New cider maker

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

CaptainLan

Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
15
Reaction score
3
Hey all,
Just got into experimenting with some cider, and am looking for some tips as far as how long to ferment it so that it's not like juice and also not like wine... Looking for something around the flavor/attitude?? Of a Redds or Woodchuck.

My ingredients are as follows,
4 gallons flash pasteurized cider from local orchard, simmered to kill off wild yeast
1.5 lbs of honey (I read it ups the alcohol content given there are more sugars available)
1 package of champagne yeast
I put it in my fermenter yesterday, and got some airlock action this morning so it's safe to say its on its way!

Any advise for the rest of the process from here on out would be much appreciated!
 
I don't pretend to be an expert but a couple of thoughts.
I would assume that if the juice was pasteurized there is no fear of wild yeasts. My approach would be to treat the juice as sufficiently bug free for all intents and purposes. Simmering may be a bad idea as you are encouraging the pectins in the juice to gel and that is something you don't want. You are making cider not jam. I would get some pectic enzyme and add this to your juice. I would add the enzyme about 12 hours before I add yeast but you can add it after the cider has fermented. I think the action of the fermentation inhibits the work of the enzyme so you don't add it while the yeast is fermenting.
I would also buy an hydrometer to provide you with an idea of the amount of fermentable sugar is in your must. Apple juice measures around 1.045. The honey would add about .060 if it was dissolved in a gallon. In four gallons it will add about .015. That would give you a specific gravity of approximately 1.060 and that would result in a cider with an ABV of about 7.5% alcohol by volume.
Don't know anything about the blend of apples the orchard pressed but you may want to taste the must to see if it is acidic /bitter enough for you. You might want to add some acid (acid blend? ) to increase the acidity and you may want to add some tannin (could use a black tea or tannins from your local home brew store.
Champagne yeast is fine but you may want to experiment with other yeasts that bring out different flavors in the cider. QA23 , for example, or a yeast like Nottingham.
How long to ferment? I would ferment until all the sugar was converted. That may take a week or two (depends on the temperature and other factors) Again, use your hydrometer to measure. Airlock activity tells you very little. Me? I ferment dry, rack into a clean carboy, age two months or longer. I prefer a semi sweet cider so I stabilize (using K-meta and K-sorbate) and then add enough sugar to sweeten to a gravity of about 1.000. Sometimes I add flavor hops to the secondary (for about a week) and then I might not stabilize but add about 1 oz of sugar per gallon as I bottle to create a sparkling hopped cider.
Oh, one last point. I prefer to ferment in a bucket covered with a towel. You don't want to put an airlock on during active fermentation as you are likely to create the conditions for the froth to cannon out of the mouth of the carboy. A large surface area in a bucket that allows you to easily stir the must and add air during the first few days reduces stress on the yeast.
 
Back
Top