Tropical Cider

I've heard QA23 is really good for this kind of tropical brew, but I didn't have any. I could have ordered some, but I checked my absurdly large yeast stock for anything that might be comparable, and found X5's spec sheet describes it as having a "complex and intense aromatic profile" with high production of citrus, tropical fruits, fruity, and floral aromatics.

It will be my first time trying this yeast, but if the spec sheet is to be trusted here it sounds like a fantastic candidate for this brew.

Timeline Pitch to Bottle

03/31/2021 - mix & pitch

There's not a ton to the process on this one since it's just a matter of emptying out all the various juices, mixing them up, adding pectic enzyme, mixing more, and then waiting the 1 hour per pectic enzyme instructions before pitching my rehydrated yeast.

04/01/2021 - nutrients

Since I pitched a large amount of yeast and rehydrated per the amount of yeast I was using, I also used a large amount of GoFerm, and decided I would toss the nutrients in on the second day. With such a low OG, you can't usually do a full staggered addition schedule (at least not in my experience) but I figured I could probably spread it out a little.

04/03/2021 - gravity reading

SG ~1.006

04/06/2021 - gravity reading

SG ~1.000

This almost looks like it might be 0.998 but it's hard to tell with the bubbles. I'm erring on the side of 1-flat but noting it appears to be on the low side.

04/08/2021 - rough rack and backsweetening

Rough racked into a 3 gallon carboy and added 1.25 lbs erythritol.

04/09/2021 - bottling

There was actually already a decent amount of sediment after just a day in the carboy. And I totally could have let it clear even more, but for a lower ABV cider that's going to be carbonated and probably all consumed this summer, I thought it was clear enough.

5 carbonation tablets in each bottle (package instructions were 3-5 tablets and last time I used 4 most of them were almost completely flat).

I've seen some people say they have bottles ready in about 2 weeks - that'd be 04/23/2021 - but others have said waiting 4 weeks helped, which would be 05/07/2021. I'll try to be patient and wait the full 4 on most bottles, but I might pull a bottle to test at 2 weeks and see how we're coming along.

Retrospective

Process Improvement

I racked into a bucket to get off the fruit goo, then added erythritol and mixed it in, then racked into the carboy. I wonder if it would've worked out better if I just put the erythritol into the carboy and racked on top of it to avoid moving a low ABV brew so many times (thus limiting oxygen exposure).
An alternative fix for this is to add erythritol up front when mixing the must together for primary fermentation. That only works if you know how much erythritol you want to use (you can't add to-taste), but if this brew turns out right or if I think I can commit to a small adjustment, it's viable.

Recipe Improvements

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