Trader Joe's Spiced Apple Cider?

Hello all, First time cider maker, long time brewer.

My girlfriend and I really love trader joes spiced cider. Has anyone made hard cider from this?
Ive never made a cider, but here is what i plan to do after looking on here for some info:
buy 5 gal cider
put in primary fermenter, add campden tabs
add 1packet US-05 yeast
let sit for 1 month
bottle

Is this method appropriate? Do you prime cider, like you would beer, before you bottle?

thanks!

I made a cider last year from the TJ's UN-spiced cider. It came out great!

I added a little honey (4oz) and 1lb of corn suger...never used camden before. and yes, prime just like beer. make sure you take an OG/FG. Mine sat for about 3 months befoer it was excellent, by 6 months it was amazing.

Good luck.

I made some last year using the spiced cider. I think I started with 3 gallons, heated it up with some cinnamon sticks, some fall all-spice packets I got at meijers, 2 lbs of brown sugar, poured it all into a 5 gallon bucket with 2 gallons of water and then used WL cider yeast.

1.075 was OG
1.000 was FG

I tried to back sweeten with some Cherry apple concentrate, and it just started fermenteing again. LOL

I ending up kegging it, getting it cold, force carbing it and adding more CA concentrate and it turned out pretty good. It put me and my friends on our ass.

Kahler said:

I made a cider last year from the TJ's UN-spiced cider. It came out great!

I added a little honey (4oz) and 1lb of corn suger...never used camden before. and yes, prime just like beer. make sure you take an OG/FG. Mine sat for about 3 months befoer it was excellent, by 6 months it was amazing.

Good luck.

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did you add the honey and corn sugar directly in the primary w/o heating the cider?

I brought half gallon of cider to a boil, added corn sugar, let it boil for 10 minutes, shut the burner off, added the honey, then added to the carboy.

I keg so it doesn't matter for me, but how the heck do you bottle cider?

I mean, you get to a gravity you want (or it ferments completely) and then you sorbate it, then you can backsweeten, and then keg. However, you can't backsweeten then bottle or you'll get bottle bombs- or you could prime it with some sugar and bottle some very dry cider...?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

this is one method, or sweeten with an artificial sweetener, or if you have the fridge space, you could do it like homemade rootbeer, test periodically and let it carb up then put in the fridge. Or just bottle dry, and mix with something sweet when serving

badmajon said:

I keg so it doesn't matter for me, but how the heck do you bottle cider?

I mean, you get to a gravity you want (or it ferments completely) and then you sorbate it, then you can backsweeten, and then keg. However, you can't backsweeten then bottle or you'll get bottle bombs- or you could prime it with some sugar and bottle some very dry cider...?

Click to expand...

this is confusing to a cider newbie. what is sorbate? backsweeten?

It all depends on if you want a sweet cider (gross) or a dry cider (good). Wife loves dry cider. Completely ferment out, the prime as you would beer.

Sorbate will kill off your yeast so it will no longer ferment. To backsweeten- you would ferment out completly or sorbate, then sweeten to your liking. You'd have tk keg it.

There is also the option of using a non fermentable like Splenda or Lactose to "backsweeten" the cider. That way you can still prime and allow bottle conditioning to happen since you havent killed off the yeasties.

i see thank you very much! definitely dry

i looked it up on the site, and i believe that the cider is already pasteurized. therefore (and correct me if im wrong) i dont need the campden tabs, i can literally just ferment it as-is.

downside to this????

No need for camden.

Not adding any sugars= lower gravity= less alcohol

Campden is a sulfite which is bad, icky, headaches, etc. but if you buy non-pasteurized juice you need to kill the bugs already living in it. So by buying pasteurized juice you avoid having to add the sulfites. This is good.

The only bad thing is that some pasteurization processes can hurt the flavor. I don't think it matters.

By law, in every state I live, commercialy sold juice must be pasteurized.

bottled this yesterday. It was fantastic, i really enjoyed it uncarbonated, but i did prime and bottle for a carbed cider.

Also, I picked up trader joes spiced pear cider, pitched nottingham, and that is not fermenting. Others on the forum have noted the pear cider works well.

One note, tho, is that the cider remained cloudy. Reading further people say to let it sit longer, but it was delicious as-is so i dont care. Do cloudy ciders to begin with become clear after fermentation and an aging time?

Yes, every cider Ive made dropped clear eventually. Some have taken up to 6 months.

One note, tho, is that the cider remained cloudy. Reading further people say to let it sit longer, but it was delicious as-is so i dont care. Do cloudy ciders to begin with become clear after fermentation and an aging time?[/QUOTE]

I made some back in march and after a few months it gets crystal clear, I plan on making some more soon so it will be ready for summer!

I've found out the hard way that if I bottle cloudy, it will clear in the bottles and leave a ****load of trub in the bottles.

I always wait until it clears, and rack a few times if I'm in a hurry. I don't want to start the whole "secondary fermentation" argument here, I never do it for beer, but I find that racking ciders and meads does help them clear up faster. I think it's more like the winemaking process in that way.

[dodges flaming coming this way]

Do you guys that need the extended aging for clearing not use pectic enzyme or is it just the yeast managing to stay in suspension for that long?

So I am planning on picking some up tonight. I will bring the SG up to 1.09 with brown sugar, pitch with Nottingham, I figured on bottling directly out of the primary once it reaches 1.025 and then hot bathing it... Anything sound out of place? Will that be way too sweet? Looking to make a sweet carbed drink. I'm a noob, so being harsh is recommended. I learn better that way.