A cider forum troll surfaces, with a few questions...

[GlimpseTheVoid]

Hello,

I'm have just tiptoed into this and have been having a great time. I've already brewed up a very simple cider, but it was tasty and did what alcohol is meant to do. Thanks to all of you who unknowingly fed me information as I lurked through your conversations here on the forum in the past few weeks.

I have been going with a minimalist approach and as I continue with this as a hobby, I wanted to ask you wise brew sages two questions.

1.) What have one thing have you learned in your experience that you wish you would have known sooner?
2.) There are many ways to go about doing this, but what equipment have you found really made a big difference for you? I plan on eventually buying all sorts of helpful things, but what might you personally recomend as starting point as far as my first $20, $50, or $100 purchase of equipment? I'm especially interested in hearing from people who did without (fill in the blank) and found that it made everything so much easier when they broke down and got one.

Thanks in advance,

Glimpse

 

[sfrisby]

To start your thread responses, I'd offer up that you are a lurker, not a troll. So far you seem like a very nice fella.

 

[GlimpseTheVoid]

To start your thread responses, I'd offer up that you are a lurker, not a troll. So far you seem like a very nice fella.

Thanks, but get to know me. I troll harder than Mr. bean.

ps. I'm so excited about being sauced on my sauce.

 

[caseymac91]

The one thing I really wish I had and still don't, kegerator. The bottling process takes more work than anything for me. A bottle rinser and bench capper has made it a little easier.

 

[sfrisby]

For cider, im not sure because its so easy. For beer I would say a stir plate and temperature control.

 

[sfrisby]

Maybe Casey has a point. I add Camden and potassium sorbate and then back sweeten. That then requires force carbing in a keg and then bottling from a keg so maybe a kegerator is the right answer.

 

[Archer]

Wished I had known earlier...not to leave hardly any airspace in the carboy after racking following primary. Top it off or find smaller carboys.

 

[bernardsmith]

Wished I had known earlier...not to leave hardly any airspace in the carboy after racking following primary. Top it off or find smaller carboys.

For hard cider I really think that you need only the most basic of equipment: a hydrometer, a carboy of suitable volume , a bung and an airlock, a tube to rack the cider and perhaps a bottling wand. Everything else (apart from sanitizers and cleaning chemicals, yeast nutrient and energizer, tannin and oak chips, perhaps, and some acid blend) is gravy. I would also experiment with different kinds of yeast - from Nottingham to QA 23)...

 

[Hinorth]

Kegs make life easy. I don't own any "real" kegs but I wish I did and it will be my next big buy. I do however own a Tap-a-Draft and it makes my life waaaaayyyyyy easier on bottling day. Not to mention the lack of glass bottles, klink klink SHUT UP! The co2 cartridges seem to be extra spendy at my LHBS ($15 for 6) but half that price online. I wish I would have just put that money towards a few soda kegs like everyone else on here seems to have. But it is a nice baby step away from 50 glass bottles without the big up front cost of corny kegs and a keezer and the TAD fits in my fridge, heck it even fits in the mini fridge in the garage but force carbing in the TAD is not very economical as it take several cartridges and I feel it's not worth the time or money to force carb.

 

[JoefromPhilly]

I found a used kegerator on Craigslist. All the guy wanted was a 32" flat screen in exchange. I had one laying around. He also gave me two CO2 tanks, and a pressure regulator. As far as good useful equipment, get a 50 ft immersion chiller (if you are going to brew beer), a large stockpot, and a propane burner, so you can do a full boil. As much as I like the smell of wort brewing, especially after adding the hops, the aroma can quickly fill the house and not everyone appreciates that smell!

I also got a large air stone, some tubing and a $10 aquarium pump from Walmart, and use that to add oxygen to the wort before adding the yeast. These basic items seemed to work well for me.

 

[RukusDM]

I like kegged ciders. A few years ago the wife got me a TAP-A-Draft kit. I didn't have a fridge to use at that time for a full blown draft system so this was great. I have also put beer in it as well. Works great.

Not quite as nice as my taps but at the time it was a good solution until I could afford a full tap system.

 

[harritchate]

I have only done one cider and the best thing I have bought for cider brewing was sparkaloid powder because this just would not clear, and in talking over 3 months

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

I concur on kegging. Once you keg, you will probably never want to bottle again. (I use half gallon growlers for gift giving) That said, kegging is a bit of an expense up front, but one that is totally worth it.

I used a racking cane and siphon hose for my first 10-20 gallons of cider. If I could go back and have some one slap me and say..."USE AN AUTO-SIPHON!!!" it would have made life so much easier.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[oregonbrew541]

keg Makes life so easy… so so easy. lol may sound silly but for the longest time i was using this funnel with a terribly small opening and it would constantly get clogged with dextrose or wtv i was adding took me about a year to get a funnel with an opening perfect size for gallon containers carboys ect. that and an auto siphon is great one with a cap at the end so you don't suck up yeast u can rest it on the bottom and forget about it till its empty

 

[Hinorth]

keg Makes life so easy… so so easy. lol may sound silly but for the longest time i was using this funnel with a terribly small opening and it would constantly get clogged with dextrose or wtv i was adding took me about a year to get a funnel with an opening perfect size for gallon containers carboys ect. that and an auto siphon is great one with a cap at the end so you don't suck up yeast u can rest it on the bottom and forget about it till its empty

Haha now that you mention it having a proper sized funnel is a good, cheap addition that can reduce frustrations and save time. That being said I just put it on my shopping list because what I got is way to small and caused me to waste time and get frustrated.

 

[Randzor]

Bottling cane is important also.

 

[FuzzBeckersHB]

Large enough fermenting bucket, 6-7 gallon, with a bottling spigot on it. It is up far enough off the bottom to transfer without trub, and go into secondary. This omits having to rack it.

Old fridge or freezer with stc -1000 for temperature control. Fermentation temperature control is by far the best addition to your set up once you have all of your hardware, and sanitation dialed.

If you decide to use racking cane , auto siphon, there is a clip and height adjuster that goes on the top of your carboy. This is very convenient to set the height of the racking cane just above the trub. Plus it is hands free, so once you go a flow going your good.

Just my 2 cents,
Happy Brew Year
FBHB

 

[GlimpseTheVoid]

Thank you all for the very solid advice. I'm now in my third experiment and having a great time.