Trying cider

[Thirsty Mallard]

So I tried my easy cider experiment (I posted about it a while ago... just buying organic apple juice and adding yeast).

Since the juice was organic it was pasturized and had no preservatives, so I figured that should work just fine (O.G. 1.050). I put 2 gallons in a carboy, shook the crap out of it to oxygenate, and pitched champagne yeast (dry yeast that I hydrated, no starter). Now it is in a back room to stay at around 70-75F for fermentation.

Questions:
- How long do I ferment it? Age it?
- Can I bottle it like I would bottle beer?
- Is it like making soda where if you use one of your kegs you might as well make it a cider keg from now on?
- Any other things I should know?

It's just an experiment, so I'm not expecting anything groundbreaking, just testing the cider waters...

[macgruffus]

I did exactly the same thing a while back ... off-the-shelf apple juice and pitched dry champagne yeast. I let it go a couple weeks with a very active fermentation. My wife likes sparkling cider and I don't have a kegging setup so I was hoping to still have some residual sugar.

The champagne yeast fermented out ALL the sugar. In fact, I ended up with a FG of 0.990. This is really apple wine. If I could force carbonate, I'd add some honey, more cider or some other sugar and then carbonate but I was afraid that if I tried to do that with bottle conditioning, I'd be creating bottle bombs. At this point, I'm planning on using it was a base for some punch for a party.

I did some different things with my next batch (which I'm getting ready to bottle). Instead of champagne yeast I chose to use a Sweet Mead (Wyeast 3184) smack pack and used a clearer apple cider. I'm hoping this one still has a little sweetness and I'll bottle condition.

David

[Thirsty Mallard]

Hmm... that is interesting. I have done some reading that the champagne yeast will dry it out to below 1.000 and I was a little concerned about that. Although I'm not object to "apple wine". The guy at the counter of the homebrew shop neglected to mention that when I asked him what yeast would be good for this experiment.

[Speyedr]

Check the Jamil show on Cider. If you want to sweeten up a cider that has fermented out Jamil and John recommended adding Potassium Metabisulfite and Potassium Sorbate to kill off the yeast, and then adding juice back to "back sweeten" the cider. For 2gal it's about 1/8tsp potassium metabisulfite, and 1 to 1.5grams of Potassium Sorbate to your 2 gallons. Then wait a couple of days and add back some juice. Since you killed off the yeast you will have to force carbonate.

The chemicals are common for wine making. I added them and then I added back some commercial cider that has preservatives, just to be sure. I added back about 1 gallon juice to 4gal cider after doing some taste tests to see. I also added Pomegranate juice to a gallon to test it out.

As for aging, you made Apple Wine, which is fairly high in alcohol. Just like a high alcohol beer it's going to take time to age so that the flavors mellow out and meld together. I was told about a year. I have mine aging in a corny now and then I'll force carbonate it. I'll bottle if it's good. I might add some oak too.

As for the keg, you only have to replace the rubber. So, new lid O-ring, post o-rings and dip tube o-rings, but you do this anyway when you rebuild a keg, right?

Good luck and let me know how it tastes next year!

Rob

[Geistbier]

I did my first attempt at cider last September I took some local fresh cider and added Cali yeast and let the magic happen. I know the stuff was organic and unpasturized, the later because the half gallon of left overs in the frig developed all manner of yeast and molds growing in there. The Cali took possession of my cider and fermented nicely, then I transfered to a secondary and the fermentation took off again. I'd like to give readings, but I forgot to take any

The finished cider was very dry and slight warmth to it from the alcohol. I also thought I detected a slightly phenolic medicinal character at first but it could have been from a cold I had when I tried it. I transfered to a keg and used some organic pasturized cider from a local health food store to bring in some sweetness. I tend to think I over did the sweetness when I added it back, but the local homebrew club enjoyed it. I still have a couple of gallons in the keg.

I also took a gallon of another cider added some camden tablets, but no one told me to break them up on this one I just let nature take it's course, whatever wild yeast was in there developed a good krausen and I am about ready to sample to see if I have natural cider or just a good dose of vinegar.

[Speyedr]

The finished cider was very dry and slight warmth to it from the alcohol. I also thought I detected a slightly phenolic medicinal character at first but it could have been from a cold I had when I tried it. I transfered to a keg and used some organic pasturized cider from a local health food store to bring in some sweetness. I tend to think I over did the sweetness when I added it back, but the local homebrew club enjoyed it. I still have a couple of gallons in the keg.

Let some of that age until next year and those harsh flavors should mellow out even more, or so they say... the voices that is...

[Chris_J]

I made some cider last year. I bought a couple of jugs of organic juice and added some yeast to it. I think it was just that silver pack of yeast that comes in the lid of prehopped extract kits (just add 1 pound of sugar). Anyway it fermented way way way down. I didn't measure but it tasted like apple wine to me. I bottled it with priming sugar and got all the carbonation I needed. When serving I mixed some apple juice in there to sweeten it up a little bit. It was pretty darn good, hit you like a tonne of bricks though.

[Thirsty Mallard]

How much corn sugar to prime a cider?