First Cider

Just put the airlock on my first batch of cider. Wife's been on me to make her some since I started brewing. Been reading a lot about it, but just like with beer I had to finally get down to doing it. So this afternoon I put together my first batch.

It's a one gallon batch. I used Old Orchard AJ and I tossed in a can of the frozen concentrate also. I rehydrated a pack of US-05 with some DME in it and pitched it. It measured 1.060 so potentially more potent than I was going for, but maybe it'll get SWMBO a little tipsy.

Now we wait...hope it turns out good. Anyone else one a batch this way (w/o using additional sugar)? Interested to hear how it turned out.

Dan

I made a simple 2-gallon batch of cider just using store brand juice. Good stuff, tasted a lot like champagne to me. Your concentrate ought to give it some more apple kick, good luck getting her drunk.

Getting the SWMBO tipsy is a key strategy to obtaining more equipment, ingredients, the things we need to survive. Good plan.

I have made a batch of cider using Old Orchard frozen concentrate and US-05 and it has been one of my best batches so far. I was very impressed with that yeast but fermenting at 60 degrees may have contributed to the flavor as well so it is hard to say if the clean and crisp cider taste was from solely the yeast or also from the colder fermenting temp. I even dry hopped half of the batch just for fun and many of my friends liked that so much that I got them into home brewing. The only difference was that my OG was around 1.054. It is drinkable while young but it has been aging for 3 months now and it tastes 10 times better! Be patient with it and it will pay off. I backsweetened with more frozen concentrate at bottling time.

Patience is hard for me, I want it to be done right now . It's fermenting somethin' fierce right now. I plan to transfer it to a secondary after a week to clear and then back sweeten with concentrate at bottling time. SWMBO wants a sparkling cider so I'm going to let it carb and then pasteurize. If all goes well I may have to bump it up to a bigger batch, I've already had several friends, co-workers, and family expressing interest.

Dan

why are you going to pasteurize?

edit... missed the part about back sweetening. Good luck, I've read plenty of people say its easy, and plenty of people say its dangerous. If it were me, I'd just avoid it entirely and put a bit of sugar in the glass at drinking time, or just mix it with a little fresh juice or 7-up. Sounds like an enormous hassle for identical results.

Yeah, SWMBO wants a sweeter cider and she wants it sparkly. Otherwise I'd just ferment it dry, cold crash and bottle it. Pasteurization seemed like the easy way to go for the sparkly stuff. I'll see how it goes. I may try using an additive next time if it's too much of a pain.

Dan

How do you plan to know the exact moment when the bottles are carbed but still sweet when you are doing this? Remember that you can't pasteurize until the bottles are carbed.

Just crack one open every few days until the carbonation is where you want it.

You can also use the plastic bottle trick. Fill one plastic soda bottle with cider when bottling. When it gets hard to the squeeze, it should be carbonated. Although, depending on the bottle you use, it might over carb.

+1 to the coke bottle firmness test. Try to use the same size soda bottle as your beer bottles. I always leave one coke bottle unopened (carbonated coke left inside) to get an idea of how the carbonated cider in a soda bottle should feel in relation to a carbonated soda.

BlackGoat said:

How do you plan to know the exact moment when the bottles are carbed but still sweet when you are doing this? Remember that you can't pasteurize until the bottles are carbed.

Click to expand...

I just plan on opening one after about 3 days and see how carbonated it is. Not enough = wait longer and try again, just right = getting out the stock pot and pasteurizing. I may try the plastic bottle technique too. Still undecided, but either way seems pretty simple.

Dan

I've read about people using this method and needing to check them every few hours, but I've never tried it. Good luck!

I doubt it'll carbonate that quickly, but maybe I'm wrong. Since I only made a gallon my plan is to put the bottles in a Rubbermaid tub while they're carbonating which should contain the mess if I've incorrectly guessed about any of this. If all goes well with this and the next couple gallon batches then I'll probably step up production to a full 5 gallons.

Dan

I've had a batch carbonate as quickly as 8 hours before and also had batches that took close to two weeks. There are a lot of variables that play into conditioning.

Activity had died down for a few days. Took a measurement yesterday and it was at 1.010 so I moved it to a secondary to clear for a few weeks. Then we'll back sweeten, bottle, and play the carb game.

Dan