Advice on Cider Recipe

[jbolte1976]

Hey everyone,

I'm making my first batch of hard cider. Nothing to exciting, just 4 gallons of "Old Orchard" 100% apple juice from Walmart. (I think it was $3.34 / gallon)

I'm going to use a Wyeast Cider yeast.

The specific gravity of the juice is about 1.045 which, according to the table I found will give me just under 6% abv.

My question is do you guys think I'd improve the final taste by adding some brown sugar, raisons, etc to the primary? Or just keep it simple?

BTW, My plan is to keep it in the primary for about 2 months then bottle and then "try" to wait 5 - 6 months before I taste.

Thanks,

Jason

 

[Freezeblade]

Do you want your cider dry, or slightly sweeter? Both the WhiteLabs and WYeast products will leave a very dry cider, not as dry as a wine yeast will, but pretty close. Nottingham and s-04 are favorites of mine for ciders due to ease of use, and they always end up tasty. If you're set on liquid yeasts, try WLP023, burton ale, or any other english strain, I love the fruitiness they leave in cider.

Also, skip the brown sugar, raisons, or any other adjuncts at this point, unless you're talking about adding tannins/acid (see recipe in my pulldown), keep the recipe simple and low-grav.

 

[SisterThelonious]

It just depends on the final flavor you are going for. If you want it sweeter than add the brown sugar, otherwise you'll get a dryer finish. You can always back sweeten if it's to dry, so this might be a safe option. I made my first batch of cider a few months ago and am enjoying it from the keg on these hot summer days...but I am definately looking for ways to improve my recipe.

 

[wreckinball9]

wyeast sweet mead yeast 4184 usually finishes around 1.010 for me. (5 gallons cider plus 2 lbs light brown sugar.) fement in the low 60s or as cool as possible and you will love the resulting sweet finish.

 

[Nurmey]

Sugar, any kind, will make it dryer. My personal favorite is just juice and yeast.

 

[DC600]

I been making a roughly 10% dry cider for the last few months, simply 5 gallon juice, add 2 kg's white sugar and add your yeast. I've been using the kveik voss yeast, it makes it taste a bit like orange juice, if you don't want it so fruity try the hornindal kveik its got hints of tropical fruit but only enough to make it taste complex given the relatively few ingredients.

I generally back sweeten it to about 7-8% hence the fairly strong brew, but if you want it dry and not so strong just add 1 kg sugar that will end up at about 7-8% abv. Straight apple juice gets to about 6% (110g sugar per litre if you want to look it up exactly...)

also if its warm the kveik yeast being quite voracious will be all done in a week (sometimes 5 days), if you leave it another month or so it will have cleared nicely or else you can filter it off after a week or so.