Spiced Cider for the Holidays

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sailman

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Decided to try a cider for the holidays and thought id share and get advice along the way...

heres the recipe:

5 gallons Organic Apple Juice (used 3.5 gallons organic juice, 1.5 gallons gravenstein organic juice)

about 24-36 hours prior added 5 campden tablets and let sit..

used 48 oz gravenstein juice to add the following:
3 lbs dark brown sugar
4 tsp sweet orange peel
4 tsp whole clove
5 cinnamon sticks

brought the juice and spices up to a slight boil then let it steep for about 15 mins.. then brought it down to pitching temperature... and pitched 2 packages of Wyeast Cider 4766 yeast...also added 2 tsp of yeast nutrient and high alcohol yeast nutrient to help the yeast out

beginning gravity of 1.074

by the next morning it was bubbling some (about 9 hours later) but then it took off.. agressively fermenting.. the whole house smelled like mulled cider.. the next day the stuff was still fermenting away (and well.. the smell in the house changed... sulfer is NOT pleasant) .. now its down to about 1 bubble a minute in the airlock...

thought id share a few pics.. the krausen was pretty incredible looking...will probably rack to the secondary this weekend.. i am planning on adding some pectin and isinglass to clear it out...

im hoping for about 10% alcohol level... im thinking that it will take about 8 weeks to condition...should i leave it in the secondary or bottle it after it clears?

any advice or suggestions are welcome!

cideraug20uy9.jpg

krausenaj6.jpg
 
also i was thinking of this being a still cider..is there any particular bottle that is better than another for this..or can i just use regular flip top bottles or something else? should i purge the bottles with co2 so that i do not have any oxidation?
 
:confused: today we racked into the secondary and of course had to taste it.. well let me say.. NASTY.. what in the world has happened.. it smells nasty tastes nasty...all in all yuck! this is the first thing that i have made that was really bad... i figure ill let it sit and age some and see if it gets any better but im afraid that i just made my first "throw away" batch

it still really really cloudy so i did add some isinglass and pectin to see if it would clear out some in the secondary.

the only way to describe the way it smelled is like suflur and the way it tasted was like clove and sulfer mixed in some high alcohol. now the sample we took was off the bottom of the carboy.. not sure if maybe it had some yeast floating in what we tasted.. did not think about getting a sample until we were at the bottom ..

any suggestions?:mad:
 
I am in the same boat as you Brother!!!

I bottled 6 gallons of Peach Cider on faith alone that at some point it will taste and smell drinkable.

The stench of sulfur in my kitchen this Sunday made me wonder if I should have gone to church. I too tasted my cider and it tasted nasty and of sulfur.

I called my LHBS and they calmed me by telling me that is the correct smell to have and that it will be fine. If that is true you are going to have a nice knockdown holiday cider and I will have some good cider to drink also.

Im trying to keep the faith too but its really hard smelling and tasting that.

This is my first attempt at cider so I was really wondering if I messed up.

Anyone out there know how long it takes to get it to be drinkable. Mine was in the secondary for a month.

I primed mine with 8 oz of Lactose and a little over a cup of cane sugar dissolved in water to get it sweet and bubbly.

Waiting with crossed fingers and 50+ bottles tied up with god knows what.

Don.
 
im hoping you are right .. cause it was definately nasty.. i told sailman i think we made our first TRASH!!!

im holding out that there is gonna be hope!!!
 
Ironman2 said:
I primed mine with 8 oz of Lactose and a little over a cup of cane sugar dissolved in water to get it sweet and bubbly.

Waiting with crossed fingers and 50+ bottles tied up with god knows what.

Don.


Hey... that's not going to blow up, is it? Does it seem like a lot of priming sugar?

(Feel free to disregard.
<--- N00b, relatively)
 
Remember, the lactose isn't going to ferment at all, that'll just give sweetness and body (or more poetically, a "sweet body").

I'm not sure the comparison between cane sugar and corn sugar (corn sugar you'd only use 3/4 cup), but that's probably not enough to be dangerous. Was the sugar boiled? I've always boiled my priming sugar for ~10 minutes to kill any lurking nasties.
 
Yup I boiled both the lactose and the sugar. I added the blend to 6.5 gallons so that is why I used a little more sugar.

There is a good taste in there somewhere when I tasted it but it is being covered up by the sulfur.

Where does that smell and bad taste go to now that I have bottled it? It will be really funny if this turns out really tasty. I think I am going to wait at least a month before I attempt to taste one of those bottles.

I tried cooling some of the leftovers and drinking it but could only stand about 8 ozs of it. It does have some kick to it though.

I am wondering if the Campden tablets are responsible for some of the aroma along with the yeast.
 
I'm new to brewing... but as far as I know from the biochem end (I know scary science stuff) those sulfur compounds are often caused by photo-chemical reactions similar to light "skunking" beer. Most of those compounds will be reabsorbed with time in the cool and dark. There may also be some sulfur compounds being stripped off of the cloves and cinamon, but I don't quite recall. But again, it would seem like most of those should be mitigated with time. I'd say try a couple weeks, chill down one of your bottles and see how it works, if it sucks... wait longer :)
 
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