Johnny Jump Up Cider

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summersolstice said:
This is a sparkling cider I've been making for a couple of years that I really enjoy. It's a tart dry cider with a nice bite to it. It ferments dry to about 10.5%.

6 gallon recipe

6 gallons apple juice (cheapest I can find w/o preservatives)
one can Welch's White Grape concentrate
6 cups brown sugar
6 cups white cane sugar
10t tartaric or malic acid
6t pectic enzyme
3t tannin
6t yeast nutrient

Premier Cuvee yeast

OG 1.080
FG .998

Mix ingredients and keep in primary one week. Rack to secondary, leaving most of the gross lees behind. After two more weeks, rack onto 5 oz priming sugar and bottle in crown caps or swing tops. If you allow this to sit in the secondary too long and get crystal clear it may end up as a still cider. It'll clear in the bottle. Allow it to bottle condition for several weeks. It gets better as time goes by and it will kick your butt. I drink it in a wine glass in 6 oz portions.
Click to expand...

COuld I cut all ingredients in half for a 3 gallon batch ? Ive never done a cider but would love to try this one out.
 
I just got the ingredients to do a half batch of this, think i'm starting it tonight.

-- Also have some whiskey barrel staves from Tuthilltown Spirits I'm gonna break up instead of adding tannin.
 
I have one liter left and I've been seriously considering starting another batch. In fact, I bought the apple juice on sale 3-4 weeks ago. The last few times I've consumed a liter I had a hellacious headache the next morning. 12 oz bottles is more prudent - maybe two...
 
Your recipe calls for a can of Welch's white grape concentrate, but when I checked at my local grocery store, the Welch's white grape concentrate actually contains sulfites, and my understanding is that this will prevent fermentation.

I'm using the red grape concentrate instead (and have done so successfully on a prior attempt as well), but thought I'd see whether I'm misunderstanding something here. Do the sulfites in the concentrate not have a significant impact on fermentation?
 
Been drinking some of my bottles from last year this week. This cider gets even better with a little age. The apple flavor really stands out and some of the bite it had earlier is gone.
 
summersolstice said:
This is a sparkling cider I've been making for a couple of years that I really enjoy. It's a tart dry cider with a nice bite to it. It ferments dry to about 10.5%.

6 gallon recipe

6 gallons apple juice (cheapest I can find w/o preservatives)
one can Welch's White Grape concentrate
6 cups brown sugar
6 cups white cane sugar
10t tartaric or malic acid
6t pectic enzyme
3t tannin
6t yeast nutrient

Premier Cuvee yeast

OG 1.080
FG .998

Mix ingredients and keep in primary one week. Rack to secondary, leaving most of the gross lees behind. After two more weeks, rack onto 5 oz priming sugar and bottle in crown caps or swing tops. If you allow this to sit in the secondary too long and get crystal clear it may end up as a still cider. It'll clear in the bottle. Allow it to bottle condition for several weeks. It gets better as time goes by and it will kick your butt. I drink it in a wine glass in 6 oz portions.
Click to expand...

I must say great minds think alike! I started 6 gallons using a very similar recipe, albeit with less ingredients:

-6 gallons local cider (pasteurized, no preservatives)
- 3 lbs. brown sugar
- 1.5 lbs. local honey
- 1 packet Yeast (Red Star Premier Cuvee)

OG: 1.080
FG: don't know yet

I just started it 2 days ago. This yeast didn't take any additional effort to get it going. I poured the honey, brown sugar, and 3/4 gallon of cider into a pot and let it simmer to dissolve the sugar and honey. In the meantime, I let the remaining gallons of cider get close to room temp. I poured the sugar/honey/cider mixture into my fermentation bucket, then poured all of the remaining cider into it. I sealed the lid, added my airlock, and in less than 2 hours, the airlock was already bubbling!

Should I keep it in my primary for 1 week, no matter how much bubbling is still going on in the airlock?

Also, when do I take my final gravity reading? Is it when I rack to my secondary, or before I bottle?

Last question: Do I need to use priming sugar for bottling? Last year, I used regular white sugar, and while it wasn't very carbonated, it still had some fizz to it.
 
This sounds outstanding! Any thoughts on substituting different sugars and their effect on the overall flavor? I'm still very new to brewing and I would like all the information I can get. Thanks! This sounds like a blast.
 
summersolstice - Just wanted to let you know that my cider based on this recipe scored 1st in category in a recent competition against 8 other entries. Thanks! :mug:
 
I started this on Saturday and was disappointed to not see much activity. I was actually planning to pick up some new yeast to repitch after work tonight, but when I came downstairs today it was bubbling away.

I've never used wine yeast, is it normal for it to take a few days to get started? I figured with this high gravity it would be going crazy right from the start.
 
Yes. Dry wine yeast will not start as fast as liquid beer yeast and the activity is not as visibly agressive in my limited experience.
 
Hi all! First post here.. I was wondering if this recipe would turn out okay substituting cider for juice and also with the exclusion of the tannin?

Thanks in advance!
 
I don't see any problem substituting cider. Just make sure there isn't any Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, etc..., and use campton tabs to knock out any wild yeasties. As for the tannin, i think its pretty key to the taste of this recipe. There's no technical reason you couldn't skip it though. You'd just have something different.
 
Okay, the apple cider I picked up is pasteurized- so do i still need to worry about wild yeast? Thanks again!
 
Wow, I racked to secondary today and checked the gravity. It was 1.082 OG and is currently ever so slightly under 1.0. It bubbled consistently but not wildly, I was worried. Looks like everything is going well, though.
 
I just started a batch of this a week ago. The only difference being I boiled the sugar with lemon juice and just enough water to make it liquid. Took the temperature slowly up to 280 degF to make a nice medium amber candi syrup.
Used Lalvin 71B-1122 yeast and it took off like crazy. Steady flow of co2 from the airlock for the first 5 days, now its down to about 1 bubble per second. Going to rack in a day or 2.
 
These are good questions.... can anybody chime in on this?

Apple_Jacker said:
I must say great minds think alike! I started 6 gallons using a very similar recipe, albeit with less ingredients:

-6 gallons local cider (pasteurized, no preservatives)
- 3 lbs. brown sugar
- 1.5 lbs. local honey
- 1 packet Yeast (Red Star Premier Cuvee)

OG: 1.080
FG: don't know yet

I just started it 2 days ago. This yeast didn't take any additional effort to get it going. I poured the honey, brown sugar, and 3/4 gallon of cider into a pot and let it simmer to dissolve the sugar and honey. In the meantime, I let the remaining gallons of cider get close to room temp. I poured the sugar/honey/cider mixture into my fermentation bucket, then poured all of the remaining cider into it. I sealed the lid, added my airlock, and in less than 2 hours, the airlock was already bubbling!

Should I keep it in my primary for 1 week, no matter how much bubbling is still going on in the airlock?

Also, when do I take my final gravity reading? Is it when I rack to my secondary, or before I bottle?

Last question: Do I need to use priming sugar for bottling? Last year, I used regular white sugar, and while it wasn't very carbonated, it still had some fizz to it.
Click to expand...
 
I brewed a version of this recipe on Sunday. I scaled it down to 4 gallons, used cream of tartar and I used Wyeast 4766 cider yeast. It's bubbling away in primary now.
 
slingshot81 said:
These are good questions.... can anybody chime in on this?
Click to expand...

I'll to ahead and follow up on this. I waited 2 weeks before going into secondary and too my GF reading before adding prolong sugar....which was completely unnecessary because my cider was still fermenting. I had to put all 68 bottles of cider in the fridge the day after I bottled, and good thing too because if I waited another half day or full day, I would have had cider and glass shrapnel all over my house! They were unbelievably over carbed; it was basically a cider fountain every time I cracked one open...after drinking 2 or 3 it was actually quite hilarious...they ended up being around 12.5% :) some tasted great, some tasted like apple-flavored moonshine. I lucked out however in that I just moved to a new house that is within walking distance to the only cider mill/apple orchard near Chattanooga, TN. As soon as they are open for business, ill be starting my next cider.
 
sirmichael said:
I brewed a version of this recipe on Sunday. I scaled it down to 4 gallons, used cream of tartar and I used Wyeast 4766 cider yeast. It's bubbling away in primary now.
Click to expand...

Hmm... what kind of flavor does cream of tartar add? And how much did you put in the batch?
 
brazedowl said:
Hmm... what kind of flavor does cream of tartar add? And how much did you put in the batch?
Click to expand...

Cream of tartar doesn't add any flavor. It helps the sugar ferment.
 
hi to you from over the pond. this sounds like a good cider.i only want to make 5litres wot would you sugest i use instead of 1 can of white grape concentrate. thanks.
 
Just bottled a batch of this, followed the recipe but I added no tannin, malic acid or yeast nutrient. I also added a little cinnamon(I love cinnamony ciders for some reason). Turned out great at ~11% can't wait til it is carb'd up though!
 
I threw this recipe together tonight but halved it, making just 3 gallons worth. I ended up using Nottingham yeast, and for some reason I forgot to buy pectic enzyme, so I hope that my cider clears on its own. I will be getting a garage fridge at the end of this month, so I might throw it in the fridge when its all done before bottling to clear it up more.. or something.

Good thing is I hit 1.080 exactly :rockin:
 

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