Ideal alcohol percentage for quicker cider?

I've been reading that with a very high alcohol percentage (14%), the cider will need to mellow for a good year or two before being drinkable. If I wanted to make a cider that would only take, say, a month or so to mellow, how strong should it be approximately?

Oh, about 0% ABV.

My opinion, etc, but a month for cider is absurdly short, and unlikely to be good.

CiderPat said:

I've been reading that with a very high alcohol percentage (14%), the cider will need to mellow for a good year or two before being drinkable. If I wanted to make a cider that would only take, say, a month or so to mellow, how strong should it be approximately?

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Fermening straight apple juice gives you about 5-7% depending on the SG of your juice. That said, cider will not be ready in a month of conditioning/aging, and probably won't even be carb'd at that point in my experience. Cider takes awhile, if you want something quickly that tastes like apple, your best bet is to either buy some hard cider, or take some apple juice and add vodka. Even when I just ferment apple juice, I wait for 4 months in the bottle before even thinking about touching it, far longer if I added sugar to boost the SG.

Cider is not like Beer, it takes time.

Why don't you make EdWort's Apfelwine? ...come on...everbody's doing it.

Man, that peer pressure is tough!

I think it depend on what you think is "good"
while yes, aged cider is always better than when it's brand new, right out of the primary. I've had some ciders that were not half bad when young.
I drew off a sample of cider that I have going right now that is 4 weeks old.
this is my first batch I've personally made and the report right now is...
it's damned good :rockin: quite dry and tangy, and has a bit of punch to it ABV unknown (probably in the 9s or so) cause I'm going seat of the pants rather than hydometer testing. since I have a 5 gallon batch I'll have more than enough to enjoy some sooner rather than later, and stow a few more to bottle age and mellow out some.
my plan is to bottle as soon as my bottling supplies come in (which should be in the next week or so) I'll be bottling in virgin "1" plastic half liter bottles
(the shipping on glass to hawaii is EXPENSIVE) and plan to use apple juice concentrate to bottle carb the bulk of the product. I plan to bottle one gallon as a still cider and drink that sooner rather than later.
IMHO even young it still beats the hell out of the commonly available commercial swill they call cider (but then again my tastes lean to a more dry and tart beverage than what is commonly available commercialy)
the formula I used was inspired partly by EDWORTS formula (but isn't really "his" apfelwien) inspired insofar that I used a champagne type yeast, and my sugar/juice ratio is about the same (he uses the red star montrachet yeast and 2 pounds of corn sugar for his formula, and IIRC -leaves out yeast nutrient)
My formula -
4.5 gallons of unfiltered organic apple juice (used santa cruz brand)
2 pounds of Maui gold Turbinado raw sugar disolved into 1/2 gallon water)
1 teaspoon yeast nutrient
one packet Lavlin EC-1118 yeast (re hydrated per instructions on the envelope)

now since I opted for unfiltered juice my cider will never have the crystal clear appearance of a cider made with a filtered juice so if you try to emulate this one it'll never come out "clear" it'll always be cloudy. so don't wait around waiting for it to clear before bottling it.

I've made plenty of clear cider from unfiltered, unprocessed cider - not a problem at all, but it does take time. Starting from commercially processed stuff you might want pectic enzyme, I guess, in case things have been whipped up by the pasteurization method - but regular old "right off the press cloudy brown cider" drops clear with adequate time.

likewise I've made plenty of clear cider but it does take time. It is important to let your cider sit. I just cacked my cider from last year and it is fantastic. I tried a sample in June and it sucked. a pleasant surprise!