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username: pulykamell (both here and there.)

No, it had long been racked off the yeast cake into a secondary. (I can't remember how long it was in primary, somewhere between 4 to 6 weeks, I think.) I find that cider doesn't really hit its peak until after at least a year of aging.

I just wanted to return to this thread and report my experiences with the cider I made from the apples pressed from my friend's tree. Of the yeasts I used, EC-1118, S-04, Nottingham, and the Weihenstephaner, the clear winner, after a year and a half or so, in terms of taste was the...

Great minds think alike. I found this thread looking for hop ice cream recipes. My idea (and I haven't tried this yet) would be to make a hop liqueur by macerating hops in grain alcohol for a two weeks, straining them out, and then cutting the liquor with a sugar-water solution to bring it down...

Cider is dead simple. Juice, yeast, wait. I think those of us used to homebrewing get twisted up by the waiting part. If you've ever made wine or mead, you know how important it is to let things mellow for awhile. A green cider has a very tart finish, and I would describe it as "lemony." This...

My favorites are generally the Normandy ciders. I really enjoy the Etienne Dupont ciders. Also, Aspall's line of English ciders are quite tasty as well. Samuel Smith Organic is okay, but I'm rather disappointed by it, overall. What I don't like is the soda-pop/wine-cooler style of ciders like...

I disagree as well. This is one tasty yeast for the cider, and mine has cleared clean as a whistle in 2 months, and I haven't even gotten around to racking it to the secondary, even. I've been taking sips from it and this may end up being my favorite cider yeast.

You might get a bit of a lag (my cellar is at 58-62, and it'll take up to 72 hours or even more for my fermentation to start), but it'll go steady. Everything I've read suggests that lower temps are actually better for the flavor of a cider, although I have not done any experiments to confirm...

My S-04 took about three days or four before I saw the first bubbles. I have a cool cellar (~60 F). Some of my yeasts start in 24 hours, but with cider, and the temps I have it at, I usually find about 2-4 days lag. Wild yeast fermentation took over a week to get off the ground.

Yes, you can use a juicer. As noted above, be careful not to overstress your juicer. I broke one that way, but I did a batch of 300 lbs of apples on a $120 Breville juicer for the latest 20-ish gallons of cider. The key is this: make sure the juicer is spinning before putting in fruit; put in...

I'll second this one. I have batches in the cellar now with 3068, Nottingham, Lalvin EC-1118, S-04, Nottingham, Cotes de Blanc, and wild yeast, and so far the Wyeast 3068 is the tastiest and most interesting, along with the wild yeast. The EC-1118 is great, too, but very clean and champagne-like.

Yep. Just juice, yeast, and time. Unlike many beers, cider really needs some time to mellow out and get really good. Wait at least 3 months, preferably at least six, and save some for at least a year just to compare. Feel free to sip along the way to see how much it changes. If you like your...

Oh, heck yeah. You have no clue what critters exactly are in your juice. They may be good, they may be bad, they may be a mix of both. My experiments with wild fermentation have been successful thus far, but a lot of people recommend against it because of the uncertainty. That's the...

I'm not sure what you mean. My impressions between the differences in styles (and I like both), using Aspall and Etienne Dupont as reference points, is that English styles tend to be flatter, with an ale yeastiness; while Normandy ciders are much more effervescent and a little more...

I vote "just wait" unless it's a strong (acetic) sourness. A crisp tartness at the end of the sip is usual for a young cider and will mellow with some age. Even so, even if it is vinegary, just wait. Many a brew destined for the sink was saved with a little patience. If you have Acetobacter in...

I'm relatively new to cidermaking, but I do have about 50 gallons under my belt so far. I have found that given my cellar temp (around 60-62 F), all of my yeasts (so far, EC-1118, Cote de Blanc, S-04, Weihenstephan, Wild, Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale, some random sourdough, and Nottingham) have taken...

Neither Costco nor Target have it for anything less than about $3.50 around here (Chicago). I have looked high and low for cheaper juice, and that's as low as I've found so far. $4-$6/gallon is a more typical range. Luckily, I have a friend in Iowa with a big apple tree and lots of extra apples. :)

Citric acid and tannin are two completely different flavors. The first is sour, basically what you taste on the dusting of a Super Sour Tearjerker, if you remember those candies. The second is astringent/bitter. If you know that back-of-the-tongue dryness/bitterness black tea or red wine has...