Dave's Carmel Apple Cider

xsists said:

Sorry for the late response. I kegged and force carbed mine. The potassium and camden prevent it from fermenting anymore and if you bottle it, it will just be still cider.

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Simply, if you want to naturally carbonate in a bottle ONLY add the campden.
For a still (flat) cider add the campden and K sorbate (potassium sorbate). Or keg if you want to false carbonate.

Just for some basics, the Campden is only used to help stop or prevent any form of wild yeast and some bacteria from reproducing. Campden will not stop/slow any brewers yeast.
K sorbate or Potassium Sorbate however, is simply a preservative and this does not kill yeast, it just slows or stops yeast from reproducing, even though you have a halted brew, you can however add more yeast to a point that will over take the preservative and cause a re-fermentation.
Hope this helps, notice we've had a lot of confusion especially in regards to this recipe. When I created it I only used the campden for the purpose of wild yeast prevention.

RelicBrewingSupply said:

Just for some basics, the Campden is only used to help stop or prevent any form of wild yeast and some bacteria from reproducing. Campden will not stop/slow any brewers yeast.
K sorbate or Potassium Sorbate however, is simply a preservative and this does not kill yeast, it just slows or stops yeast from reproducing, even though you have a halted brew, you can however add more yeast to a point that will over take the preservative and cause a re-fermentation.
Hope this helps, notice we've had a lot of confusion especially in regards to this recipe. When I created it I only used the campden for the purpose of wild yeast prevention.

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Ok, so perhaps I'm not following something. Did you filter this, or how do you stop fermentation? I understand the K-sorbate stops reproduction, but you already will have a good amount of yeast. My initial confusion had to do with the mention in the OP about bottling, but now I'm curious how adding all that sugar won't cause a crazy amount of carbonation in the keg beyond what the force carbing will do.

I made this 9 days ago.
OG was 1.071! Praying for an FG of 1.000 or less!
Still very active and actually looks like its turning clear again.... Any thoughts on when to transfer to corny keg?

Hi guys. I have never made hard cider before, just drink plenty. I want to make this but let it. Do I follow the recipe the same, keg and attach co2. Or does something different need to be done? Thanks!!

That should have read: I want to keg it.

Started this cider on Saturday 3/24/12 and wanted to ask how long you guys waited from starting to crack open the first bottle, after reading this I don't wanna get glass grenades and this is my first cider and tips is much appreciated and thanks in advance

nezhed said:

Started this cider on Saturday 3/24/12 and wanted to ask how long you guys waited from starting to crack open the first bottle, after reading this I don't wanna get glass grenades and this is my first cider and tips is much appreciated and thanks in advance

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They usually took me about a month just to let them ferment and clear by itself. Once it hit that stage and I added the concentrates and syrup, let it carb a week and enjoy.

Making this tonight.

All done.

Just reporting back.

I was able to avoid the bottle bombs that i wrote about in an earlier post. I emptied as much as I could aim back into a carboy. (thank god i did that in the basement, what a mess) That left me with roughly 3 gallons of cider.

I then just let the stuff sit and ferment completely, again. After getting my daughter to help me with the math, I added the appropriate amount of syrup for the decrease volume of cider.(since the unplanned fermentation was the syrup sugar)

Once I got my fingers and toes back under control I bottled everything. Ending up with 32-12 once bottles that i left alone. Starting at week 3 i began to open one bottle a week to give a taste/carb test. I was aiming for the still version since the carbed version is what started this whole mess.

I am proud to report that the last tasting when very well (6 weeks in bottle). I brought the bottle to a friends house so i could have 4 separate opinions. Trust me, if there was a problem with the brew these friends would enjoy the opportunity to harass me. The comments were "Whatever you did to this ... do it again." and also "What do I have to buy for you to do a batch for me?"

So to make a long story short. I know, too late. The cider was a big hit, proving that you really don't have to worry if something goes wrong.

Thanks for the recipe i am planing to start another batch this weekend.

Do you have to add the bottling sugar still since your adding the concentrate or is that enough to carb it?

If you follow ellicit's recipe the concentrate is perfect for carbonation as well.

I'm going to make this to the letter, and just keg the whole batch. Instead of bottle conditioning, it will naturally carb in the keg. Sounds great, and I've wanted a cider on tap for quite a while. I'm not the biggest fan of Apfelwein.

This will be my first cider ever So i plan to bottle this (no keg setup.....yet)
How long are people letting this bottle carb for?
Are you pasteurizing this like ive read in other posts in a pot of hot water?
anyone have a starting gravity and Finishing gravity to go by?

Yes people are pasteurizing this. I will be bottling it soon so I am not sure how long it will take yet.

My OG was 1.060 (4/10/12) and my FG was 1.002 (5/1/12).

Wow thats a pretty quick fermentation! thats nice. are you going to secondary or just go straight to bottle?
since you are bottling do you still use the campden tablets?
do you have to use un-pasteurized juice or can it be pasteurized?

Is everyone using campden tablets? My LHBS said not to worry about it since I want to bottle carb then pasteurize in the bottle once I get The carbonation I want. Does this sound ok?

In considering the bottle bomb issue; did folks using the Nottingham rehydrate the yeast prior to pitching or just pitch it? Not sure if this would matter or not but thought I would ask. Just made this for the first time myself tonight, we'll see how it does in a month or so.

Great recipe but between this one and another one I made I will never bottle another cider again. Way to may bottle bombs after only a few days in the bottles.

The few bottles that I have been able to drink are delicious though!

brewmaster89 said:

Great recipe but between this one and another one I made I will never bottle another cider again. Way to may bottle bombs after only a few days in the bottles.

The few bottles that I have been able to drink are delicious though!

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Yeah, this recipe doesn't show the full way of stabilizing.
I just kegged mine and kept it cold the whole time after adding the campden tablets. I would then bottle it if i was going anywhere when I needed a 6 pack or so. Check out the bowie bottler If you have a kegging setup.

Just ordered everything to make this. Really looking forward to it. I'm going to keg the whole batch, and use a growler if I want to take some to a party or something.

Now I need to burn through some pipeline to have room... Cheers!

Campden tablet question... I purchased 5 gallons of unpasteurized and preservative free cider from the local orchard. Last night i crushed and added 5 campden tablets to it to ward off the wild yeast/bacteria. Tonight i will pitch the yeast and get this recipe going. My question is, is it okay to add more campden tablets again at the end of this process if I follow the recipes suggestions prior to bottling? Not sure if the grand total at the end of 10 having been added to the 5 gallons does anything bad/harmful to it or not.......

gratefuldavis said:

Campden tablet question... I purchased 5 gallons of unpasteurized and preservative free cider from the local orchard. Last night i crushed and added 5 campden tablets to it to ward off the wild yeast/bacteria. Tonight i will pitch the yeast and get this recipe going. My question is, is it okay to add more campden tablets again at the end of this process if I follow the recipes suggestions prior to bottling? Not sure if the grand total at the end of 10 having been added to the 5 gallons does anything bad/harmful to it or not.......

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Nope, it's quite common when when making wines from fresh fruit. Sulphates won't have any detrimental effects.

So, I made this recipe. My SG was 1.068 and my FG was 1.010. I made the syrup and kegged it but all the syrup sat at the bottom so when I went to pour a glass, I got nothing but syrup. For those of you who have kegged this, how do you add the syrup without it sitting at the bottom?

I just shook the keg a few times over a few days. Though I did get a glassfull of cinnamon on my first pour.

ok haha so should i remake the cinnamon sugar and pour it back in and just shake it up over a couple of days?

Chavi said:

ok haha so should i remake the cinnamon sugar and pour it back in and just shake it up over a couple of days?

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I would shake it first and try it. There might be enough left to taste good. If you think you need more, than make some. Personally, I don't add the syrup anymore, just Apple juice concentrate and cranberry concentrate.

After fermenting for 9 days so far I took a gravity reading and it started at 1.052 and last night was at 1.032. is it ok that its going this slow? temp is 62 degrees and i used montrachet yeast.

gratefuldavis said:

After fermenting for 9 days so far I took a gravity reading and it started at 1.052 and last night was at 1.032. is it ok that its going this slow? temp is 62 degrees and i used montrachet yeast.

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Mine took almost 3 weeks to get to FG at 60*, the low temp really slows it down. Just give it another couple of days and check it again to make sure it hasnt stalled, but my understanding is that yeast is pretty hardy and should not have much of a problem.

Labratbrew said:

I made this 9 days ago.
OG was 1.071! Praying for an FG of 1.000 or less!
Still very active and actually looks like its turning clear again.... Any thoughts on when to transfer to corny keg?

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I just did a batch and I had an OG of 1.070 as well! Hoping it drops over time. Planning to let it sit as long as needed.

So I have completed and bottled and opened the first batch and the only problem I've run into is that it actually isn't carbonating sufficiently. I used only the Camden tabs and bottled in champagne bottles so as to avoid bombs. Taste is good but it is almost flat. Thoughts?

Did you add any extra sugar?

Nope, in reading the original recipe I thought it said no priming sugar was needed as the simple syrup added at the end more than compensated.

VanHeroy said:

Nope, in reading the original recipe I thought it said no priming sugar was needed as the simple syrup added at the end more than compensated.

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Good point! I kegged so didn't think about that. I don't think campden alone will kill all your yeast, but I guess it is possible. Maybe it stunted them enough that bottle carbing will just take a little longer? How long has it been?

I think I'm looking at about a month in bottle. Very little carbonation to speak of at present. I also though it might take longer also because I'm using larger bottles, but I should think it would be done by now.

Hmm, only thing I can think is that the yeast is dead? Though I didn't think only campden could do that? You keeping them warm enough?

Yes, that is odd. The syrup alone will provide plenty of sugar for carbonation and the campden will only prevent "wild" yeast from growing. I'm guessing the yeast were mostly dead but since you have them in champagne bottles, give them all a LITTLE shake to maybe rejuvenate the yeast/sugar then let sit for a week.

I already have a batch of Edwort's Apfelwein going which is almost exactly the same except no caramel syrup, no extra concentrate, and Montrachet yeast. Can I just add the concentrate and caramel syrup at bottling and get the same effect? I really think it'll be better carbed, but not sure how the yeast change up will affect it. Any thoughts?

Just got a 5 gal batch in my carboy. This is my first 5 gal batch of anything so wish me luck!