Wholeycider (great 8%alc sparkling cider for cheap!)

Hi!

Ive been making cider for about 2 year now. Here's the recipe;
2 quart plastic bottle of store bought apple juice cocktail ($0.99)
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp fermax yeast nutrients
1/4 tsp pectic enzyme
Shake well
Add champagne yeast and close the cap on tight.
Burp once every 3 days for the first week, and then once a week for 1.5 months
Reduce pressure slowly until you can open it without it erupting and add a few drops of melolactic bacteria, then put the cap back on tight and let it sit for another 1.5 months.
Then rack it and enjoy
1.075 start and 1.004 finished gravity; a little over 8%

Its nicely carbonated, crispy but not tart, and very refreshing. Infact its about the only adult beverage i drink anymore. Ive never had a plastic bottle explode even once and i usually have about 40 bottles going at any one time.

What do the internet brew gods think of this recipe and resulting brew?

Your comments are humbly appreciated

Sounds awesome! How much yeast do you put in? Just a sprinkle?

Yup, just a sprinkle

I just put a cider together tonight. I had a three gallon batch in the fermenter since 31 July. I racked the cider off the yeast (WLP 775) and into a small keg, cleared the head space with CO2 and put the keg in the house to keep conditioning.

I then swirled the yeast in the fermenter and poured it into 4 gals of Apple Juice mixed with 2 cans of apple concentrate and 3 cups of dark brown sugar dissolved into a quart of fresh cherry juice. OG: 1.065.

Once finished I was thinking of putting the entire batch into the freezer with a syphon in the container overnight and syphon the liquid off the ice and repeat until no more ice forms. I think I'll get a couple quarts of "Apple Jack" out of it.

Wholeycider said:

Hi!

Ive been making cider for about 2 year now. Here's the recipe;
2 quart plastic bottle of store bought apple juice cocktail ($0.99)
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp fermax yeast nutrients
1/4 tsp pectic enzyme
Shake well
Add champagne yeast and close the cap on tight.
Burp once every 3 days for the first week, and then once a week for 1.5 months
Reduce pressure slowly until you can open it without it erupting and add a few drops of melolactic bacteria, then put the cap back on tight and let it sit for another 1.5 months.
Then rack it and enjoy
1.075 start and 1.004 finished gravity; a little over 8%

Its nicely carbonated, crispy but not tart, and very refreshing. Infact its about the only adult beverage i drink anymore. Ive never had a plastic bottle explode even once and i usually have about 40 bottles going at any one time.

What do the internet brew gods think of this recipe and resulting brew?

Your comments are humbly appreciated

Click to expand...

Your ABV might be a bit higher than you think. Those numbers you cite bring you in a 9.32% YIKES.

I've tried slushing before but i havent figured out a way to do it right every time. If you do the youtube way of freezing it solid and then take the first stuff that melts off it all you end up with is stuff that tastes like melted popsicles and has the same gravity as what went in. You would need to grind this block or blend it some how so that all the ice melts evenly and not just the surface of the block. The other way would be to get it before it freezes to a cube and is glassy, then you strain it, and repeat until no ice forms. Its just like if you left beer outside in winter and when you crack it open and drink it and theres a bunch of ice left inside then can. Before i knew what sloshing was i was on a ski trip and left a case of beer outside. They got so sloshy there was a few good sips before it was all ice. We went through them very quick and before we knew it we hammered. Thats because those few sips had all the alc of he whole beer in them. It'd be great to get it down to a science. I'd really like to hear how your sloshing goes mate.
-cheers

It's a one night a glass drink. I've noticed the less i burp the bottle the stronger it gets and i often skip weeks of burping. The bottles always become so inflated that the bottom goes from concave to slightly convex. However not one has ever exploded. I have heard an almost inaudible hiss from a bottle cap from time to time if a box of bottles is bumped or rattled, yet not one has gone off on its own accord. i have though hastily opened one or two before and had them go off mentose in cocacola. Ive also tried not adding the melolactic bacteria and the result was so sour it was unbearable if drank without a glass full ice.

I have been making applejack for a long time and have learned a few things. For some reason longer in the freezer draws the alcohol to the top of the jug. I don't use the scrape and salad spinner method. I rack my cider out of the fermenter and into a 1/2 gallon plastic jug--juice jugs work really well.

Wholeycider said:

Hi!

Ive been making cider for about 2 year now. Here's the recipe;
2 quart plastic bottle of store bought apple juice cocktail ($0.99)
1 cup sugar
3/4 tsp fermax yeast nutrients
1/4 tsp pectic enzyme
Shake well
Add champagne yeast and close the cap on tight.
Burp once every 3 days for the first week, and then once a week for 1.5 months
Reduce pressure slowly until you can open it without it erupting and add a few drops of melolactic bacteria, then put the cap back on tight and let it sit for another 1.5 months.
Then rack it and enjoy
1.075 start and 1.004 finished gravity; a little over 8%

Its nicely carbonated, crispy but not tart, and very refreshing. Infact its about the only adult beverage i drink anymore. Ive never had a plastic bottle explode even once and i usually have about 40 bottles going at any one time.

What do the internet brew gods think of this recipe and resulting brew?

Your comments are humbly appreciated

Click to expand...

Any reason I couldnt double this and put it in a 3 gal fermenter with an air lock?

OP, I am curious, you mention two things that kind of baffle me: what are the ingredients to apple juice cocktail and your adding the MLB, of which you state w/o makes terrible tasting cider?