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Sonnyjim

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Hey guys, I've spent the last few nights on youtube and here on the site checking out a bunch of info on Hard Cider. I normally brew AG but enjoy a good cider on occasion so I thought I would try making my own. Anyways, onto the noob questions.

#1. Straight up. Can I buy say 4L of Cider(no preservatives), toss in some ale yeast, put on a stopper and leave it for a month in my closet and haveit taste good?

#2. How do I bottle carbonate this stuff. From what I've read you can't reactivate the yearst like beer. Or if you could find the link on the forums I will check that out.

#3. What happens if you use an apple juice with preservatives(just curious)

#4. Without adding concentrate or brown sugar/white sugar can I still get between 3-5%?

I don't plan on making a lot of this stuff, just about 1Gallon to try it out. Thanks for all the comments to come. Cheers.
 
1. yes
2. I force carb.
3. It works (no pasturized)
4. depends on the O.G.
I could be wrong but I will go with these.
 
1: yes
2: Bottle carbonate just like beer, 1 oz of priming sugar per gallon, boiled in just enough water to dissolve, toss it in the bottling bucket, rack your cider on top, bottle away.
2: You will have issues fermenting anything with preservatives. Some have ahd success, but not often and its tricky.
3: Straight juice alone will be in the 1.040-1.060 range. This will lead you to a range of 5-8%.

Keep in mind, almost any yeast will take cider to dryness. Some ale and wheat beer yeasts will leave you in the 1.000-1.010 range and most other yeast will leave you in the .990-1.000, but if you are expecting woodchuck sweetness, there is more involved. Such as nonfermentable sugars, stabilizing, force carbing, cold crashing, all sorts of trickier options.
 
QUOTE=Sonnyjim;1154366]Hey guys, I've spent the last few nights on youtube and here on the site checking out a bunch of info on Hard Cider. I normally brew AG but enjoy a good cider on occasion so I thought I would try making my own. Anyways, onto the noob questions.

#1. Straight up. Can I buy say 4L of Cider(no preservatives), toss in some ale yeast, put on a stopper and leave it for a month in my closet and haveit taste good?
yes, sir! (give it a little age time before you drink it after fermentation is over - but yeah... that's the gist of it)

#2. How do I bottle carbonate this stuff. From what I've read you can't reactivate the yearst like beer. Or if you could find the link on the forums I will check that out.

Like beer, as long as you haven't reached the maximum ABV your yeast will survive at- a little priming sugar or a 16 ounce can of concentrate into the bottling bucket will have your cider sparkling in about 1-2 weeks.

#3. What happens if you use an apple juice with preservatives(just curious)
The world will explode -so don't do it... j/k :D if it even gets started fermenting... it's gonna take FOREVER

#4. Without adding concentrate or brown sugar/white sugar can I still get between 3-5%?
depending on the sugar content of the juice you use it should -probably right about 3.5 -4 on avarage... but whats the fun in something that has the same kick as a bud light?!

I don't plan on making a lot of this stuff, just about 1Gallon to try it out. Thanks for all the comments to come. Cheers.[/QUOTE]
 
#3. What happens if you use an apple juice with preservatives(just curious)

This seems to be the only one still up for debate. I was concerned about this one when I made my first cider, also. I bought unpasteurized cider from a local farm market, and was a little nervous about the ingredients. There were only two ingredients listed, they were "Apple juice" and "Potassium Sorbate". Now I know potassium sorbate is used to kill off yeast when brewing. I decided to try it anyway, since it was cheap, and I was only making a small batch.

Now, I know that this is anecdotal evidence, at best, and that your mileage may vary. When I pitched my ale yeast into the cider with some extra sugar to bring it up to 1.060, I've never had a fermentation start that quickly, or be that energetic. Within twelve hours it was bubbling stiffer than any beer, wine or mead I'd ever made.

Again, this was my experience and yours may differ depending on amount of preservatives, type of preservatives and viability of your yeast.
 
Now I know potassium sorbate is used to kill off yeast when brewing. I decided to try it anyway, since it was cheap, and I was only making a small batch.

Now, I know that this is anecdotal evidence, at best, and that your mileage may vary. When I pitched my ale yeast into the cider with some extra sugar to bring it up to 1.060, I've never had a fermentation start that quickly, or be that energetic. Within twelve hours it was bubbling stiffer than any beer, wine or mead I'd ever made.

Again, this was my experience and yours may differ depending on amount of preservatives, type of preservatives and viability of your yeast.

thats interesting. what strain of yeast was it? (and is it liquid or dry yeast? )did you make a starter?
 
It was a Cooper's Ale Yeast, dry. I picked it up at my local HBS. To start it, I simply dissolved the yeast in a cup or so of the warm cider, and let it sit on counter for an hour or so. By the time I got the rest of the must ready for the yeast, the cup overfloweth with pale tan foam.
 
wow... maybe i should try fermenting a flat can of full throttle blue deamon - always wondered what that would do (if not for the perservatives)
 
I'm about to brew my first hard cider. As with many things when it comes to the details of process, I'm getting conflicting information from various sources; do I need to boil my apple juice before putting it in the primary fermenter and pitching the yeast (Nottingham) or not? I don't care either way, I just want to maximize my chances for making a tasty, refreshing cider on my first attempt.

While I'm waiting for a friend to have time to help, I'm getting so antsy to get started that the Hobo Method on the Wiki is starting to sound damned tempting....
 
Never ever ever ever boil juice. You may want to kill off any wild yeasts or bacteria, but you can do that with less then boiling temps (I still don't like to heat juice) or with chemical additives, such as 1 campden tablet crushed per gallon 24 hours prior to pitching your yeast. If you heat your juice too much it will set the pectins, this is how you make jams and jellies not ciders. If the pectins become set, you cider will likely never clear and will have floaties in it forever.
 
If it has any bearing, I'll be using store-bought apple juice (only preservative being the venerable Vitamin C) and not "cider style" apple juice (which is usually hazy, etc.).

BTW, I'm loving hearing that answer because my brewpot won't accommodate 5 gallons of juice at once, and the prospect of boiling and cooling all that juice in smaller batches wasn't floating my boat. :)
 
Well if you are using store bought, preservative free, pasteurized juice then you should be fine and dont need to worry too much. But I personally don't ever heat juice.
 
Thanks for the perspective, Tusch. Anyone else out there with thoughts on boiling store-bought, preservative-free, pasteurized, filtered juice? I know that one should never boil unpasteurized, unfiltered juice for the reasons stated above...

I'm just a bit perplexed by the recommendation in one of my books that you should boil pres-free, pasteurized, filtered juice. I'm guessing that it's to decrease the likelihood of unintentional fermentative potential brought about by wild yeast strains. So, how does that make NOT boiling the unfiltered, unpasteurized stuff okay or "safe," given that the primary unwanted effect of boiling is to create permanent haze/floaties (which don't adversely affect taste!)?

My homebrewing books are indispensable resources, but I value the input of this Forum over their recommendations, especially in cider matters, given that cider homebrewing has only recently been resumed on a significant scale. After all, the book I'm reading was published in the mid-nineties, and you guys and gals have been brewing up a storm since then!

Slainte,
Harmon
 
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