Hard Cider?

I am about a year in the home brewing hobby and still learning as I go. I just brewed my first home made IPA. As I was brewing it, my neighbor from across the street helped me and mentioned that when I rack to the secondary I could add 3 gallons of cheap apple juice to the slurry that is leftover from the primary. I did just that this past monday.
So, I currently have 3 gallons of "hard cider" in the primary. I am curious to know what are the next steps? Rack to a secondary for how long? add priming sugar when I am ready to bottle? Do I need to add anything else to this?
I am all about "trial and error", but value the opinions/suggestions of others. yes, I could go talk to my neighbor more, but I have been bothering him for the last year, and do not want to "overstay my welcome".

Here are the ingredients I used in the IPA (courtesy of Skinny Shamrock's Hop-a-riffic IPA)

Fermentables:
5 lbs. Briess dry amber malt extract
2.5 lbs. LD Carlton dry light malt extract
1 lb. crushed CaraPils

Hops:
1 oz. US Chinook pellets, 12 AA% (bittering)
1 oz. UK Phoenix pellets, 10 AA% (bittering/flavor)
1 oz. US Cascade pellets, 6.9 AA% (aroma)
1 oz. US Amarillo whole leaf, 9.8 AA% (for dry hopping)

Yeast: White Labs Cali. Ale, WLP 001

Thanks.

To be honest, I wouldn't have thought to do that in a million years. But now that you bring it up, I'm kind of pissed that I didn't think of it!

Proceed as you normally would for a beer. The difference (as Ive seen it, anyways) is that cider takes longer to clear totally (faster to ferment with an IPA yeast cake, however). If you have the ability to cold crash, do so after a month in primary. Let it clear for another week then bottle. Cider is more highly carbonated than beer typically so I would up the ratio of priming sugar by about 30% from what you have been doing (a quick guesstimate would be between 1/2 and 2/3 cup priming sugar for the full 3 gallons.

This cider will be different from most in that it will be slightly hopped (from the trub). I've never had hopped cider. It may not be to your liking (then again, it might), but you'll be the only kid on the block who has some.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

The alcohol content will be quite low, but it should taste really good when done. You could up the abv by adding some sugar during the dermentation process. 1-2 lbs / gallon of sugar or honey.






of sugar

The abv will be around 4%.

I suggest you take a look at makinghardcider.com for good suggestions on what to do next. It's a good resource for new cider makers.

I’m no expert on ciders but I have made several batches, granted none with an ale yeast.

My quick thoughts are:
1. If you add a pound of sugar with the apple juice, the sg may be too high for the ale yeast to attain 100% apparent attenuation (i.e. a dry cider) due to the alcohol being too high thus killing the yeast. Which is good if you want a sweet cider; bad because it may turn out too sweet. I just made 5.5 gallons the other night adding 2lbs of cane sugar and 1.5 cups honey… the sg came out to 1.068; according to brewcalcs that puts me at 9.2% abv (AA 100%).
2. According to the White Labs website, WLP001:
Attenuation: 73-80%
Flocculation: Medium
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 68-73F
Alcohol Tolerance: High …(red flag imho)
3. In this scenario, adding priming sugar to a lower abv cider (where the ale yeast is still active) during bottling might create bottle bombs.
4. Make sure you are using preservative free apple juice.
5. Check out the cider forum here on HBT, there is tons of great info including Pappers Sticky: Easy Stove-Top Pasteurizing - With Pics
6. Let us know how it turns out

Pretty much any ale yeast will plug on through to about 11-12% abv. without too much difficulty. Especially in the case of cider where there are no complex sugars (as found in beer wort). I routinely make apfelwein (check out EdWort's recipe on this site) with 1 lb/ gal juice of corn sugar with us05. It will go bone dry and finish with almost full attenuation on most ciders or Meade (until you get into the OG is around 1.250 or so) 001 will have no problems plugging through less than that.

As for a yeast having a high alcohol tolerance being a red flag: why?

cimirie said:

As for a yeast having a high alcohol tolerance being a red flag: why?

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Unless you neutralize the yeast or know exactly how much bottling sugar to add, the risk is there for bottle bombs... you could always pasturize or keg, then no worries

discooby said:

Unless you neutralize the yeast or know exactly how much bottling sugar to add, the risk is there for bottle bombs... you could always pasturize or keg, then no worries

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If you wait until the yeast naturally stops fermenting, and then add priming sugar, you'll never have a problem with bottle bombs. Yeast almost never stop fermenting because alcohol level gets too high (most beers don't go up to 13% abv). They stop because they run out of fermentable sugars to eat.

Unless you way overdo the priming sugar or don't wait til fermentation is complete, I dont see how yeast selection plays a role in bottle bombs.

I guess I was focusing more on the

drhall23 said:

I am all about "trial and error", but value the opinions/suggestions of others.

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And missed the op’s part about fermenting dry (?)

I do believe some ales yeast have a medium alcohol tolerance (5-10%)… Even so, I cede and retract my statement (given bottling a dry cider) about yeast being a factor in producing bottle bombs while adding priming sugar.

Cider turned out okay. Ended up with 3 gallons of it.
It was nice to try. I am not a big hard cider fan, but it did have some kick.

drhall23 said:

Cider turned out okay. Ended up with 3 gallons of it.
It was nice to try. I am not a big hard cider fan, but it did have some kick.

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It's barely 2 weeks old, it needs to age for 6 months or so get to it's prime.