Everyday Simplest Dry Cider

CornyKegs 728
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Forgot to take a picture of my batch.:smack:

It spent about a month in the fermentor and then 3 weeks in bottle while I was away on vacation. When I got back, man was that some good cider! Very dry but still with a crisp apple taste. I shouldn't have told my friends I had it, because we drank all 48 bottles in 3 days!

Thanks for the simple recipe man, I think I'm gonna have one of these going in the background around the clock from now on! :mug:
 
I've got another super simple recipe up my sleeve that has two batches behind it and uses the same yeast but finishes around 1.008 which people are understandably reluctant to believe. I was hoping I could get someone else to run a batch while I do my third and to help validate it before it gets posted.

You should have the ability to ferment in the low 60's or high 50s but it might not be a bad idea to see what happens at warmer temps.

Any takers? The recipe is absolutely as easy/simple as this one.
 
2 months into aging my cider and it is not quite there. Still has a tart taste to it.
This is why I have failed at cider so many times and have avoided it. Apple seems to take forever to come around to tasting right!
 
phug said:
I've got another super simple recipe up my sleeve that has two batches behind it and uses the same yeast but finishes around 1.008 which people are understandably reluctant to believe. I was hoping I could get someone else to run a batch while I do my third and to help validate it before it gets posted.

You should have the ability to ferment in the low 60's or high 50s but it might not be a bad idea to see what happens at warmer temps.

Any takers? The recipe is absolutely as easy/simple as this one.
Click to expand...

I dont have access to fresh cider anymore so my only choice is store bought juice.
I have probably another week till I have another 6 gallon carboy open. If nobody is interested before then I can probably do it.
 
Pyg said:
2 months into aging my cider and it is not quite there. Still has a tart taste to it.
This is why I have failed at cider so many times and have avoided it. Apple seems to take forever to come around to tasting right!
Click to expand...

My first gallon of crabapple wine, made with EC-1118 yeast, tasted good right away. My second gallon made exactly the same but with a Chinese yeast ball is harsh. Both were tart, but the 1118 was good like that and the one made with rice wine yeast is not (I think it's too dry.) A month in the bottle should do it a world of good. I didn't think the yeast would make that much difference.

71B might be a good yeast to use; it reduces some of the malic acid.

I'm going to try this recipe just like it's written soon. My wife likes commercial hard cider, and she's not fond of this strong stuff I'm making.
 
kgressler said:
I dont have access to fresh cider anymore so my only choice is store bought juice.

I have probably another week till I have another 6 gallon carboy open. If nobody is interested before then I can probably do it.
Click to expand...


Good news, the other recipe is entirely store bought juice as well. Message me and I'll give you the recipe.
 
Started a 1 gallon batch of this 8 days ago...1st batch of anything ever. I know I'm still weeks away from bottling but I'm curious about the sugar content of the fajc you use for priming? I know not all are created equal & I don't want to make bottle bombs. Or is it going to be an insignificant difference?
Thanks in advance.
 
There is some math back in post 35 but as long as your ajc doesn't have more than 140 g of sugars in the whole thing, then 55 ml will be fine for your one gallon batch
 
Took this to a bottle swap at my lhbs last night. It was well received. Had one person take down my email to get the recipe. Got some nice compliments from a UKer on it
 
A new friend was excited to make some booze, so I helped her throw together a super simple batch based on this thread.

1 Gallon of Martinelli's cider from HEB.
1/2 cup brown sugar, dissolved into warmed martinelli's.
1/3 packet of EC1118, pitched in warm sugar water.

This was done on a whim, so I don't have a beginning gravity, but in a few weeks I'll let y'all know how it turned out.
 
Nice I wanted to make it to that but ended up going to pitchtalks instead. Next time
 
Just started a 1 gallon batch of this yesterday (it's awfully tempting with the 5 min brew day and minimal clean up). Testing this out with no temp control, but my house hovers from 65-70 on average.

Safeway brand Apple juice:
-assumed pasteurized and filtered
-28g sugar/ serving (28x16=448g total) forgot to check OG
-130% Vitamin C

Pitched about half a sachet of EC1118 for 1 gallon, ~2.57g

Started producing bubbles in airlock within 2-3 hours.

Thanks for the recipe Phug!
 
Awesome, you shouldn't be too bad with those temps, but a swamp cooler or something to keep it a few degrees lower won't hurt anyone
 
How foamy is this in the primary?

I'm fixin' to start a batch in a 3 gallon carboy and not sure how much cider to hold-back until it settles down, then top it off. I'm not going to add any sugar.
 
ec1118 is fairly low foam, you can get away with almost completely filling the carboy. above the shoulder of the carboy, but below the neck should do
 
Started another 1 gallon batch of this on Saturday & it bubbled up through the airlock 2 days in a row. Rigged up a blowoff tube today... just til things settle down a bit. YMMV.
 
I am sipping on my first batch of this and already have another on the way. Super easy and pretty much bullet proof.

I kegged mine and I considered back sweetening it, but dry cider is delicious. For those of you who keg and drink your brews within a month or two, you can always use this cider and back sweeten it to taste after you keg it. From Publix (grocery store), Apple Juice in 1 gallon containers is about $5, so I spent ~$27 for 5 gallons of great cider.

OG- 1.051
FG- 1.000
 
phug said:
ec1118 is fairly low foam, you can get away with almost completely filling the carboy. above the shoulder of the carboy, but below the neck should do
Click to expand...

meatcleaver said:
Started another 1 gallon batch of this on Saturday & it bubbled up through the airlock 2 days in a row. Rigged up a blowoff tube today... just til things settle down a bit. YMMV.
Click to expand...

I'll be using Premier Cuvee yeast, which isn't EC-1118 but is awfully close... I will fill the carboy to the shoulder just in case it gets frisky, then top it up to the neck after a couple of days. Thanks.
 
bear7673 said:
Just started a 1 gallon batch of this yesterday (it's awfully tempting with the 5 min brew day and minimal clean up). Testing this out with no temp control, but my house hovers from 65-70 on average.

Safeway brand Apple juice:
-assumed pasteurized and filtered
-28g sugar/ serving (28x16=448g total) forgot to check OG
-130% Vitamin C

Pitched about half a sachet of EC1118 for 1 gallon, ~2.57g

Started producing bubbles in airlock within 2-3 hours.

Thanks for the recipe Phug!
Click to expand...


^ Just bottled this with about 1.8 fl oz of Apple Juice Concentrate that had 174 g of sugar in a while 12 fl oz can.

Tastes great flat, nice and tart and dry with a slight sweetness. As for flavor like the others have said very white wine like but I still definitely get apple. Pretty awesome to have a gallon of some of the best cider I've had for only $5
 
Bottled 5 gallons of this as per recipe.
Started another 5, but this time with Cider House Select yeast.
Anyone else tried this yeast?
 
Tried this with 4 gallons of juice and about a pound of brown sugar along witha neutral flavor yeast, 1056. Started at 1.060 and ended at 1.004. Super dry, almost puckering dry. Not much apple flavor. Might try keg conditioning it on a couple of containers of concentrate...
 
One of the things that I think let's this recipe work as well as it does, is the lack of sugar additions. In my opinion if you've added sugar, especially brown sugar, you're no longer following this recipe. Especially if you have also changed the yeast.

That being said, let yours age a bit and it may mellow
 
I wish i didn't have to tell you that it's been sitting for 3 months in the fermentor. Well, it was an interesting test to do
 
The only thing I have changed to this is the method. I ferment at 60 degrees for 28 days and then cold crash at 35 degrees for 72 hours. My first batch had a shared Champagne/Apple flavor, now the primary flavor is apple.
 
Anywhere as low as 55 works just fine. And cold crashing never hurt anyone. Thanks for sharing your experience.
 
I got a nice surprise from today's article to see that this recipe made the top ten hombrewtalk ciders. That was an unexpected boost to my day.
 
AJ on sale at Walmart, buck a litre for Allens not from concentrate in the large tins.

So, went down to Georgetown, but no Allens tins on the shelf. Saw the tetra packs of Allens, also a buck, so picked up 30. Got home and saw the Low Acid label.

Any issues with this. I know phug mentions it in the initial post, but what's the downside?
 
Haven't had any issues with it. Worst case you can brighten the cider up with some malic acid at the end, to taste
 
My wife has declared this to be "good" and that she "would have another one"
 
I just bottled 5 gallons that I had in secondary for a year. After going through a move and varying temperatures, I fully expected to find something ugly when I took the lid off. It smelled like perfect apple cider and the sample had very little apple flavor. If they carbonate, I'm hoping they have some apple flavor. I'll be trying this with ECY instead of Montrachet very soon and I'll be keeping it much more simple.
 
TheCADJockey said:
I just bottled 5 gallons that I had in secondary for a year.
smelled like perfect apple cider and the sample had very little apple flavor.
If they carbonate, I'm hoping they have some apple flavor.
Click to expand...


Try priming with FAJC instead of just sugar.
 
MarkKF said:
Try priming with FAJC instead of just sugar.
Click to expand...

That was the original plan, but after having it in secondary so long.. I just primed it as I do my beer. It will still be enjoyed, even if I have to splash it with some juice or something.
 
phug said:
I'm looking forward to the results from that CADjockey
Click to expand...

Me too. I wasn't trying to neglect it, but with everything going on it just wasn't a priority. I was careful moving it when we had to and only opened it to xfer to secondary, then once to see if it was infected when we moved at about 6 months. The sample I took when bottling was 1.000 exactly. I'm just hoping the yeast didn't eat all the apple flavor. I'll post back when I test one, which will be soon.
 
Alright so here are the results of my cider. It was cheap apple juice from Target at about $20 for five gallons. Used montrachet yeast. After a few days, it blew out the airlock. After a month, I racked it to secondary where it sat for ~1 year. Bottled with 5 oz. priming sugar the same way I do beer. One week in bottles, little to no carb, smells gorgeously of apple and tastes like straight booze. I'll try another bottle here and there, likely cut it with juice or something to get through it. Next batch will stick to the recipe time wise and use ECY to see if I can actually make an enjoyable cider. Friend drank 3 of these xmas night and was wrecked, claiming he couldn't even taste it after the first one.
 
I was just wondering how it had turned out. I've only used Montrachet once for edwort's apfelwine, and supposedly that's an acquired taste.

Maybe once bottle conditioning is done things will taste a bit different.
 

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