My first cider attempt

We have a small orchard, so we decided to make a batch of hard cider this year. We press it ourselves, so it is unpasteurized, pure cider.

Ingredients:
3 gallons cider
Lalvin 1118 yeast (its just what I had laying around)


I killed off wild yeast with campden, waited 24 hours and pitched the yeast. It started fermenting incredibly fast right away; it overflowed several times. I put it out on our porch, so it stays around 68-70º F, and that seems to have it under control.

I'll update with any progress I make, but I plan to let this age quite a bit.

nosmokingbandit said:

We have a small orchard, so we decided to make a batch of hard cider this year. We press it ourselves, so it is unpasteurized, pure cider.

Ingredients:
3 gallons cider
Lalvin 1118 yeast (its just what I had laying around)

I killed off wild yeast with campden, waited 24 hours and pitched the yeast. It started fermenting incredibly fast right away; it overflowed several times. I put it out on our porch, so it stays around 68-70º F, and that seems to have it under control.

I'll update with any progress I make, but I plan to let this age quite a bit.

Click to expand...

I'm making my first batch from trees present on my property as well. This yr a combination of pear and whatever apple is sitting there. Suggest finding someone with crab apples, I was lucky to get a 1/2 bushel and the juice was amazing and is supposed to add tannins and enhance aging. I'm in the process of planting more trees now, specifically for cider

We have a crab apple tree but its just ornamental, I wouldn't want to try the fruit :cross:

We usually pick our apples into milk crates, when when we put it into gallon jugs we can load it up in the crates again, it keeps it organized. We also put a crate of pears in for every 10 crates of apples (give or take, its not an exact science).

For those unfamiliar, pears help sweeten the cider without changing the flavor much.

We also have a kiwi vine (apparently kiwis *can* grow in pennsylvania... who knew?). I'm going to make a gallon of kiwi wine just for kicks.

crabapples are great for adding that bit of tannin when you can't get cider apple varieties. i have found that it can be very easy to overdo it though, each variety (or volunteer tree) is different but with the regular ones i forage here a little goes a long way. i've been making cider for a while now but only learned this trick last year (from fellow HBTers). now a handful of crabs goes into every cider i make!

You will likely regret only making 3 gallons. I made 5 my first year.....was out in no time......made 35 gallons last year........still not enough to keep my friends & famiy happy.

A week and a half later fermentation is almost done; its at 1.010 now. Another week or two in the primary and I'll rack it off. Its a lot lighter in color now, and I'm sure it will lighten up as more solids precipitate out. Perhaps most of the brown color in cider is just suspended solids...?

I'll probably make another 5-gal batch. We have a crap ton of apples this year so we'll be making another 30-40 gallons soon.

As fermentation is winding down I'm debating wether or not I should carbonate it. I'd have to bottle-carb as I have no other means, and I *hate* the sediment that bottle-carbing creates. Is flat cider common?