Fantastic Hard Cider Recipe with Instructions (and fall spice / cherry variations)

Did a batch of this and tasted today finally. I was afraid it wouldnt be good because I didnt add yeast nutrients and during fermentation it smelled pretty nasty, luckily no off flavors. I made my 5 gallon batch and mixed with two cinnamon sticks and 1t of nutmeg boiled in 1 cup of water. To me it tasted a little dry with just enough nutmeg/cinnamon flavor. The real taste test was done by SWMBO, as this was for her. She said it was on the sweeter end of cider spectrum, which is what she prefers. I used lalvin EC-1118 Wine yeast. Definitely making this again. Next round will be a split batch with one half getting black cherry back sweetened and the other getting an apple cider/brown sugar/water mixture. Thanks OP, this recipe is just what I needed as an excuse to buy a few more kegs!

Making this recipe. 7 days in. Used yeast nutrient, pectin, and fresh apple cider. Its very yellow. It looks more like orange juice than anything else. Still bubbling away.

Will the color mellow within the next 7 days?

Yup, very typical for it to turn the color of OJ. Once the vigorous fermentation is done, it'll settle and clear.



Here's mine on the 5th day of fermentation.

krk said:

First attempt at hard cider. Followed recipe exactly. Used Bergman Orchards Cider(Port Clinton OH) which UV pasteurizes and has been making excellent cider for years. No chemicals. Made 10 gals. Bottled almost 4 cases of 12 oz bottles. Bottle pasteurized at 3 days without incident. It was not fully carbonated. I was scared of pasteurizing horror stories. Wife and I tried first sample last night. We waited 2-1/2 weeks after pasteurizing. Smooth, smooth, smooth! Tasted great, slightly sweet, no alcohol overtones, although it finished at over 7% ABV. Couldn't stop reaching for the glass We finished 2 bottles each. Nice kick to it. What a pleasant evening. I don't think I made enough to last the winter. Would be nice with non-hard cider ice cubes or a Honey Crisp or Gala apple slice on rim of glass.

Hats off to danbrewtan, thank you for sharing!

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My daughter tried this last weekend and loved it! She wants me to make 6 cases, about 15 gallons, for her fall themed wedding in sept 2014. I'd be happy too. But if I make it next year when Bergmans Orchards starts pressing, the hard cider won' be done in time. If I make it now, Nov 2013, will it keep in bottles that long? I'd hate to use anything but Bergmans because their cider is so good.

How different would this be if I were to use Apple Juice versus Apple Cider?

Filch said:

How different would this be if I were to use Apple Juice versus Apple Cider?

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To go off this, are these terms being used interchangeably?

Great thread. Doing a Cider Batch tonight based off your stuff. Going for a Mulled recipe.

rel322 said:

To go off this, are these terms being used interchangeably?

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I can't find apple cider around me. Cider to me means raw, unfiltered apple juice (solids in juice)

So I guess my question may be better phrased at how different might I expect this recipe to turn out if I'm using filtered (no solids), apple juice, if there's any difference at all.

Please don't harm the noob.

Well technically only here in the US where there is a difference between apple juice and cider. Pretty much everywhere else if it is cider it is "Hard Cider". You can use juice. Do you have a Whole Foods? Their 365 brand of juice will work great it even comes in a glass jar(can pitch the yeast and let it go). You are looking for pure juice (100%), nothing with preservatives (polysorbate or sulfides). Just look around your grocery store and look for 100% juice or frozen concentrate.

To put simply all you need to find is something that has apple juice or cider as the first ingredient and no preservatives afterwords and you should be fine.

krk said:

My daughter tried this last weekend and loved it! She wants me to make 6 cases, about 15 gallons, for her fall themed wedding in sept 2014. I'd be happy too. But if I make it next year when Bergmans Orchards starts pressing, the hard cider won' be done in time. If I make it now, Nov 2013, will it keep in bottles that long? I'd hate to use anything but Bergmans because their cider is so good.

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Ive been making batches of the Caramel Apple Hard Cider from another thread. Batches 1,2 and 4 were made with Walmart Great Value apple juice. Batch 3 was made with Whole Foods 365 Organic cider (because I wanted the 5 one gallon glass jugs). With all sincerety, I found absolutely NO change in flavor at the end of the fermentation prior to backsweetening. All ended with a FG right at 1.000. I use Nottingham yeast. So it does seem to me that the choice of cider or juice going intofermentation has little affect on flavor, but all the flavor comes from the backsweetening.

Apple juice and a fancy cider will both work and make a great hard cider. I always try to find a good quality cider to use because I think it does make a difference. Just depends how picky you are

Cider is more cloudy and will finish more cloudy. No difference other than that.

Kegged this tonight. Tasted it before the addition of the gallon of cider. It was very mild in apple flavor. After adding the gallon of cider it was delicious. I could have drank all 5 gallons right then!

How soon and active did the fermentation start for some of you. I just pitched the Montrachet and yeast last night and I checked it this morning. There's just a hint of some foam at the surface right now.

I'm storing it in my keezer at about 64F. Is it possible that my yeast is too old? I've had it for a few years, but it's been refrigerated during that time.

You should have thrown that yeast away a long time ago. Only time will tell if the yeast is still alive...

Tried to find this out in a different location..

I'm about 4 weeks into my first batch of 2+ gallons. Used half filtered and half unfiltered AJ/C. Didn't know about measuring pH with cider and didn't add nutrients. Later found this yeast (M2) loves nutrients. On racking a week ago, the SG was 10.. down from 60. It's very cloudy.. same as when I pitched.

Also didn't know about Pectic Enzyme. So.. aside from that first paragraph.. Is it too late to pitch PE? I'd like mine to clarify.. at least somewhat. What about fining with gelatin? That works with beer.. but, I'd bet that what clouds the cider is different what clouds beer??

Thanks, Lando.

I was afraid of that. I'll stop by the local brew shop and pick up some more today.

I haven't experimented with the enzyme or gelatin so I'm not sure if they'll work for cider. I'm fine with my cider being cloudy. Wish I could help!

Tag

I pitched some PE when I did my first batch about 3 weeks go. I added it to primary. It is the secondary now almost ready for bottling. Mine is still pretty cloudy. I don't know if I should of added more when I went to secondary but giving this my first batch I am not sure if it helped at all.

I don't think it will hurt if you add it in but I am not sure how much good it will do since you will not be able to mix it thoroughly.

I added the PE to the primary then I poured my cider pretty rough and fast so that I could get some aeration. I forgot to get the yeast nutrient so I figured I better give the yeast some air!

This is interesting. Nice write-up.

This is delicious! I used cider from a local cider mill. It turned out really well. And it was easy. I could drink all 5 gallons of this on my own.

I am trying this today. I got 4 gal.s from Costko and poured them in with some Mr. Beer yeast I had left over. I thought I would make it to the LHBS but didn't and they are closed Sunday and Mondays. I hope it brews up well but with it being my first batch I am pretty sure it will be drinkable and I can prepare better the next time if this goes over well. From what I have read other places most yeasts will work and I think the Mr B yeast is ale yeast.

I've searched and can't find what I need to know, if I want to do this recipe but want to keg what is my alternative to pasteurizing bottles to stop the yeast activity?

I think potassium sorbate is what to go with. I saw that is what they used on brewing TVs hard cider episode around the 12:30 mark they talk about it.

Tex60 said:

I've searched and can't find what I need to know, if I want to do this recipe but want to keg what is my alternative to pasteurizing bottles to stop the yeast activity?

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I'm pretty sure your best bet is to Kegg it and keep it cold enough to keep the yeast calm.

Just did a batch off of this recipe. Monatrect yeast, 4 gals Trader Joe's unfiltered apple juice (cider more or less). 2 week ferment until next-to-no air lock activity.

Back sweetened with 1/2 gal TJ's unfiltered apple juice and 1/2 gal TJ's regular Cherry Juice and bottled.

Trial taste before carbonation was AWESOME!! Very similar to Anthem Cherry Cider which is a GREAT cider but is about $7 per 22 oz bottle.

I'm a newbie and not a numbers guy but after diluting 4 gallons of fermented cider with 1 gallon of back sweetener is the final product REALLY 7-8%??!? (I hope so!)

Can't wait to see what the final carbonated product tastes like!

Also, I'd love some feedback from anyone who has tried this recipe with Nottingham yeast. Got a packet in my fridge waiting to be used...

I've never used Nottingham, but I plan to try it soon. Apparently you don't need to back sweeten with it which would save LOADS of time.

WhackedBear said:

I pitched some PE when I did my first batch about 3 weeks go. I added it to primary. It is the secondary now almost ready for bottling. Mine is still pretty cloudy. I don't know if I should of added more when I went to secondary but giving this my first batch I am not sure if it helped at all.

I don't think it will hurt if you add it in but I am not sure how much good it will do since you will not be able to mix it thoroughly.

I added the PE to the primary then I poured my cider pretty rough and fast so that I could get some aeration. I forgot to get the yeast nutrient so I figured I better give the yeast some air!

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This is the end result I got from using the pectic enzyme. It's been in the bottle for about 2 days and I will be doing the pasteurization probably tomorrow.

ttps://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?pid=5971808483557823282&oid=106163106282847766419

Sounds good and easy, I have yet to make a cider so this looks like an easy one to start with. Thanks for the info.

So I got this in my fermenter yesterday and have a question about OG.

I used a pail of apple cider from a local orchard. The orchard had frozen the pail, so I had to bring 5+ gallons of cider up to room temperature. I got a little impatient and transferred to the fermenter when about 4 gallons had turned liquid (leaving an iceberg inside).

Because Canada doesn't use milk jugs, I didn't have an easy way to store a gallon of juice in my fridge, and had to go out to buy a 4L bottle of water to store the leftover juice. As I transferred from the pail to the 4L bottle I took a gravity reading and it only came up as 1.028. I'm very positive about that reading, and it was taken at about room temperature. I didn't want to mess with the carboy while the yeast was taking hold, so I didn't take a reading from the carboy before going to bed.

Does anyone have any thoughts? I knew the ice part would slightly dilute the remaining juice, but I still wasn't expecting such a low OG.

if I'm understanding correctly. you had a large quantity of juice that was frozen. Before it was completely unfrozen, you drained off 4 gallons, leaving you with 1 gallon including an iceberg?

If that's the case, the iceberg was mostly water. All the sugars and apple flavouring that are missing from your 1 gallon to be used for backsweetening ended up in your 4 gallons.

Think of a slushie, or slurpee if you will. You slurp all the tasty flavouring and sugars out through the straw, and are left with a pile of sluch that is mostly ice.

If you slurp out 80% of the juice, and then let the ice thaw, you're left with a very diluted drink.

If all your iceberg is melted, and you're seeing an OG of 1.028 there, you're going to have a higher ABV in your cider, and the backsweetening won't make it quite as sweet as you're hoping, but at 1.028, it should be okay I think. You can always ditch or drink the 1 gallon you have left, and get a fresh gallon of cider for backsweetening.

Aux

Hey all! I'm going to bump this thread a bit because I'm planning on brewing this as my first cider. My question is this - can I skip the bottle pasteurization by just racking to my 5-gal corny keg and cold condition it at 40 degrees?

Dude, if you're in a corny keg why are you worried? Worst case scenario is it'll ferment your back-sweetener and the cider will be a little dryer than intended. Personally, I've never noticed that happening; I store my ciders in a refrigerated corny without pasteurization all the time. Personally I think my fridge is closer to 36-38 because I'm a bad person like that.

Awesome! Yet another reason I love kegging....

Thanks for the info


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My first cider!! I was planning on making an IPA but my local homebrew shop was closed unexpectedly, so I pitched my Nottingham starter onto 3 gallons of apple juice and 0.5 gallons cherry juice... forgot to do an OG though.

I want to carbonate, bottle, and pasteurize using the instructions here. Few questions regarding how Nottingham will change things:

1. Will I need to back-sweeten or will Nottingham attenuate less than Montrechet and leave enough residual sugar? I've read that Montrechet has a max ABV of ~13% vs ~9% for Notty.

2. If I don't need to back-sweeten as much (ie 1 gallon here), will back-sweetening with less juice allow enough carbonation?

3. If Nottingham does indeed leave enough residual sugar, doesn't that mean that it is maxed out and won't carbonate any additional sugar?

Thanks!

taking a crack at this one today along side my Darth Vader Black IPA brew.

4 gal White House brand pressed apple cider, pasteurized, no preservatives.
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 pkg Montrachet yeast pitched dry

held back another gallon of juice for the bottling day...
gluten-intolerant wife very excited for it....


The Doctor

"I came to Casablanca for the waters."
"What waters? We are in the desert."
"I was misinformed."

Everything_Bagel said:

My first cider!! I was planning on making an IPA but my local homebrew shop was closed unexpectedly, so I pitched my Nottingham starter onto 3 gallons of apple juice and 0.5 gallons cherry juice... forgot to do an OG though.

I want to carbonate, bottle, and pasteurize using the instructions here. Few questions regarding how Nottingham will change things:

1. Will I need to back-sweeten or will Nottingham attenuate less than Montrechet and leave enough residual sugar? I've read that Montrechet has a max ABV of ~13% vs ~9% for Notty.

2. If I don't need to back-sweeten as much (ie 1 gallon here), will back-sweetening with less juice allow enough carbonation?

3. If Nottingham does indeed leave enough residual sugar, doesn't that mean that it is maxed out and won't carbonate any additional sugar?

Thanks!

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1. Taste and find out. You shouldnt need as much juice to backsweeten though.

2. Yes as long as you add in more than a few ounces of juice you should be fine.
3. No, think about it like with beer, the yeast is "maxed out" in the carboy when you bottle, then you add in more sugar that hasnt been broken down by yeast yet and is easily fermentable. the same thing will happen when you backsweeten. If you end up using very little juice to backsweeten or you like where the Nottingham leaves you with the flavor, you can always just use some corn sugar(dextrose) to bottle. This is actually a good situation because the potential for bottle bombs is much lower.

Has anyone tried boiling some irish moss in a couple cups of water and then adding it directly to unboiled juice? Does it still have the same clarifying effect? I may try this tonight but would love to hear if anyone's given it a try already.