Cider Noob - Looking for Advise

Hi Folks,

I am an experienced All Grain beer brewer and while I was up in the Rochester, NY area over thanksgiving I stopped by Herman's Farm stand. They sell fresh pressed Apple Cider by the gallon and are known in the area for their delicious apple cider. I figured what the hell and picked up four gallons of Apple Cider (Flash Pasteurized) and decided to brew a batch of cider.

I wanted advise on brewing my first batch and I am hoping for a Semi-Sweet Cider.

4 Gallons Fresh Apple Cider
Corn Sugar to get OG to 1.057
WLP 775 - English Cider Yeast w/ 0.6L Starter -- Half Apple Juice/Half DME. (Should I use Notty or S-04 instead?)
2 tsp of Pectic Enzyme
4 tsp of Yeast Nutrients

I am going to ferment around 62 *F (fermentation temp).

I am going to let it ferment down between 1.012, add priming sugar, bottle and use the hot water bath method to pasteurize after they are appropriately carbonated.

I really want to do a good job with this and won't be happy with a so so batch. Any advise? How does my plan/recipe look.

Thanks!

Sounds great!

With the method described in my original post, I've become a little concerned about not bulk aging the cider long enough. Especially, if the Yeast produces sulfur, it needs time to age out. Will this happen in the bottle?

Good question. I would let it run. Don't worry about sulpher til it happens. My batches never have sulpher. My one batch of apfelwein did. I dumped it. In my experience, I let my ciders ferment dry, then backsweeten at bottling. They age fine in the bottle, and in bulk.
Hope that helps... just go for it. Cider is too easy to worry about.

Also, I would use the cider yeast, not Notty. Not a Notty fan myself. Naughty: yes. Notty: no. Haha

Using Montrachet yeast, I got a lot of sulfur smell during the first few days of fermentation, but it went away after that and did not affect the flavor at all.

Sounds amazing ... I did a batch just like this with washed US05. It fermented super clean and dry. I bottle conditioned with a can of frozen apple juice. The batch went VERY fast, and my neighbor offered to BUY me another fermenter just to brew cider for him continuously. It catches up with you fast though, a pint of this makes me tipsy. It's not my thing personally I prefer session ales and pale ales but everyone who drank it couldn't get enough of it.

I like to back sweeten with cider. I usually do 3-gallons, let it ferment out for 1 month, transfer to secondary for 1 month, then back-sweeten with 1-gallon of cider. I use Notty. I like it because it's a little sweet (not too sweet) and you get more cider flavor. Kind of a semi-dry cider.

b-boy said:

I like to back sweeten with cider. I usually do 3-gallons, let it ferment out for 1 month, transfer to secondary for 1 month, then back-sweeten with 1-gallon of cider. I use Notty. I like it because it's a little sweet (not too sweet) and you get more cider flavor.

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Forgive my ignorance, and not to hijack the thread, but wouldn't the notty just consume the 1 gal of cider? Or do you potassium sorbate it and force carb it?

ColbyJack said:

Good question. I would let it run. Don't worry about sulpher til it happens. My batches never have sulpher. My one batch of apfelwein did. I dumped it. In my experience, I let my ciders ferment dry, then backsweeten at bottling. They age fine in the bottle, and in bulk.
Hope that helps... just go for it. Cider is too easy to worry about.

Click to expand...

What do you use to backsweeten, Lactose?

sloose said:

Forgive my ignorance, and not to hijack the thread, but wouldn't the notty just consume the 1 gal of cider? Or do you potassium sorbate it and force carb it?

Click to expand...

I have the same question.

sloose said:

Forgive my ignorance, and not to hijack the thread, but wouldn't the notty just consume the 1 gal of cider? Or do you potassium sorbate it and force carb it?

Click to expand...

Forgive MY IGNORANCE (lol) but what the heck is "notty"?

BadgerBrigade said:

Forgive MY IGNORANCE (lol) but what the heck is "notty"?

Click to expand...

Windsor Nottingham yeast. I've never used it but I've read it's similar to US05+ US04.

Correct. Notty is short for Danstar Nottingham yeast. Comes in a dry packet. Very popular. Just not my favorite. I prefer US-05 or Pacman-- harvested from a bottle of Rogue GYO Ale. Also, Ec-1118 is becoming a house favorite for quick ciders.
I backsweeten with frozen concentrate, then pasteurize when ready. We don't have orchards in Alaska. Just hooch for me!!!

ColbyJack said:

Correct. Notty is short for Danstar Nottingham yeast. Comes in a dry packet. Very popular. Just not my favorite. I prefer US-05 or Pacman-- harvested from a bottle of Rogue GYO Ale. Also, Ec-1118 is becoming a house favorite for quick ciders.
I backsweeten with frozen concentrate, then pasteurize when ready. We don't have orchards in Alaska. Just hooch for me!!!

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EC-1118.... That was the only yeast I have tried but what do u think of D47?
Will it do the same thing for me that the Ec1118 did? Same timeframe for fermentation?

As I said I've only tried EC 1118 But I have a package of D 47 and a pack of ec1118 And I'm about to do two different batches and don't know which yeast I should use for which batch... I'm doing 6 gallons of apple
And then I'm doing 3 gallons of pear...

So far I was leaning toward using the EC1118 for the apple and D47 for the pear...

Does anyone think that is a good idea?
Or should I do it vice versa? (D47 for the apple and Ec1118 for the pear?

I like a dry cider with not too much sweet....

Or is this a moot point?

Wish I could help. Never heard of d47. What's the profile?

ColbyJack said:

Wish I could help. Never heard of d47. What's the profile?

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Profile?
Remember, your talking to Mr. Super Green here...
I know nothing ... NOTHING (lol, Col. clink)

BadgerBrigade said:

EC-1118.... That was the only yeast I have tried but what do u think of D47?
Will it do the same thing for me that the Ec1118 did? Same timeframe for fermentation?

As I said I've only tried EC 1118 But I have a package of D 47 and a pack of ec1118 And I'm about to do two different batches and don't know which yeast I should use for which batch... I'm doing 6 gallons of apple
And then I'm doing 3 gallons of pear...

So far I was leaning toward using the EC1118 for the apple and D47 for the pear...

Does anyone think that is a good idea?
Or should I do it vice versa? (D47 for the apple and Ec1118 for the pear?

I like a dry cider with not too much sweet....

Or is this a moot point?

Click to expand...

Forgot to ask.... Will D47 get my cider almost as dry as the EC-1118?

A quick search shows ec1118 to be a more robust, easier yeast to deal with. D47 requires oxygenated must, and mentions residual sugars, telling me it won't go as dry. I would stick with 1118, but they appear to both be good yeasts for cider. Try them both and tell us the difference!!!!!

I'm guessing b-boy either pasteurizes or kegs. Or he could cold crash and store in the fridge. That's about the only way, other than the mega filter systems out there.

Any wine yeast (and probably most ale yeast) will take the cider completely dry unless you're adding extra sugar.

sloose said:

Forgive my ignorance, and not to hijack the thread, but wouldn't the notty just consume the 1 gal of cider? Or do you potassium sorbate it and force carb it?

Click to expand...

I keg and immediately cold crash. I keep the keg at ~35 degrees. that stops the yeast. If you bottle you have to pasturize to kill the yeast.

I've tried champagne yeast and nottingham yeast for cider. I prefer the nottingham, but the champagne yeast works well too.

I was having a beer brew day on Sunday and decided to get this cider going that I posted in the beginning of the thread.

I added 3.5 gallons of cider into the FV w/ Pectic Enzyme and Yeast Nutrients. I took1.5 qts and started my starter (added nutrients/pectic enzyme in the proper ratio) and .5 qts and dissolved a pound of corn sugar into a boil and dumped back into carboy. OG 1.058.

I'll keep everyone posted and let you all know how it turns out. Thanks for the input.

Just to keep the update rolling -- I had active fermentation for about 10 days, I didn't expect that but its finally slowed to a crawl. I pulled out a sample cooled it off and tasted it. It was fantastic, a little harshness toward the end which I think will round out as it ages. I don't plan on aging for very long. Maybe 1 month in fermenter and 2 months in bottles.