5 Day Sweet Country Cider

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CollegeCider said:
1.03-1.02 is waaaaaaaaay to sweet for me 1.01-1.015 is considered sweet

I tasted it last night when I took my sg reading and it was pretty sweet. I'll check it again tonite when I get home. I might let it go to 1.01 or so.
 
Checked it tonite when I got home. Only dropped to1.038. Not gonna check it again til Saturday morning. It's still bubbling at one bubble every 7 seconds.
 
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Used Treetop Apple juice (as I'm 100s of miles away from an orchard). Everything else I did to a tee. Used Nottingham yeast, brown sugar and cinnamon sticks. I sanitized with Starsan, and there was a little bit of foam left, but I've always been told not to 'fear the foam'.

I can't wait to try this on Wednesday/Thursday :)
 
Free Testing Strips inside... classy. Haha. Please tell me you made that drawing yourself; I'd be amazed.
 
If only. Just did a google image search for "Wilford Brimley Cartoon" and I got this.

Brimley.jpg


I digress. Don't want to get too off topic. Sorry guys.
 
I've waited three days and there's still foam on top as fermentation is still going pretty strong. will cold crashing it stop it, then is it okay to bottle, carb then pasteurize?
 
a) Nice label.

b) I've been searching for cider for about 3 weeks now. Finally found some at Whole Foods. Pasteurized but all natural. Bought half of what they had. ;)

Followed the recipe exactly and it's sitting on noddy now. OG was 1.064ish at 68*. This is my first try at cider so I hope it turns out well!
 
I wish I knew what 1.040 tasted like. I feel like that would be crazy sweet so I am planning on bottling at 1.020, but I don't really know what that would taste like either. Shucks, looks like I'll have to make another batch of cider to find out ;)
 
I made this a few days ago, using cheap Fred Meyer house brand concentrated apple juice in a 3 gallon Better Bottle. Fermentation was just under 3 days (to get to 1.04), and the bottles carbed up within 4 hours. Actually they were a bit more highly carbed then I would have preferred by then! Pasteurized them in 190 degree water, and they came out great. This is definitely a different flavor from commercial ciders -- much more of a fresh apple juice flavor. Really delicious, though, and *extremely* easy and inexpensive. I'm starting another batch (on the same cake) with about 10 ounces of fresh squeezed ginger juice in 3 gallons of apple juice.
 
a) Nice label.

b) I've been searching for cider for about 3 weeks now. Finally found some at Whole Foods. Pasteurized but all natural. Bought half of what they had. ;)

Followed the recipe exactly and it's sitting on noddy now. OG was 1.064ish at 68*. This is my first try at cider so I hope it turns out well!

Ok so I let this go for a full 5 days. FG seems to be 1.020 at about 73 degrees. Looking somewhere north of 6% abv. I could see bubbles in the uncapped bottles so I know it's still working. Going to pasturize them in a few hours.... minus 4 that go in the freezer for cold crashing and immediate consumption. :mug:
 
I just made this two days ago and still in the fermenter. only difference is that i didnt have nottingham yeast and used a professional bakers yeast instead. did a gravity reading and got 1.050 so im gonna let it sit another day before bottling. It tastes freakin delicious so far!, and im sure its a little bit yeastier tasting than if i did use nottingham. gonna filter before bottling. thanks for the awesome and quick recipe!!!
 
Wow. I had no luck at all with this. I bottled at 1.04 per the recipe. The stuff tasted very good! However, I let it carb up one day after bottling and the test bottle was as hard as a rock. I opened it to drink it and it was way too carbonated. I should have realized that I needed to do something different. Like I said, it did taste good. I first tried to pasteurize in the dishwasher. 3 of the bottles blew up in there. I cleaned up that mess and decided to try to pasteurize in a kettle. 2 of them blew up in there. I took the kettle off the stove to the cellar and a couple of them blew up down there. I began to open the rest and dump into a bucket. Wow, they were so carbed up that when I opened with the bottle opener, some of them flew out of my hand! I literally could not hold on to them! I got completely soaked with cider. Not sure what I will do with what is left.
I would like to figure out how to do this right, because, like I said the stuff tasted great.
This was my first experience with bottle bombs and I now have a RESPECT for what they can do. I don't want to go through that again. Very dangerous. I am glad to be uninjured! Need to clean up the mess in the basement tonight!
 
I have read recently that if you don't give the CO2 time to dissolve into solution you can get gushers. This might be the case and I would say put them in the fridge and dont open them for around 30 days. I just watched a video of the dramatic effect that waiting a month and having it chilled has. If I remember later today I can post that video. I'm not saying that this for sure will fix it but it seems possible.
 
I plan on starting something like this tonight using a champagne yeast. I'm a little afraid of making some gushers so I think I'll let it carb in bottles for about 2 or 3 hours to keep from messing up too badly.
 
I'm following the structure of the recipe using what I had available. I bought 1 gallon cider from Meijer (regional Walmart Clone) and one half-gallon bottle of Mott's pressed apple juice (fancy name for cider, tastes nearly identical to the 1 gallon cider). Poured out half a glass from each, added (roughly) 1/4 lb light brown sugar to each jug (I'm using the containers they came in because I don't any free carboys) and shook them well to mix the sugar. Added Red Star Champagne Yeast. One packet yeast makes 5 gallons, I just split it up between the two because two much yeast isn't a concern. Replaced caps and swirled to mix. Sticking with the minimalist theme (and because I don't have extra fermentation locks) I placed balloons atop the jugs and added rubber bands to the outside at bottle mouths for good measure. Placed them in my closet and we'll see how big those balloons get overnight!
 
dudius said:
I'm following the structure of the recipe using what I had available. I bought 1 gallon cider from Meijer (regional Walmart Clone) and one half-gallon bottle of Mott's pressed apple juice (fancy name for cider, tastes nearly identical to the 1 gallon cider). Poured out half a glass from each, added (roughly) 1/4 lb light brown sugar to each jug (I'm using the containers they came in because I don't any free carboys) and shook them well to mix the sugar. Added Red Star Champagne Yeast. One packet yeast makes 5 gallons, I just split it up between the two because two much yeast isn't a concern. Replaced caps and swirled to mix. Sticking with the minimalist theme (and because I don't have extra fermentation locks) I placed balloons atop the jugs and added rubber bands to the outside at bottle mouths for good measure. Placed them in my closet and we'll see how big those balloons get overnight!

How DARE you compare Meijer to Walmart! You might as well compare a good beer to a bottle of piss! ;-) I moved from Michigan 2 years ago and I definitely miss doing my grocery shopping there. Bi-Lo, Publix, and Pruett's just don't compare. There are some high-end style whole food grocery stores, but I cent afford doing all my grocery shopping there. And I refuse to be a Walmart shopper... never going to happen. But, I digress...

Sounds like your plan will work. I've been doing a lot of 1 gallon cider batches lately, but didn't carb up anything. I just started a new gallon last week, so maybe ill stop putting it off and bottle it and try to pasteurize it using the dishwasher pasteurization method.
 
Apple_Jacker said:
How DARE you compare Meijer to Walmart! You might as well compare a good beer to a bottle of piss! ;-) I moved from Michigan 2 years ago and I definitely miss doing my grocery shopping there. Bi-Lo, Publix, and Pruett's just don't compare. There are some high-end style whole food grocery stores, but I cent afford doing all my grocery shopping there. And I refuse to be a Walmart shopper... never going to happen. But, I digress...

Sounds like your plan will work. I've been doing a lot of 1 gallon cider batches lately, but didn't carb up anything. I just started a new gallon last week, so maybe ill stop putting it off and bottle it and try to pasteurize it using the dishwasher pasteurization method.

Lmao my town only has Walmart and meijer. I've worked for both stores (Muskegon Meijer, Big Rapids Walmart) and quite honestly they're the same thing. I've seen just as many "people of Walmart" over at Meijer, and Walmart is cheaper on everything. I just go to Meijer for produce.

On topic, I plan on making several one gallon batches this fall and tweaking the recipe here and there. I've been considering doing batches with honey, molasses, or cinnamon.
 
This is a great recipe -- I've made several batches now, each with a few variations. Most recently, I made a five gallon batch with about two lbs. of brown sugar and a couple of cinnamon sticks, and also added about 24 oz of fresh ginger root, ground up in a blender and pressed through a cloth bag to just extract the juice, along with the zest and juice of six limes. Awesome -- it's got a great but not overwhelming ginger beer flavor! I'll be doing a raspberry-apple or cranberry-apple batch next.

My biggest problem is bottle pasteurizing... I can't come up with a really good way to get the bottles out of the hot water. Using my jar lifter that I use for canning didn't work -- the bottles slip through until I'm gripping the cap, which then pops off spectacularly, gushing hot cider everywhere. I tried a silcone oven mitt, and actually got a pretty nice first-degree burn when some water poured into the top of the mitt. Anyone have any good tips?
 
I've got 5gals of this going as of today, since last weekend. Used 5gals of fresh cider from a nearby orchard, 2lbs of Brown Sugar. I boiled 3/4 gallon with a tsp of cinnemon along with 18 cinnemon sticks and 20 cloves (yes, im going for it big). OG came out to 1.073. Currently down to 1.050 and will bottle in swing top bottles at 1.040. Used red star montrachet and it's going slow, it's only 66*F sitting on my basement floor though. High hopes.
 
My biggest problem is bottle pasteurizing... I can't come up with a really good way to get the bottles out of the hot water. Using my jar lifter that I use for canning didn't work -- the bottles slip through until I'm gripping the cap, which then pops off spectacularly, gushing hot cider everywhere. I tried a silcone oven mitt, and actually got a pretty nice first-degree burn when some water poured into the top of the mitt. Anyone have any good tips?

There's a stickied thread somewhere about pasteurization where the person mentions using tongs to remove the bottles and transferring them to their other hand wearing an oven mitt.
 
There's a stickied thread somewhere about pasteurization where the person mentions using tongs to remove the bottles and transferring them to their other hand wearing an oven mitt.

Wrap duck tape around an old pair of tongs. the hot water stickifies the tape and makes the tape get a good enough grip on the bottles to lift and grab with a towel
 
...or use the type of tongs used when canning food. They are non-slip rubber coated and hi-temp safe (pressure canned mason jars get much hotter than the bottles do).
 
PattyM said:
...or use the type of tongs used when canning food. They are non-slip rubber coated and hi-temp safe (pressure canned mason jars get much hotter than the bottles do).

Those are what I was using -- but with the 22ozers, when I gripped the shoulders of the bottles, they weighed enough that they would slip down until the tongs were on the bottle cap, which then popped off with a bang! Bad.

My best efforts involved draining most of the water through the ball valve into another pot, so I could safely pull the bottles out. Then I dumped the water back in to the main pot.
 
Hmm, I just had an interesting idea I'm going to test out. It occurred to me that assuming one could kill the yeast effectively with campden/sorbate, it might be possible to measure a small amount of those ingredients into a gelcap, and pop one into each bottle. I've been finding this recipe is carbed to my liking within 4 hours or so... I'm going to test out gelcaps in room temperature water, and see how long they take to release their contents.
 
ong said:
Hmm, I just had an interesting idea I'm going to test out. It occurred to me that assuming one could kill the yeast effectively with campden/sorbate, it might be possible to measure a small amount of those ingredients into a gelcap, and pop one into each bottle. I've been finding this recipe is carbed to my liking within 4 hours or so... I'm going to test out gelcaps in room temperature water, and see how long they take to release their contents.

They do not kill yeast, they just prevent yeast from reproducing/multiplying.
 
I'm following the structure of the recipe using what I had available. I bought 1 gallon cider from Meijer (regional Walmart Clone) and one half-gallon bottle of Mott's pressed apple juice (fancy name for cider, tastes nearly identical to the 1 gallon cider). Poured out half a glass from each, added (roughly) 1/4 lb light brown sugar to each jug (I'm using the containers they came in because I don't any free carboys) and shook them well to mix the sugar. Added Red Star Champagne Yeast. One packet yeast makes 5 gallons, I just split it up between the two because two much yeast isn't a concern. Replaced caps and swirled to mix. Sticking with the minimalist theme (and because I don't have extra fermentation locks) I placed balloons atop the jugs and added rubber bands to the outside at bottle mouths for good measure. Placed them in my closet and we'll see how big those balloons get overnight!

Alright so I tried the half-gallon of Mott's cider first. I had plans to spend the day with friends so rather than using time to bottle, carb, and pasteurize I decided to add the half gallon to a growler. I let it set for about an hour and then threw it in the fridge to cold-crash since a large volume would chill more slowly. It was well-chilled after a couple hours and I took it to a friend's house and we consumed it immediately. It tasted pretty good, my friends enjoyed it. It wasn't very sweet or tart but somewhere right in the middle. One friend mentioned it had a slight sour taste which I noticed present in the cider before adding sugar and yeast.

I still have the full gallon of Meijer cider fermenting. I think I'll end fermentation this weekend when I bottle my pumpkin porter.
 
So, I'm thinking about making this as my first venture into cider-making. I really like the faster turn around time of this recipe in comparison to other cider recipes.
I'm thinking of doing two 1 gallon batches: one as is (with the cinnamin), and one as is but substituting a split vanilla bean for the cinnamin). Do either the cinnamin stick or the vanilla bean need to be sanitized...and, if so, how?
Also, (noob question) do I cold crash by just putting the gallon jugs in the frig? How long do I cold crash for? How do I now when it's been long enough in the frig?
Do I bottle immed after cold crashing or let the gallon jugs come back to room temp?
For testing carbing....a regular plastic soda can be used (16oz?) can be used? And the bottles are all left out at room temp for carbing, correct?
Kathleen
 
Kdenaultrdg said:
Also, (noob question) do I cold crash by just putting the gallon jugs in the frig? How long do I cold crash for? How do I now when it's been long enough in the frig?
Do I bottle immed after cold crashing or let the gallon jugs come back to room temp?
For testing carbing....a regular plastic soda can be used (16oz?) can be used? And the bottles are all left out at room temp for carbing, correct?
Kathleen

I think putting them in the fridge for one to two days is the most common. I asked the bottling after pulling it out of the fridge question and I was told that it's fine to pull it out of the fridge and bottle it with the priming sugar. Once the bottle temps get to room temp, the yeast is happy and can start carbonating the bottles.

For testing carbonation, fill the first and last of the batch in two 16 oz bottles like you were describing, and when they are hard like when you first bought it then stove pasteurize all the bottles.

And yes, they need to be left out at room temp to carb up. The time this takes is between three and 24ish hours. So you need to have a free weekend when you get to the carbonating and pasteurizing because it's a guessing game for how long they will take to be ready.
 
Excellent...thanks Zippox.

Any ideas on the need/method of sanitizing the cinnamin stick and vanilla bean?

Also, I have Nottingham and Cote des Blancs. I can keep these carboys inside with a consistent air temp about 70. Or I can put them in the garage and deal with some temp fluctuations (sixties during the day and forties at night). A an experiment, i filled a cooler with water and placed in the garage to try to establish a more stable temp outside...it comes in btwn 55 and 60. Which is better for cider...warmer inside the house or cooler in garage? Would one of these yeasts be happier in one of these conditions? Ultimately, a sweet, not dry, cider is my goal.

Kathleen
 
I found this with a quick search on the forum:
you don't have to sanitize or boil your cinnamon sticks. They are naturally antiseptic, it's basically dried-up tree bark that lasts years without decay (although loses flavor to evaporation of oils). In apfelwein, the alcohol content should be high enough to inhibit anything that may be on the sticks.

Along with this one
sanitize the outside of the bean, then splay it, then add it to the beer. The inside of the bean, assuming the case was intact, is probably sterile.

To sanitize, you could use star san or high-ABV ethyl alcohol. Vodka is common, and bourbon would work too.

If it were me, I'd throw both the beans and the cinnamon sticks in vodka. Better safe than sorry.
 
I just bottled and pasteurized a batch inspired by this recipe. I discovered that a day may be too long to allow for bottle priming when the yeast is starting off fairly active.

I tested a bottle almost right at the 24 hour mark before pasteurization and had a effervescent reaction fit for a 3rd grade science experiment. Thankfully bringing the batch to near freezing allowed me to pop the caps safely and relieve some of the pressure.

The batch still tastes great though. I just need to find some more fresh pressed juice and try it again before it's all gone.
 
I'm really new to this so bare with me please. Is there any way I could make this a still cider? I will be bottling into mason jars (all I have on hand) and I know they aren't meant for holding pressure. Could I just wait for fermentation to fully finish or would that affect the final taste?
 
merkadoe said:
I'm really new to this so bare with me please. Is there any way I could make this a still cider? I will be bottling into mason jars (all I have on hand) and I know they aren't meant for holding pressure. Could I just wait for fermentation to fully finish or would that affect the final taste?

Most ciders I've made have been still, even the ones that were similar to this recipe.
 
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