My Current Recipe - Sweet Carbed Cider

OK - I've done this a few times now and after reading a TON on here from all the AWESOME members, I am down to the current recipe:

Recipe for 3 Gallons:

• 3 Gallons of Costco or Sams Apple Juice (house brands)
• Add 2 Cups Sugar
• Mix in a 5 Gallon Food Grade Plastic Bucket w/ Airlock
• Add 2 tsp of Pectic Enzynme
• Add half a packet of dry Safale S-04 Ale Yeast
• Airlock Primary and wait 2 weeks
• Siphon to secondary carboy - depending on SG let settle for anywhere between a day or a week + or down to about 1.015 SG
• Clean/sterilize primary bucket
• Siphon back to bucket, back sweeten with condensed apple juice to 1.05 SG or about 2 cans
• Bottle in 22oz bottles and cap
• Bottle Condition for up to one week - test with a small plastic bottle for pressure along the way and pasteurize when plastic bottle is firm to touch (last batch was only 2 days of conditioning).
• Run bottles through wash cycle of the dishwasher for pasteurezation
• Move bottles to fridge and enjoy, or back to rack for long-term aging. Continue to watch plastic bottle and test for tightness of plastic.

If your using store bought juice its pasturized, so you dont need to use the campden.

I did a batch without Campden or Pectic Enzyme - it came out cloudy and delicious. Thanks for the tip - I may go with only Pectic on my next batch, which is coming right up!

so if it's been pasteurized via UV light you don't have to use campden tablets?

The method of pasteurization doesn't matter.You use campden to kill wilds yeasts.If it's pasteurized by any method thats all ready done.

how much would using brown sugar instead of white sugar change up the end taste of the cider?

I'm going to be making some hard cider this weekend and I like the recipe above but i've heard of people using brown sugar as well.

weejub said:

I did a batch without Campden or Pectic Enzyme - it came out cloudy and delicious. Thanks for the tip - I may go with only Pectic on my next batch, which is coming right up!

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NP. Ive made a few store bought juice wines. They are super simple and only take acouple minutes to whip up. No boiling/campden etc. Welches White grape, Welches Concord, White grape/peach. If its Welches Ive found it makes great wine lol. Try them sometime their pretty good

Hi just to give my 2 cents but i've just had a go using the yobrew recipe with red wine yeast-worked v nicely (adding sweetened apple juice in stages to get 9% odd but never going above 1.065) much better than the strongbow brand stuff we get in the uk. Anyway occured to me that sterlilising stuff(nice idea though will try when i have a dishwasher) and sorbate stuff probably OTT as i just racked the cider into a 2l pop bottle a bit early (s.g of 1.008) and refrigerated it (which will kill the yeast) got something like a cider?chardonnay? as was flat. Nxt time am thinking to let carb up with extra sugar also leaving more yeast to get the job done and then refrigerate (should prob have left 3-5 days to be sure but feel fine atm lol) Is similar method to elderflower champagne anyway also happy to hear any obvious faults with my method as am a complete noob

chairbornrangerx said:

how much would using brown sugar instead of white sugar change up the end taste of the cider?

I'm going to be making some hard cider this weekend and I like the recipe above but i've heard of people using brown sugar as well.

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I honestly don't taste a lot of difference. On the brown sugar, I boiled it first, though with some water.

Well at two weeks I was still at 1.05+ SG!!!

Not sure if yeast was old or if I put in less than I thought, but got very little cake compared to previous batches.

I moved to secondary and am doing SG again in a week or so.

Thinking about getting into cider this weekend. Looks like a good recipe. Think you could keg it?

Yea - You would just skip the bottle conditioning part. You may want to let it sit in secondary for longer, too - maybe a month vs a week or two.

I'm doing precise measuring of back sweetening for three gallons to get back to 1.05'ish - I'll let you know how that comes out.

I get the feeling that cider goes from "drinkable" to "really yummy" with just a little time in the bottle - maybe that could be spent in the secondary instead.

I'll keep you updated as it progresses this weekend.

As someone who tried the whole dishwasher pasteurization process, regular bottles were not strong enough. You have your cider carbed, and you put it in a dishwasher that is going to get the temps up to 170F, the pressure in the bottles goes way up. I spent a good part of a morning fishing glass shards out of my dishwasher. Champagne bottles may work, but I did not try that.

I think the safest way to do sweet cider would be to ferment it, crash it, rack it off, then add potassium sorbate. Finally, put in a keg and backsweeten it, then force carb it.

I keg mine, and I keep it dry. I will make a simple syrup, and add it to the cider if people want theirs sweeter when I serve it.

That first batch was a failure - my first SG never went anywhere with it - yeast must have been killed by campden or something odd - not sure what happened.

I am adjusting my recipe accordingly.

If you are using store bought apple juice, don't mess with the campden, you don't need it as the juice is pasturized. If you do use campden tablets, you may have better luck with wine yeasts, most of them are pretty sulfite resistant. Good luck.

Yea I think it may have helped take out my batch.

Additional note: On my second and "good" batch. It took me a full two cans of apple concentrate to get my SG up to around 1.05 from 1.015'ish where I wanted it for bottle conditioning.

BTW v sorry for the guy who ended up with bottle bombs but it does mention in the orginal recipe to use plastic bottles (in passing) which do hold up to pressure far in excess of what the champagne bottles etc will cope with...r also cheaper and less hard to remove if do explode :rockin: , which i think even yeast plus heat would struggle to pressure to that point...am now giving the sorbate and campden a go then sweetening then using the ol sodastream. Next time after that (having used proper champagne yeast) am gonna give a 1 way flow bag (containing some yeast and cider placed inside the 2l pop bottle with the racked (clear) cider, making sure no bubbles in the bag. will let folks now how it goes. I suspect all will be dandy till i want to drink my clear cider where the pressure grad will cause the yeast bag to explode in the bottle, but will c and stand well back :rockin: