BigJoe5313

Recipes 

Well was staying with my friend in South Jersey for a few days and we're both into brewing. We decided to check out a few farms in the area and after looking around a bit we found this place that would fill our buckets for us at a discounted price. We paid 3.25 a gallon. Now I have a few idea I'm going to run with but I'm going to take at least 5 gallons and let it sit without adding anything to it, no yeast no sugar. How long will it take to start fermenting?

Now here are some pics I took with my cell phone for your viewing pleasure.









EDIT: In case you didn't figure it out yet I forgot to mention this juice is unpasteurized.

CvilleKevin

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Nice! Do you know what kind of apples?

Natural ferments will start in 1-3 days at 65F, but you want to get them a lot cooler than that as soon as they get going. They can run away and eat up all the sugar in no time. Search wild yeast or natural yeast for more info

BigJoe5313

Recipes 

They used a mix of all the apples they have on hand. Can't remember the names right now.

Well then should I just stop fermentation after a few days and then just let it age?

sethga

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CvilleKevin, damn you know your stuff... 2 of my ciders are already at 1.012 after only 5 days! Temperature is around 72, I ordered some carboys for aging but they have not arrived yet! I think I'll have to put these outside to keep the temps down.. no space in my kegerator to cold crash

p.s. I am BigJoe's buddy, we got the same cider

CvilleKevin

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If you like the way it tastes now, your best bet might be to cold crash it in a keg bucket with some ice - unless it is good and cold outside, in which case just make sure you dont freeze it.

sethga

Recipes 

Yeah, I may just go get some ice now and do that. For now I've moved them outside, It's mid 50's for the next few days.

If I cold crash now, I'll only be able to do one at a time in the keg bucket, I have 3 batches going. Will they start back up on their own once they leave the ice or am I safe til Tuesday you think?

CvilleKevin

Recipes 

If you like the taste, rack to another carboy, crash the cider in the new carboy and rack back to the old carboy a day later after you clean the old carboy. That will usually remove the yeast, although wild ferments can be tough to crash. Sometimes they take a couple tries. If its still a little on the sweet side, mid 50s will slow it down a little, but you will still be dropping a few points a day. If you dont rack and rerack, they will definately start back up when they leave the ice.

sethga

Recipes 

Thanks for the advice, my problem right now is I don't have any sort of vessel to re-rack into. Also, I work nights, and the next few in particular... it's hard for me to get to a homebrew store when they are open. I have some carboys on the way from Northern Brewer, but like I said they won't be here til Tuesday.

Maybe I will get up early tomorrow and go pick some up from the local store even though they are pretty expensive, I suppose it doesn't hurt to have extra carboys around, I'll find a use for them!

Thanks for all of the advice in this thread and the rest of your posts... very informative and nice of you to chime in

Lunarpancake

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where in NJ did you find the cider press? Ive been looking for some new presses to find some new flavors / combinations for my next batches.

Im located in Monmouth County NJ , central NJ on the shore.

sethga

Recipes 

Mood's in Mullica Hill.. quite a ride for you.

edit: I forgot to mention, OG on the cider we bought was 1.050