NineMilBill's Easy Blackberry Cider

Hi, I've just joined and have never made cider before so an completely stuck as to the terminology used here! I'm hoping to make blackberry cider in the care home I work in with some of my residents as we have an abundance of blackberries. Could someone explain in laymans terms how to make this cider! Thanks

interpretation is in blue
Method:
1. Soak first round of blackberries in vodka for 10 minutes, then drain.self explanitory
2. Pour half of cider into primary.pour half of the cider into the vessel you will be frementing in
3. Add sugar to remaining cider and shake jug well.Add the sugar to the now half full jug of apple juice you just poured, cap and shake like hell, then pour the rest into the frementor vessel
4. Add blackberries and cider/sugar mixture to primary.put the blackberries into the frementor
5. Pitch yeast.add the yeast to the frementor
6. Ferment till dry (~30 days/1.003)wait until the SG is ~1.003, if you dont have a hydrometer that would give you sg readings, get one. They are ~5$ and soooo useful
7. Soak second round of blackberries in vodka for 10 minutes, then drain.once fermentation is complete, get another batch of blueberries
8. Add blackberries to secondary and rack cider on top of it.secondary is another fermentation vessel that you use after the primary fermentation to clear the cider
9. Rack to tertiary after 10 days (clearing rack)This is a third fermentation vessel used to further clear the cider, could be your 1st vessel just cleared out if you want.
10. After 10 days, add sugar to taste (I used ~1 cup).add sugar until you like it
11. Bottle and pasteurize after desired carb level has been reached.bottle the cider, and try the cider daily after 2-3 days until it is as bubbly as you like it, then pasturize the bottles. There is a sticky on how to bottle pasturize

Enjoy!

In step 10, did you do dextrose?

Just racked my blackberry cider to tertiary. Looks good. Tastes berryish, definitely needs to be sweetened in ten days. Any problem with the headroom for ten days?

Tw0fish said:

Bill -

Why the vodka soak? Why not just freeze the berries beforehand?
(I'll totally take "Because I felt like adding vodka" as a legit answer too, just curious if there's something I may have missed.)

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Freezing doesn't sanitize.

Hey all. I just bottled my cider made 7/15. Backsweetened with three cups of dextrose. Tasted ok. Do I need to bottle condition for a while? Not a cheap 3 gallon batch so I want to wait til it's optimal to drink since it only yielded one case. Gonna bottle pasteurize after it is good and carbed in a few days.

Vox said:

Should the berries fall to the bottom at some point? Mine are still floating several weeks in.

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I also did a 3 gallon (2.5) batch. my berries never dropped. just turned a whiteish color.

FYI: i had about 4 bottles explode during stove top pasturizing. be very careful you do not fill the bottles too much and do not allow them to over carbonate in the bottle. But on the bright side: they taste fantastic!

djelemenohpee said:

I also did a 3 gallon (2.5) batch. my berries never dropped. just turned a whiteish color.

FYI: i had about 4 bottles explode during stove top pasturizing. be very careful you do not fill the bottles too much and do not allow them to over carbonate in the bottle. But on the bright side: they taste fantastic!

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Lol plastic bottle still has give. Needs more carb. How much sugar did you backsweeten with?

Vox said:

Lol plastic bottle still has give. Needs more carb. How much sugar did you backsweeten with?

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HA!
I did 3 cups. One per gallon. In hindsight I should have used 2.5 or less considering I didn't have a full 3gallons of liquid

I just put my variation of this recipe into the primary tonight. I'm making a 2 gallon batch, so here's what I used so far:

2 gallons pastuerized apple juice
1lbs blackberries soaked in cheap white rum
1/2lbs brown sugar
Half a package of Safale S-04 dry yeast (rehydrated)
O.G. = 1060

Primary fermenter is a store-bought 2.5 gallon plastic water jug with the spigot removed and replaced with an airlock, standing on its side so the airlock is on top.

I'm thinking about adding more brown sugar and Campden tablets during bottling to make it sweeter.

I just made a batch of this yesterday along with a batch of 5 Day Sweet Country Cider. I used 4.5ish gallons of Honeycrisp apple cider (SG 1.050) and 54oz of blackberries that were soaked in 100 proof vodka for 15min. I added 34oz of plain white table sugar which brought my SG to 1.068.

Didn't bother re-hydrating the Safale US-05 since the packet said to just sprinkle it over the wort. I just sprinkled in and swirled the carboy well to get it all mixed it. It started bubbling along nicely in under 12hrs.

I started this on 1-7-2013, and bottled 1-25-2013. I thought I would post a picture so everyone could see, I apologize for the quality, I took them a week ago, and the lighting was obviously terrible. The drink came out awesome, but I pulled it from primary a little early, and its actually got an impressive body. Every other cider I have made has been thin, but not this one.

LayerUp said:

I started this on 1-7-2013, and bottled 1-25-2013. I thought I would post a picture so everyone could see, I apologize for the quality, I took them a week ago, and the lighting was obviously terrible. The drink came out awesome, but I pulled it from primary a little early, and its actually got an impressive body. Every other cider I have made has been thin, but not this one.

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This has been the best cider I've made out of ten batches. Everyone loves it. Expensive though due to the berries so I only made a three gallon batch.

Vox said:

This has been the best cider I've made out of ten batches. Everyone loves it. Expensive though due to the berries so I only made a three gallon batch.

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Yeah, living in Oregon, I am surrounded by blackberries, so that's where I get them. I pick close to 200 lbs a year, which means I have tons sitting in the freezer.

LayerUp said:

Yeah, living in Oregon, I am surrounded by blackberries, so that's where I get them. I pick close to 200 lbs a year, which means I have tons sitting in the freezer.

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Well quit being selfish and send some my way! Jk

you'll have to come by and pick some up, otherwise, you'll have a UPS box dripping with blackberry juice, and nobody wants that....

LayerUp said:

you'll have to come by and pick some up, otherwise, you'll have a UPS box dripping with blackberry juice, and nobody wants that....

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Nevermind. I recruited family and friends to keep an eye on Blackberry sales and there is one for .99 a pack! Guess who is gonna make a 5 gallon batch lol. But I wanted to make a couple other recipes like a Belgian style cider or skeeter per. Damn! Decisions decisions. So many recipes, so few bottles.

First time making cider here and this recipe looks great. How much safale us-05 yeast do you pitch for a 1 gal batch? The whole pack seems like overkill as that's what I usually pitch for a 5 gal batch.

I have this in bottles right now, will stovetop them tonight, will hardly be carbonated, but I think I'll be ok with that.

Just pitched the yeast for ghis one today. Trying it with essex ale yeast instead

Thanks for your recipe. I copied it down and used blackberries and changed it up a little. I made three batches: one like yours, one with apricots and one with raspberries. Figured I'd would experiment.

Looks great! Keep up posted on how the three turn out!!

Day 2. Moving right along ! The raspberries are going nuts and the apricots are catching up. The blackberries are taking their time. Wonder why. Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Secondary started today. Looks and smells great!