5 Day Sweet Country Cider

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
this came out GREAT. nottingham yeast, regular apple juice from my local supermarket with no additives; fermented at 64º for ~8 days. the lower temp and longer primary really kept it from getting too dry. crashed in kegerator for 2 more days and it REALLY cleared up.

SG 1.080
FG 1.015

racked into corny keg and added a half small stick of cinnamon just for a hint. one week of set & forget carb @ 12 psi made it perfect.
 
So I was at the local orchard the other day, and decided to buy a few gallons of fresh (unfermented) cider to make hard cider. I gave it a taste and enjoyed it so much that I decided I wanted to brew it in a way that keeps as much of the original flavor as possible. Also, this recipe is a huge time saver, as it is ready in less than a week!

4 gallons fresh, unfiltered pressed apples (uv pasteurized)
1 1/4 lbs brown sugar
2 cinnamon sticks

1) Pour 3 1/2 gallons of juice into fermenter
2) Heat remaining half gallon with cinnamon sticks and brown sugar until sugar dissolves properly. Let cool to room temp.
3)Combine mixtures and mix vigorously to oxidize.
4)Hydrate and Pitch yeast.

-Let ferment for about 2-3 days, or until it hits 1.04.
-Bottle it. No need to rack of clear, this stuff is going to be cloudy no matter what you do to it, as it hasn't really fermented that far. it may help, however to give it a day in the fridge to get rid of excess yeast. I didn't do this though.

Let it sit in bottles for a day or so to carb, then bottle pasteurize. I did this by using my sanitize/rinse setting on my dishwasher of 10 minutes, but you can also do it on the stove (see stove-top pasteurization sticky).

Result:
A sweet, hard cider at about 5% abv that keeps a lot of original cider flavor, and is just a tad more tart and dry than the unfermented version. Definitely looks "rustic" due to its cloudiness. Cheers!

C2LE9.jpg


6SDS2.jpg


Once Primary hits 1.004, will cold crashing the whole batch stop the fermentation? Could I just rack into a keg at the point, cold crash it for 24 hours, then attach hoses to my keezer set up without concerns of yeast activity?
 
Once Primary hits 1.004, will cold crashing the whole batch stop the fermentation? Could I just rack into a keg at the point, cold crash it for 24 hours, then attach hoses to my keezer set up without concerns of yeast activity?

I haven't kegged YET as i dont have a keggerator. Sorry about my spelling.. but i think if you throw some potassium sorbate in there which would prevent the yeast from converting anymore sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohol.

If you are bottling and want a carbonated cider you can prime it up and once it is at the level you want either stick it in the fridge (iv never had issues with this) or stove pasteurize. There is an awesome thread on here about stove top pasteurizing.
 
Noob cider/wine maker here.

I plan on kicking my 1st try of this recipe off this coming Monday or Tuesday evening (12/16 or 17/2019).

I'll be doing a 3/4 gallon batch, in a 1 gallon wide mouth jar, with 5 wtoz of sugar. Will be using Fleischmann's Active Dry yeast since its cheap and hasn't treated me bad yet and has relatively low ABV tolerance. It's all scaled down because of the lack of fermenters and bottles available at the moment.

OP recipe calls for brown sugar. My question, for the more knowledgeable: Is turbinado (natural brown sugar) fine to use instead if packaged light or dark brown sugar? An almost rhetorical question, but I like other's opinions as I learn all of this stuff. I understand it's not the same recipe when changes are made. Plus this just sounds stupid simple. "Duh" moment if one is just after good flavor. Why not try it out and build/tweak off of it as a base recipe. Cut down some of the sugar. Add some blueberry juice. Or maybe some peach. Ughhhh sounds good.

Work has us on 4 day weeks, so starting it off Monday or Tuesday night. Let it do what is does all of 2 or 3 days, as SG readings allow, then bottle after work Wednesday or Thursday. Bottle pasteurize Friday or Saturday as needed.

Thoughts and further advice on OP recipe and further fruit additions?

I'm excited to try this out and rambling. TIA Dayflyer
 
Update since last post: (It's long. Cause I'm OCD)

Jordan here again.
Well, life happened and didn't get this tester batch started on time, but kicked it off midday Friday (12/20/2019).
Noticed my math typo in previous post as well. 3/4 gal of Great Value 100% AJ with 3.75 oz of brown sugar. Not 5oz. Tried a lil tip, to introduce yeast nutrients for the 1st time too. I picked it up in a Facebook brewing group. Dead yeast in the mix, since they're cannibals.

Procedure :

11:15-
Boiled 4oz filtered water in microwave. 5 min. Put 1/4t Fleischmann's Active Dry bread yeast in beer mug. Add 15ml of just under boiling water to mug. Sanitize ~2.5" cinnamon stick in StarSan for 2 min. Let air dry.

11:39-
Eat brunch. Delicious egg, cheese, & ham bagel sandwich my wife made. (Just finished 2 more in while typing this out too. Ughh! Delicious).

11:54-
Sanitized 4 c Pyrex measuring cup and thermometer probe. Microwave the 15ml of yeasty water for 30 seconds. They dead now.

11:58-
Pull sanitized 1 gal wide mouth fermenter from Heated Dry dishwasher cycle. Hot to touch.

12:04-
Spray down outsides of sugar container, AJ jug, and 4 c Pyrex measuring cup.

12:20-
2 c AJ & cinnamon stick into 2 c sauce pan. (Electric range) Heat on #3. Added DIY yeast nutrients to the mix as well.

12:27-
Added 3.75oz brown sugar to 2 c AJ, cinnamon stick, & nutrient mix. Heat up to #4. Stirred a while. (12:32) Lid on. (12:37) Small bubbles visible coming up. Stir with lid off. Simmer with heat on #2.

12:40-
1 c AJ into a mug with 1 t of Fleischmann's Active Dry yeast to hydrate. Heat reduced on sauce pan to #1.

12:42-
High pour remainder of 3/4 gal AJ into wide mouth fermenter.

12:48-
Turn heat off. Aerated fermenter with DIY degassing wand and drill until 12:53. Lid on fermenter.

13:01-
Cinnamon & brown sugar mix @ 160°F. Lid on. Move to fridge. ~40°F fridge temp.

13:15-
Signs of life in hydrated yeast.

13:30-
Aerated fermenter again.

13:34-
Strained 2 c sauce pan into fermenter. Aerated again.

13:39-
Must temp. @ 89°F. Pitched hydrated yeast & 1 c AJ mix. Stirred.

13:48-
Must temp. @ 83°F. Initial OG: 1.063. (Temp. adjusted) Actual OG: 1.065.

~3.28% ABV when @ 1.040
~5.91% ABV when @ 1.020

Airlock activity by 14:30 at least.
Left in garage. Kinda chilly here in Oklahoma. I trusted my dash thermometer/compass when it was in the house and agreed with out thermostat. In the garage saying 60°F constantly. When it's 38-50°F outside and the needle doesn't dip more than a degree or two under 60°F at any time of day or night... Idk. I want it to chew through the sugar a lil slow anyway.

I would of liked a higher OG, but will adjust for differences in sugar content next batch. This stuff had a nice deep cinnamon smell and look to it right when I aerated it. Looked like I'd tossed a couple T of powdered cinnamon on top of it.

Plan on bottling Monday (12/23/2019) around 17-18:00, when I get my 6 day Christmas vacation started. So 3.25 day primary. Hopefully won't be too dry by then. Pasteurize Christmas Eve.

Sorry about the novel people. I find it better to have multiple copies of notes just in case the hard copy gets covered in must. Haha.
I think these are the 1st pics I've uploaded too. Seems simple enough. Hope they show up right.

Thanks all for previous posts.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20191220_110912.jpg
    IMG_20191220_110912.jpg
    2.4 MB · Views: 63
  • IMG_20191220_125559.jpg
    IMG_20191220_125559.jpg
    1.9 MB · Views: 66
  • IMG_20191220_114756.jpg
    IMG_20191220_114756.jpg
    2.5 MB · Views: 66
  • IMG_20191220_155253.jpg
    IMG_20191220_155253.jpg
    2.3 MB · Views: 65
My 1st 2 batches I fermented in a 6 gal bucket with cheesecloth on top and they turned out great! This batch I'm making in carboys with airlocks. Do you guys think that with such a vigorous fermentation there was enough available oxygen at the surface of the bucket to make a difference in fermentation process compared to the airlocks? I am second guessing my move now, but hoping that there is SO much CO2 being expelled that the oxygen in the bucket was displaced and there will be no difference.
 
And of course I changed 2 things at once and now don't know what to blame. I am getting a sulfur smell from all of the carboys. I changed yeast from Red Star champagne yeast to nottingham ale yeast. I have now read that nottingham ale has a tendency to do that and you can just ferment through but if I'm cutting it off in just days it will not have time to dissipate. So now I have to decide if it was the yeast, the air locks, or a combination of them both that caused this.
 
Does the amount of sugar added make a difference to the alcohol content at the end? Surely you can super saturate the solution.

I trying to make a heavy potent hard cider (lack of containers) with pressed apples, water, yeast, sugar... Thanks


So I was at the local orchard the other day, and decided to buy a few gallons of fresh (unfermented) cider to make hard cider. I gave it a taste and enjoyed it so much that I decided I wanted to brew it in a way that keeps as much of the original flavor as possible. Also, this recipe is a huge time saver, as it is ready in less than a week!

4 gallons fresh, unfiltered pressed apples (uv pasteurized)
1 1/4 lbs brown sugar
2 cinnamon sticks

1) Pour 3 1/2 gallons of juice into fermenter
2) Heat remaining half gallon with cinnamon sticks and brown sugar until sugar dissolves properly. Let cool to room temp.
3)Combine mixtures and mix vigorously to oxidize.
4)Hydrate and Pitch yeast.

-Let ferment for about 2-3 days, or until it hits 1.04.
-Bottle it. No need to rack of clear, this stuff is going to be cloudy no matter what you do to it, as it hasn't really fermented that far. it may help, however to give it a day in the fridge to get rid of excess yeast. I didn't do this though.

Let it sit in bottles for a day or so to carb, then bottle pasteurize. I did this by using my sanitize/rinse setting on my dishwasher of 10 minutes, but you can also do it on the stove (see stove-top pasteurization sticky).

Result:
A sweet, hard cider at about 5% abv that keeps a lot of original cider flavor, and is just a tad more tart and dry than the unfermented version. Definitely looks "rustic" due to its cloudiness. Cheers!

C2LE9.jpg


6SDS2.jpg

So I was at the local orchard the other day, and decided to buy a few gallons of fresh (unfermented) cider to make hard cider. I gave it a taste and enjoyed it so much that I decided I wanted to brew it in a way that keeps as much of the original flavor as possible. Also, this recipe is a huge time saver, as it is ready in less than a week!

4 gallons fresh, unfiltered pressed apples (uv pasteurized)
1 1/4 lbs brown sugar
2 cinnamon sticks

1) Pour 3 1/2 gallons of juice into fermenter
2) Heat remaining half gallon with cinnamon sticks and brown sugar until sugar dissolves properly. Let cool to room temp.
3)Combine mixtures and mix vigorously to oxidize.
4)Hydrate and Pitch yeast.

-Let ferment for about 2-3 days, or until it hits 1.04.
-Bottle it. No need to rack of clear, this stuff is going to be cloudy no matter what you do to it, as it hasn't really fermented that far. it may help, however to give it a day in the fridge to get rid of excess yeast. I didn't do this though.

Let it sit in bottles for a day or so to carb, then bottle pasteurize. I did this by using my sanitize/rinse setting on my dishwasher of 10 minutes, but you can also do it on the stove (see stove-top pasteurization sticky).

Result:
A sweet, hard cider at about 5% abv that keeps a lot of original cider flavor, and is just a tad more tart and dry than the unfermented version. Definitely looks "rustic" due to its cloudiness. Cheers!

C2LE9.jpg


6SDS2.jpg
 
Does the amount of sugar added make a difference to the alcohol content at the end? Surely you can super saturate the solution.

I trying to make a heavy potent hard cider (lack of containers) with pressed apples, water, yeast, sugar... Thanks
 
Does the amount of sugar added make a difference to the alcohol content at the end? Surely you can super saturate the solution.

I trying to make a heavy potent hard cider (lack of containers) with pressed apples, water, yeast, sugar... Thanks
It depends on how long you let it ferment. The more sugar you add the higher the potential ABV as long as you give it enough fermentation time.
 
You figure you could cold crash a 6 gallon batch, bottle some, then let the rest of it continue to ferment in the Carboy to a cyser?
 

Latest posts

Back
Top