agar shouldn't ferment much, I'd think.

[@m.m.musasi]

hello, have you tried pectinase for juice clarification?

[@CiderWithKevin]

Yes. The picture after 6 months was with Pectic Enzyme.

[@m.m.musasi]

👍@@CiderWithKevin

[@firstborn5624]

Can we use
Aztec Secret- Indian Healing Clay

[@CiderWithKevin]

That stuff appears to be just Bentonite. I would only use food grade Bentonite if you are using it. Agar and Bentonite are not the same product.

[@firstborn5624]

@@CiderWithKevin thank you for the reply

[@bobombnik1817]

I'm ignorant to it all, but if you clear the sediment.. aren't you just making apple juice, really? :P

[@CiderWithKevin]

No. Apple juice isn't alcoholic.