KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) Sweet/Tart Cider

KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) Sweet/Tart Cider

I'm not looking for anything fancy schmancy, no exotic ingredients like the left testical from a two horned unicorn, I just want to get back to basics. A nice, sweet/tart cider, lightly carbed. Here's the gameplan.

Ingredients:
8 x 96 ounce bottles (6 gallons) Wegmans 100% Apple Juice, pasteurized, only vitamin C added
Enough dextrose to get a SG of 1.080
Nottingham Yeast
6 tsp Malic Acid, maybe more (to taste)

Make the yeast starter. In an Erlenmeyer flask, add 400 ML of juice, and 100 grams of dextrose. Mix well on stirplate for 15 minutes. Add Nottingham yeast, mix for an additional 30 minutes. Cover flask with paper towl and rubberband, and set aside for a few hours to get the yeast growing.

In a 6 gallon carboy, combine juice and enough dextrose to get a SG of 1.080. Mix well. Add yeast starter. Mix well. Cap with airlock and ferment in a cool (below 70 degrees) location.

When gravity reading is 1.040 (I'm estimating 7 - 10 days), it is time to bottle. Rack into bottling bucket. At this time, add 6 teaspoons of malic acid (add more or less to taste, I'm estimating 1 tsp / gallon). Bottle the cider.

Check the bottles every day. When they get to 1.030, they should be carbed and are ready to stovetop pasteurize.

The drop from 1.080 to 1.030 should give an ABV of 6.6%. It will be on the sweet side. For reference, a bottle of Angry Orchard Crisp has a gravity of 1.032, and is 5% ABV.

Sounds like you got it together.

Hey USMIKE,

I've thought about doing this process but I was afraid that bottling this soon there would be a lot of yeast sediment in the bottles. What's your thoughts on this?

Could a person cold crash at 1.04 and still have enough yeast activity to carb up?

roadymi said:

I was afraid that bottling this soon there would be a lot of yeast sediment in the bottles. What's your thoughts on this?

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I have always bottle conditioned, and as a result, I have always had some yeast sediment. It has never bothered me, or anyone else that has had my product. I'm guessing it will be 3-4 days for it to drop from 1.040 to 1.030 in the bottle, so I don't really see any problems.

roadymi said:

Could a person cold crash at 1.04 and still have enough yeast activity to carb up?

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Probably, but I'm thinking it will take quite a bit longer than my estimate of 3-4 days of bottle conditioning without cold crashing. Maybe 2 weeks, maybe more? I dunno, as I have never tried. This might call for a small test batch.

roadymi said:

I've thought about doing this process but I was afraid that bottling this soon there would be a lot of yeast sediment in the bottles. What's your thoughts on this?

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i share this concern; it's not the yeast activity in carbing up the cider after bottling that troubles me, normally that would be done after the cider had largely cleared and give you a normal bit of sediment. it's that all that yeast in the cloudy, actively fermenting cider is going to die when you pasteurize and you're gonna get a big clump of dead cells along with whatever other particulate matter hadn't yet had a chance to settle out or precipitate. i tend to think that it's not a problem if you are going to drink it quickly but i would be wary about having the cider sitting on all that dead stuff for more than a couple months. that's why i would cold crash first. i've seen bottles that had been pasteurized while actively fermenting, and there's a hockey puck at the bottom, but i have never tried something like that after aging, so i honestly can't confirm that they wil develop off flavors, it just seems likely to me. that's my 2c anyways, might only be worth 1 in today's money. say hi to danny wegman for me

dinnerstick said:

that's my 2c anyways, might only be worth 1 in today's money. say hi to danny wegman for me

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1c and with today's political policies rapidly heading towards 1/2c. I know
Who's danny?

Has anyone tried this recipe? I'm looking for an Angry Orchard clone.

Vox said:

Has anyone tried this recipe? I'm looking for an Angry Orchard clone.

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Hold off on trying it. It's ok, but I can do better, so I'm working on KISS v2.0 right now.

UpstateMike said:

Hold off on trying it. It's ok, but I can do better, so I'm working on KISS v2.0 right now.

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Ok. I'll make something else in the meantime unless you'll have this ready soon.

KISS V1 Revisited

After sitting in bottles for a couple months, I chilled a 6 pack and tried some. I must say that sitting for a while works magic on this batch. It's not a clone of AO Crisp, but it is good. A little more sediment in the bottles than usual, but its tolerable.

KISS V2 has been in bottles since the beginning of September. In October I will crack one open and see where we are with that recipe.

sounds tasty, i just saw AO in the store and have yet to try it.

UpstateMike said:

KISS V1 Revisited

After sitting in bottles for a couple months, I chilled a 6 pack and tried some. I must say that sitting for a while works magic on this batch. It's not a clone of AO Crisp, but it is good. A little more sediment in the bottles than usual, but its tolerable.

KISS V2 has been in bottles since the beginning of September. In October I will crack one open and see where we are with that recipe.

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Great. Keep us posted!

Sounds good. Looks like this, minus the cinnamon sticks.

dr_al said:

sounds tasty, i just saw AO in the store and have yet to try it.

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Do it!

I did 1 gallon of Kroger Natural Apple Juice (no Vitamin C) and enough table sugar to get to 1.070. Pitched WY1450. Fermented to 1.036. Bottled. Let carbonate. Pasteurized half and put half in the fridge. That way I can compare the two.

The 5 day Sweet Country Cider was the inspiration for my experiment. I wanted something simple and it looks much closer to your recipe.

I like the KISS approach.

UpstateMike said:

I'm not looking for anything fancy schmancy, no exotic ingredients like the left testical from a two horned unicorn, I just want to get back to basics.

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Could I add this if I wanted to? And where does one get the left testical from a two-horned unicorn?

Next to the right one of course. Mind the horns.

No luck at the lhbs? I'm curious as to what it would add to the flavor profile...

alpha224 said:

Could I add this if I wanted to? And where does one get the left testical from a two-horned unicorn?

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Go to the unicorn ranch.
Find the two horned mutant.
Have the rancher castrate him to purify the blood line while you watch.
Buy the left one.

Simple, no?

Yes but the rancher wants an arm and a leg for the testicle.

jcam91 said:

Yes but the rancher wants an arm and a leg for the testicle.

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Why, that one armed, one legged balless bastard!!!

This is likely a stupid question. But, I want to try this cider, in fact I already have 5 gallons of unpasteurized cider at home with in primary with campden tablets, likely adding sugar tonight and pitching yeast.

The gravity will get to 1.040, and then it's time to bottle. I'm assuming I just bottle how I always do (I use coopers carb drops) bottle for 3 to 4 days, then stovetop pasteurize.

That's it?

Don't use the Coopers. There is still plenty of sugar left in the cider to carbonate itself. Make sure to bottle up a plastic (Coke) bottle to test carbonation. Once the Coke bottle is hard to the "squeeze test" then you are ready to pasteurize. Don't use a water bottle they are not designed to withstand pressure.

Pitched yeast last night, And got the nice smelly sulfur smell currently going on. Any updates on KISS V2

thegame310 said:

Any updates on KISS V2

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After letting it sit bottle conditioning for about 6 weeks, I will be cracking open one later on. Just letting a 6 pack chill in the fridge now. Currently drinking my last bottle of KISS V1. It is amazing how much it improved given time.

I'm patiently waiting with an empty carboy for kiss 2.0

Update on version 2.0?

FYI, don't keg without adding K meta and sorbate. My batch massively over carbonated. Kegged at 1.030. I tried to relieve some pressure and ended up with 2 gallons of cider foam all over the place.

Any update Mike?

Couldn't wait lol. Just bought ingredients for kiss 1.0 since no recipe for 2.0 was posted. The empty 6.5 gallon carboy has been giving me dirty looks for neglecting it. I couldn't bear to leave her unfulfilled any longer. Was either this or giving apfelwein another go. This sounded better. Will start a new apfelwein soon and actually wait a few months this attempt.

Got my 6 gallon batch going. Only had enough dextrose to get it to 1.60. Do you think that should be ok or should I add some brown sugar or more dextrose tomorrow? Let me know your thoughts.

My batch is bubbling away! I hope only sweetening to 1.6 will still yield a good cider, just around 5% or so I'm guessing.

Looking good!

I'd love to hear back from the OP, this thread is very interesting!

I'm in the middle of an experiment myself, added sugar to hit 1.066 and Im going to bottle with coopers at 1.020 and pasteurize to see how it turns out. Just a 1 gal batch, didn't want to waste a whole bunch if it turned out badly.

Debating going and adding more dextrose a week later to get it to 1.08 per recipe.

Hey, this might be the stupidest question asked on hbt but by dextrose do you mean just simple table sugar or what?

TomTwanks said:

Hey, this might be the stupidest question asked on hbt but by dextrose do you mean just simple table sugar or what?

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Dextrose is corn sugar. I've seen it labeled as 'priming sugar' also. You can get it at any homebrew shop.

The consistency is usually closer to confectioner's sugar than your regular table sugar... But don't use confectioners, as its not pure dextrose, get the stuff from the Homebrew shop.

Bottled version 1.0 last night. I did let it ferment for almost a month instead of the recommended 7-10 days and didn't use as much sugar when I made it as I ran out. It tasted pretty good as it was. I then added only 4 tsp's of malic acid instead of 6 to start with. When I then tasted it with the malic acid, it had a slightly tart, Sour Patch Kid tang to it. My first time using Malic acid so I'm not sure what to expect.
I'm hoping it will meld/mellow out in the bottle. Will bottle pasteurize one carbonated and update everyone. Attached are pics of my readings pre and post malic acid and a pic of the finished product.

that looks great? what was your potential ABV?

MarkKF said:

that looks great? what was your potential ABV?

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1.06 to 1.002 so @ 7.8%? I attached pics of my starting and ending gravities. I wonder if taking too long to bottle caused me to lose a lot of natural sweetness. May have to try again and stop it in time once Upstate Mike gives us the kiss 2.0 recipe. I might skip the malic acid next time if it doesn't meld with the cider when I start drinking this batch. I don't care for the sour/tart finish.

So mine is now finished and I also let mine go a little further than in the OP, mine is down to 1.010. The question I have is on kegging. This will be my first cider kegged, and I am wondering if I have to do anything special. I have kegged quite a few beers, so kegging isn't the issue, it's that you all are mentioning pasteurizing when bottling. How can you/would you want to do this with kegging?

Thanks