Hi - Quick Question

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

EhSteve

New Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2010
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Location
DC
Hi,

I'm new here and new to home brewing and so far have just brewed beer so apologies if this is a dumb question. I've looked through a few posts and recipes seem to range from Apple Juice + Yeast to far more complicated ones involving enzymes, sulfite, honey, sugar etc. I just wanted to make sure I'm not going to waste some nice apple juice.

So my local supermarket has started selling 1 gallon jugs of pure, not-from concentrate, pasteurized apple juice. And they come in a 1-gallon glass carboy, which I assume is a sterile container.

My understanding is for a basic cider I just pitch in yeast (I have some Safale US-05), shake it well, bung a sanitized airlock into the carboy, put it in a cool dark place and wait until the bubbles stop (about 4 weeks) before bottling.

Is it that simple or am I missing something? Will I encounter problems with batches this small? Approximately how much yeast should I pitch?
 
Well,

I would suggest looking at the recipes tab section. Edwort has a great recipe for Apfelwein that is fairly easy to follow. I'm sure you could scale it down to the one gallon size. Here is the link.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

I think I would stay away from the pasteurized apple juice. I would just choose something preservative free and I think you should be good to go.

Oh, almost forgot. The more yeast you pitch, the stronger the fermentation. Generally a good thing!
 
I'll be making a much larger post with pics soon, but you've got it. Pitch, shake, wait, enjoy. 4 weeks is also way too long, my cider was bone dry after like a week and a half.

FYI -- I used Whole Foods gallon jug apple juice. It's pasteurized but preservative free. Pasteurized is fine (since you're adding your own yeast), the key is to not have preservatives (which good organic juice is usually free of).
 
Hi,

I'm new here and new to home brewing and so far have just brewed beer so apologies if this is a dumb question. I've looked through a few posts and recipes seem to range from Apple Juice + Yeast to far more complicated ones involving enzymes, sulfite, honey, sugar etc. I just wanted to make sure I'm not going to waste some nice apple juice.

So my local supermarket has started selling 1 gallon jugs of pure, not-from concentrate, pasteurized apple juice. And they come in a 1-gallon glass carboy, which I assume is a sterile container.

My understanding is for a basic cider I just pitch in yeast (I have some Safale US-05), shake it well, bung a sanitized airlock into the carboy, put it in a cool dark place and wait until the bubbles stop (about 4 weeks) before bottling.

Is it that simple or am I missing something? Will I encounter problems with batches this small? Approximately how much yeast should I pitch?

100% correct. Right now I've got a gallon of juice fermenting with US-05 in the jug it came in with a bung and an airlock, and even the airlock isn't necessary. I did sulphite it, only because it was raw/unpast. from a press. You don't even have to shake it! Just make sure it's room temp when you pitch, then try to keep it below 70 degrees.

It's been about 5 days, it's gone from 1.051 to 1.030, which is slower than what I'm used to with wine yeast, but I used an ale yeast and have kept it in the low 60's F, so that pace is to be expected.

Good luck!
 
Well,

I would suggest looking at the recipes tab section. Edwort has a great recipe for Apfelwein that is fairly easy to follow. I'm sure you could scale it down to the one gallon size. Here is the link.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

I think I would stay away from the pasteurized apple juice. I would just choose something preservative free and I think you should be good to go.

Oh, almost forgot. The more yeast you pitch, the stronger the fermentation. Generally a good thing!

Getting non-pasteurized non-preservative juice is illegal in some states like mine. I have to get mine from SC. The important thing is getting preservative-free. Pasteurization is ok, and if you read C'Ville Kevin's Sticky at the top of this forum, you'll find that pasteurized juice is actually desirable in some circumstances.
 
Just wanted to say thanks to you all.

I'm using the same juice bottles that SammyJ mentioned - I've got 2 batches on the go, fingers crossed that they turn out ok. Still undecided about how long to ferment and age them, will read through recipes to get an idea on good lengths of time.

Will post follow up with results in some weeks time.
 
Just wanted to say thanks to you all.

I'm using the same juice bottles that SammyJ mentioned - I've got 2 batches on the go, fingers crossed that they turn out ok. Still undecided about how long to ferment and age them, will read through recipes to get an idea on good lengths of time.

Will post follow up with results in some weeks time.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/sammys-simple-cider-203224/

Should help, please feel free to PM (or ask here), I'll be happy to answer any questions you've got.

BTW, the cider is getting rave reviews from all of my friends.
 
Back
Top