Thinking about making hard cider please help

So I have 2 batches of beer and one batch of mead under my belt. I've read alot about hard cider and I enjoy brewing as a hobbie so i thought i'd give it a try. With no local orchards around, I went to my local grocery store and found some half gallon jugs of apple juice and apple cider. Not sure if it has preservatives it says contain juice from concentrates, acid and water. The Apple ciders label reads the same but contains "spices", would it matter if i used apple juice or apple cider juice, and is pasteurized okay to use? I was thinking 5 gallons of apple/cider juice and I have some Nottingham dry yeast, it came with a wheat beer kit but I ended up using liquid yeast so it was left over. Only thing is the the Nottingham packet of yeast dosn't say what its for just "Nottingham yeast" and the basic company information dosn't state if it an ale or lager yeast. I do have some dextrose (corn sugar) around 2lb worth, should i add it or just juice and yeast? And lastly hard cider is carbonated right? Or is it like a wine,the only experience i've had with hard cider has been through drinking hornsbys hard cider. Please let me know if there is any issues with using apple juice or apple cider juice and is Nottingham yeast for a wheat beer okay to use. Thank you

Nottingham is an ale yeast and is great for a pub style cider, ie with a final sg ranging from 1.008 to 1.020, and a body that is more like a beer. eg hornsby, strongbow, woodchuck, etc.

All the sugars in cider are fermentable, so in order to have a balance of natural sugar, you need to stop the fermentation where you want it, which can be done with cold crashing, pasteruization or k-meta followed by k-sorbate (easier, but leaves chemical taste. Some people also ferment to dryness and then backsweeten, which I dont particularly recommend, especially not with Notty. Use the forum search for further info.

As far as juice, get the best tasting raw juice you can find. It might be worth checking out what other produce stores are carrying. The quality of the juice is just as important as the mash is to beer, so its worth investing some time into finding a decent quality source. There is a lot of crap out there. Unlike beer, cider tastes good flat, but most people prefer it to be at least a little bit carbonated.

I usually add enough sugar to take the starting gravity to about 1.065, which is usually less then 2 pounds. Dextrose works good for beer, but IMHO a mix of 2/3 light turbinado and 1/3 dextrose is closer tasting to apple sugar, in terms of the aftertaste that it leaves when it ferments off.

I checked my OG. Its 1.048 so if i fermented out to around 1.010 its going to be perfect. I'll let you know how it goes thanks for the help!

I am a big fan of the WLP720 sweet mead/wine yeast from White Labs for a nice cider. I have a hard time keeping it in the store. People here in Nor Cal have gone crazy for the stuff.
Just a thought for the future.
Cheers
Jay

So i just poured the jugs of apple juice into the bucket and thought it would aerated enough. But after 18hours no sing of real fermentation. So i just swirled the bucket for a good 30 seconds and the air lock is going crazy. I had a question if i cold shock my cider, will it kill off the yeast? Do i add dextrose before bottling to carbonate...thats usually how its done with beer how is it done with cider?

yeah you can carbonate with dextrose, some people use honey too i believe. Did you end up finding fresh cider, or did you use something with preservatives? cause ive heard that anything with preservatives kills your yeast. But i am fairly new to all this too, so maybe not, im debating on if im going to carbonite my cider or not.

I used bottled apple juice. It was pasturized no persevatives just read water, juice concentrate and some acids. IF it was pasturized...i wonder why my air lock is going crazy. I was just concerned about the cold shock process, after bottling if there would be enough yeast left alive to carbonate?

pasturized is ok for hard cider, but i was just told not to bottle carbonate it, i guess there is a high risk of bottle bombs.

George7845 said:

pasturized is ok for hard cider, but i was just told not to bottle carbonate it, i guess there is a high risk of bottle bombs.

Click to expand...

The only risk of bottle bombs with pasteurized (or non-pasteurized) is if you attempt to bottle carbonate before all the sugar is fermented out. It's been said before and I'll say it again:

Easy for non-keg users:
Carbonated Dry Cider
Still Dry Cider
Still Sweet Cider

Hard/Impossible/Dangerous for non-keg users:
Carbonated Sweet Cider

A bit out of topic, I realize I made two threads pretty much covering the same subject. How do i close this one..well pretty much not to annoy people. Thank you

tenchu_11 said:

So i just poured the jugs of apple juice into the bucket and thought it would aerated enough. But after 18hours no sing of real fermentation. So i just swirled the bucket for a good 30 seconds and the air lock is going crazy. I had a question if i cold shock my cider, will it kill off the yeast? Do i add dextrose before bottling to carbonate...thats usually how its done with beer how is it done with cider?

Click to expand...

Carbonation process is exactly the same.

However cold crashing will not kill your yeast - it will merely make them dormant until temperatures warm up again. If you are bottling DO NOT try and cold crash, then carbonate your cider UNLESS you let it finish (which will be dry).

Cold conditioning is great for clearing cider once it has reached terminal gravity and is fine for making sweeter ciders if you are kegging.

Cold crashing is not the same as chilling the cider.

To cold crash effectively you must use an ale or wheat yeasts, as these flocculate when chilled. First, rack the cider off the lees. Then chill the cider for 1 or 2 days until the yeast and nutrients drop to the bottom of the carboy. Then rack again, being very careful not to pick up any of the yeast on the bottom.

This method will allow you to stabilize a sweet cider without chemicals and preserving the original apple sugar, which tastes much better than any backsweetener. However, the bottles will be flat (no yeast), so if you want it carbonated with this method, you must use a keg.