Angry Orchard 1.030

I was trying to get a ballpark on how much to back sweeten a batch of cider if needed. I took a gravity reading of an Angry Orchard and it was 1.030. It was pretty sweet but I would have never guessed. The starting gravity on my batch was only 1.049 I used White Labs 002. I expect a 75% attenuation. So maybe a 1.012 terminal gravity. That seems pretty sweet considering no hop bitterness to balance it. Any thoughts?

I'm wondering if you added sugar or your juice was just that sweet? No other comments as I dont know enough of the subject.

schwiz said:

I'm wondering if you added sugar or your juice was just that sweet? No other comments as I dont know enough of the subject.

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Depending on the apples used to make the juice, most have an OG of 1.045-1.055 without added sugar. Some may be higher, but I don't think it will get much lower than 1.045.

I didn't add any sugar. I checked the reading a couple times because I didn't expect it to be 1.049. It was the Costco apple cider.

jackson09 said:

I was trying to get a ballpark on how much to back sweeten a batch of cider if needed. I took a gravity reading of an Angry Orchard and it was 1.030. It was pretty sweet but I would have never guessed. The starting gravity on my batch was only 1.049 I used White Labs 002. I expect a 75% attenuation. So maybe a 1.012 terminal gravity. That seems pretty sweet considering no hop bitterness to balance it. Any thoughts?

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Sounds about right. Remember that the big cidermakers are trying to appeal to an across the board market. Americans like sweet, fizzy drinks (coke, pepsi) so cidermakers like AO and Woodchuck follow suit. IIRC the tests on Woodchuck put its FG at 1.045 or something ridiculous like that.

Its not suprising to me that a lot of the new cidermakers have an initial commentary on their batches that "it tas tes like a white wine". Even sweet Riesling and moscato wine usually top out at a FG of 1.010.....

Most of the big name ciders are VERY sweet. I have a local orchard that makes hard cider and its much dryer than AO but it is still very crisp and it has nice apple aromas. I just recently tried an import hard cider called Sommersby and MAN is it some very good stuff. Nowhere near as sweet as AO, but fantastic. I love this cider. My hard ciders normally finish around 1.010 or so though. Which is GREAT for both the SWMBO and I.

Justdrumin said:

Most of the big name ciders are VERY sweet. I have a local orchard that makes hard cider and its much dryer than AO but it is still very crisp and it has nice apple aromas. I just recently tried an import hard cider called Sommersby and MAN is it some very good stuff. Nowhere near as sweet as AO, but fantastic. I love this cider. My hard ciders normally finish around 1.010 or so though. Which is GREAT for both the SWMBO and I.

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I agree. After doing many tests with my wife and I as the crowd that needs to be pleased, I shoot for anywhere between 1.000 - 1.010 for final gravity. Some English ciders that are completely dry come off as too bitter IMO, so I usually try to make my ciders a bit less tannic.

Thanks for your help. I just tried my batch after two days vigorous fermentation and it tastes great. Just for the record it maybe less sweet than angry orchard already.

jackson09 said:

Thanks for your help. I just tried my batch after two days vigorous fermentation and it tastes great. Just for the record it maybe less sweet than angry orchard already.

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Hey, as long as YOU like it that's all that matters! That's the beauty of homebrewing!

Hey Jackson, how did you get the 75% attenuation number? I've been told that most yeasts get close to (or over) 100% with cider.

From wyeast site. From my "research" 100% attenuation is common with champagne/wine/cider yeast but beer yeast leaves residual sugars. I read (more like skimmed) the article in latest Zymurgy. The article starts out with the author saying they made cider with champagne yeast and it was so bad they said they wouldn't make cider again. Then a friend suggested using beer yeast. Then clouds parted and birds chirped. Anyway there's a tasting of 7 yeasts or so. The tasting notes from the WLP002 indicated the cider was too sweet for one the tasters.

This is my first cider so if I'm off base let me know.

Your post inspired me to buy and test some AO "Dry" cider. It was 1.020 and still tasted too sweet for me.

I did the reading on Crisp Apple which had the 1.030 gravity reading. I let it go flat before the reading. Still shocked. It crossed my mind to do a reading on a flat Coke and see where it lands.

Hmmm... I wonder what a fermented Coke would taste like

I just made a sweet cider. Came out 1.018 and tasted very sweet!

I've been doing a lot of testing of commercial ciders. I've gotten really into ciders in the last year and with the season upon us I started buying every commercial cider I could get my hands on. I've been taking gravity readings and noting ingredients/tasting notes on the labels. I couldn't have been more surprised by what the FG was on most commercial ciders. Even ciders from craft cider producers usually tested around 1.015 - 1.020 and were still labeled as "dry" or "crisp". The only true English cider I've grabbed this season is a bottle of Samuel Smith and I haven't opened that bottle yet. I made 40 gallons of fresh cider last season and I'll end up doing about 60 gallons this season...

Not having a lot of $$, I have been wondering about that, but been unable to do the research myself.

Care to post those gravity readings Gitmoe? Lots of new brewers start off trying to imitate a commercial cider. It would be nice for them to have a FG target to shoot for.

Angry Orchard (Boston Beer Co.)

Traditional Dry - 1.020
Crisp - 1.026
Cinnful - 1.028

Commonwealth (Philadelphia Brewing Co.)

Traditional Dry - 1.018
Razzberet Tart - 1.030

J.K.'s (Michigan Craft Cidery/Orchard)

Cuvee Winterruption Farmhouse - 1.012 (this was the best cider I've had this year. It's spiced though so that might not be your thing)



That's the list I have sitting near me. I'll post more when I grab my other notes from various places stashed around my house. I haven't done Woodchuck yet mostly out of fear... lol. I have some Magners, Samuel Smith, Strongbow, and one or two other bottles in my fridge right now waiting for some testing.

Gilligan said:

Hmmm... I wonder what a fermented Coke would taste like

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If it's anything like fermented Pepsi, bloody awful.
When I was a younger man, I couch surfed a lot. At one of those apartments we'd had a party. Somehow a 2 litre of Pepsi got opened, swigged from a couple times, then loosely capped and left out. A couple weeks later I found it and, being the adventurous sort I was, took a swig. Blech! But, I could taste the alcohol. So I drank as much of it as I could stomach. I got a buzz. And a pretty nasty hangover.
Knowing what I now know, I bet better temperature control and using a cultured yeast strain might yield a drinkable product.

One other pieces of info I liberated from the Zymurgy article was the author did a yeast starter made up of yeast from bottle conditioned beers. At a party he asked that after people poured their bottle conditioned beers in a glass they pour the yeast "dregs" into a 1-gallon jug. He pitched it into some Costco Apple Juice. He entered the resulting cider into a homebrew competition and won it.

jackson09 said:

I was trying to get a ballpark on how much to back sweeten a batch of cider if needed. I took a gravity reading of an Angry Orchard and it was 1.030. It was pretty sweet but I would have never guessed. The starting gravity on my batch was only 1.049 I used White Labs 002. I expect a 75% attenuation. So maybe a 1.012 terminal gravity. That seems pretty sweet considering no hop bitterness to balance it. Any thoughts?

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1.030! holy crow! I just kegged a Cider/Cyser at 1.011 (7.7%) and its almost too sweet for my taste- I definitely prefer it a tad dryer than that, so I am currently crashing the next one at 1.006.

Next time I buy some Magners I am gonna test it....