Starting a simple cider

Making a 5 gallon batch using Hansens 100% natural no sugar added.



Using old orchard 100% juice concentrate. Mixing a apple cherry and an apple raspberry.



My yeast, Wyeast 4766 cider smack pack



Ready to start. All equipment sanitized with star San.

Here it is ready to start. I added almost five (4.5)gallons of juice, 1/2 tsp of pectic enzyme per gallon, 2 cans of juice concentrate and yeast at around 72-74 degrees. Now I wait. I plan on adding some fruit to this in a secondary in a couple weeks. I will keep an update.

4:00 pm, no action. Will check when I get home tonight from work at 1:30am. Should be going by then

I've added fruit both in the primary and the secondary. I prefer the primary as the yeast consumes it quickly and you get no mush in the secondary.

Good idea. I might add to it tomorrow. Thanks

First post here. Beside the fruit/juice concentrate, what, if anything, are you going to add to the secondary? Or are you just going to siphon it into another container away from the sediment. And how long do predict you'll have it in the primary?

I just did a simple one inside a whole foods cider jug with some red star cote de blanc. No pectic enzyme, and I'm guessing that by the end of the day tomorrow (4th day), it'll have stopped bubbling.

I usually keep it in primary for two weeks then transfer into secondary. I guess I'm going to add some blueberries tomorrow to it (they're on sale) and then I will have to do the secondary for clarity. When it's all clear, maybe week or so in second then I will back sweeten with that same concentrate and bottle. I usually keep the glass bottles with a plastic one to see how the pressures doing and when it's rock hard (plastic bottle) I place the rest in a fridge to stop or slow the carb build up. Some people frown on this but I have never had a bottle bomb (yet) and the cider is nice and sparkly like a 7up.

Wow just got home @ 1:56am and still no action?

HAREEBROWNBEEST said:

Wow just got home @ 1:56am and still no action?

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I don't know if I'm being impatient or what but its now 10:30 am, been 12 hours and no activity. Usually my stuff takes off in a few hours or so. Temp is right at 74*, the yeast was dated June 2012 (manufactured date) I guess I wait more. I noticed it was a wine, mead, cider specific yeast and I've only used white labs before, does this stuff take longer?

Oh yeah! It's bubbling away now!

HAREEBROWNBEEST said:

Oh yeah! It's bubbling away now!

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Pics, pics, pics?

Before...



After. Big color change. It's bubbling my airlock every 2 seconds or so, not going crazy yet but I'm sure it will.

Close up

Not much different today, nice clean cruasen head though.

I've decided not to add fruit to this. I plan on transferring to a secondary and cold crashing as soon as it stops it activity. I'm then going to back sweeten with juice concentrate and then bottle. I want this to be a little on the sweeter side and sparkling.

Question from a noob that wants to try his first cider?

What does back sweeten mean?

I want to make a bubbly cider that is sweet, similar to strongbow. But sweetening too much after primary fermentation would result in bottle bombs when you packaged it in bottles would it not?

I'm by means no expert but what you describe in a cider is exactly what I'm going for. Back sweeting is adding to your secondary or bottling bucket, a little sweetness to add to your taste preference. It also allows your bottles to carb up. I put a plastic bottle in with my glass bottles filled with the cider to gauge how the carb build up is doing. Once the plastic bottle is hard I will then place all my bottles in the fridge to stop or slow the process. I like you, like my ciders hard, sweet and sparkly.

Oh and I use apple juice concentrate to back sweeten, how much depends on you and your taste.

Anyone chime in if I'm mistaken, this is only my second cider.

Let me know how it goes because I may be doing this in the near future.

HAREEBROWNBEEST said:

Oh and I use apple juice concentrate to back sweeten, how much depends on you and your taste.

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Just wondering, how much concentrate are you planning on using for the batch? I'm in the process of making my first two batches and the original plan had been to ferment to complete dryness, then back sweeten with xylitol and carbonate with individual doses (per bottle) of dextrose.

I should probably mention I'm going for the same semi-sweet, carbonated cider like you have talked about.

On the back sweetening with the concentrate I'm not sure yet. The first time I did this I used one can for a two gallon batch and it wasn't enough, this time I'm going to get a couple cans and taste as I add to it. I did buy some apple flavoring but don't know if I'm going to use it.

So here I go, I'm doing this outside today, it's a beautiful day in so cal. Heres some of my setup



What better place to do it then the bar, got my transfer to the secondary going good



Got my northern brewer shirt on



What's left after my transfer



What I ended up with, 4 gallons exactly.



This is how it came out after transferred into my secondary. This was before I added concentrate for taste. How did it taste? No lie it was fu€ken good! I can't believe coming straight from the primary how great it tasted. I had a couple more tastes of it and caught a buzz, my wife even approved! I had no way of taking a FG reading because I dropped my hydrometer, duh!



So I did back sweeten with two cans of this per 4 gallons and it tasted superb.



Adding the concentrate, oh and I went with the apple cherry flavor.



Washing bottles in star San



My transfer into my sanitized bottles



Capping them up



My carbonation gauging bottle. I noticed my capper leaves an indentation of a small circle on the caps and in the past when my bottles were done the indentation went away with the pressure built up. This is also a way I gauge when my bottles are finished, then I place them in the fridge.



1st one done



Final product, today was a busy day!

So what did I do with the remaining 2 gallons?



Here's what I had left



Oh yea, fresh organic strawberries, 2 .5 lbs to be exact.



I'm going to let this one sit awhile.



Good day today!

That looks mighty good!

Thanks I'm mighty proud ha ha

One concern I have about the strawberry batch is....I had no campden tablets to add to my batch. I did add 1 tsp. of pectic enzyme but no tablets. Think it will be okay? Could I add later like 7 days later?

Here it is today, 24 hours later and it's swollen up nice and hard. I threw my bottles in the fridge because I'm going to take them on a camping trip this weekend. Might be a little early but it does taste good to me. Plus its like free alcohol

Was there much of a change in sweetness from when you back sweetened with the concentrate to when you opened a carbonated bottle?

Looks awesome by the way, congrats!

Well done sir. Well done.

Thanks. It did retain its sweetness. My friends replied that it tasted like a Hornsby but more refreshing, probably just being nice ha ha. But really it's pretty good and it sneaks up on ya. It's so refreshing that it doesn't even taste like it has alcohol until your 3/4 done with a bottle then you feel it. I have it's twin brother sitting with 2.5 lbs of strawberries in it right now. Can't wait to try that.

It was already sweet enough when you back sweetened?

I really want to do this but am afraid of bottle bombs.

Bummer you couldn't take a FG reading.

Just do it like I did with the plastic bottle gauge. Make a small batch and make room in the fridge when your ready to bottle. It only took about 24 hours for my bottles to be ready to drink, nice and bubbling too, like a champagne. By far one of the simplest and best result I've had in the three ciders I've made so far and fast.

Here it is



Nice and smooth



Just took a swig and it's so nice and applie (is that a word?) and refreshing. Got a buzz off a half bottle.

It is also carbonated just right I would say, I can't believe in such a short time it got this way. Let me know if anyone wants me to post step by step how I did this, the recipe.

That's what worries me. It carbed up so quickly.

I guess I'm used to making beer where it takes a couple three weeks to carb up.

Let us know how it turns out.

I think on my next batch of beer I'm going to use your satellite pressure check bottle to see if it expands like that on a regular batch of beer that I have had success with.

Also, your last picture doesn't look like much carbonation going on, more like oxygen trapped on the side of the glass from the pour.

I've seen the same effect from tap water.

Believe me it's carbed up nice, kinda hard to tell from the pic yes, but it's nice.

HAREEBROWNBEEST said:

Believe me it's carbed up nice, kinda hard to tell from the pic yes, but it's nice.

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Here's another pic, not that clear but you can see its more bubbly.

So if I'm counting the days right, you ran your primary for 10 days? Then back sweetened and let it sit in the bottle for one more day to carb up before throwing them in the fridge to stop fermentation. I'm looking to do my first 5 gallon batch and there's no way I'm going to have the patience to wait 4 weeks like the apfelwein calls for until I'm already sitting on some hard cider I can enjoy in the meantime. Definitely think I can wait a week and a half though