First Cider Questions

So, I have a 5 gallon carboy doing nothing right now, and I think I want to make a cider for the winter. I have a few questions?

First, I can fill up a 5 gallon carboy to the top and ferment without worry, correct? I'm not going to be blowing stuff through the airlock.

Second, what are ideal temps to be fermenting a cider?

Third, will it finish fermenting in a month? I need the carboy for dry hopping at some point, but I can push that brew back a month if needed.

fourth, I was thinking of a simple raspberry cider. Is there a raspberry juice concentrate, or maybe a raspberry juice that would work? Maybe some added table sugar or brown sugar. Also maybe some lactose if I want some body.

Last, how do I anticipate ABV of these things. Do I just have to wait until it's all together and take a hydrometer sample of it?

Thanks.

So, I have a 5 gallon carboy doing nothing right now, and I think I want to make a cider for the winter. I have a few questions?

First, I can fill up a 5 gallon carboy to the top and ferment without worry, correct? I'm not going to be blowing stuff through the airlock. If you want a cider use a beer yeast. It will foam up so leave some head space

Second, what are ideal temps to be fermenting a cider? 66-68 degrees

Third, will it finish fermenting in a month? I need the carboy for dry hopping at some point, but I can push that brew back a month if needed. Most likely, but your hydrometer can tell you for sure

fourth, I was thinking of a simple raspberry cider. Is there a raspberry juice concentrate, or maybe a raspberry juice that would work? Maybe some added table sugar or brown sugar. Also maybe some lactose if I want some body. Raspberry is good, might take a bit for the tartness to die down. I would just use raspberry juice. To cut cost you could do raspberry and apple juice mixed. Lactose isn't going to give you body, you could mash some carapils/dextrine and add that to the wort. Steeping specialty grains is also an option. 1 oz of torrified wheat in the steeping process will give you head retention.

Last, how do I anticipate ABV of these things. Do I just have to wait until it's all together and take a hydrometer sample of it? yes, then after fermentation take another sample.

Thanks. You are welcome

First, I can fill up a 5 gallon carboy to the top and ferment without worry, correct? I'm not going to be blowing stuff through the airlock. if you are talking about Apfelwein (edwarts recipe (and you can use Lavin 118) then you are ok...

Second, what are ideal temps to be fermenting a cider?Brandon gives you the accurate answer but I am happy with saying 60 - 70 ish

Third, will it finish fermenting in a month? I need the carboy for dry hopping at some point, but I can push that brew back a month if needed. for beer yeast you are ok with 1 month I think but for wine yeast I would look towards 2 months

fourth, I was thinking of a simple raspberry cider. Is there a raspberry juice concentrate, or maybe a raspberry juice that would work? Maybe some added table sugar or brown sugar. Also maybe some lactose if I want some body. consider "fermentable sugars" I'm no expert but I know you cannot interchange regular sugar with brown sugar and it seems to me the higher sugar content leads to longer fermentation



hey Brandon, if you are monitoring this... what beer yeasts do you use??? I would be interested in trying this to shorten my fermentation time

Using Wyeast 3068 (Hefeweizen yeast) at approximately 75% attenuation I think I'm going to get 6% ABV from apple juice with 26 grams of sugar per 250mL serving.

Thanks for all the help. Sorry, I didn't get to respond immediately, I got busy with work. I had a small window to get this going, so I had to act fast. I couldn't find any raspberry juice, so I had to use apply raspberry frozen concentrate. it was preservative free, so I went with it. Also, I needed 3 Lb of honey for a beer anyway, so I found a 5 Lb container at walmart, and just added 2 Lb to the cider. Ended up with a SG of 1.064. Fermenting happyily now with US-05 Ale yeast. I'm looking forward to trying it out in a month. I will post a recipe if it turns out well.