Fermenting just 1 Quart

[ealu-scop]

I received just one quart of fresh pressed apple/pear juice.

I don't have any adequate fermenters, certainly none that any of my airlocks will fit.

The smallest fermenter I have is a gallon, which would leave a ton of headspace.

Beyond that, how much (dry cider) yeast would you use for just a quart?

Any tips/thoughts/advice?

 

[AkTom]

You could just leave it in the sun for a few days. I’m presuming a plastic bottle. One of my favorite ciders was inadvertently done that way. I wished I had 50 gallons.
I’m guessing... an 1/8 of a teaspoon should be enough yeast. Sanitize a balloon.
Cheers

 

[S-Met]

I let a fresh pressed cider run free in the back of my fridge with nothing more than a .5 cup poured out to taste. No yeast. Cold spontaneous fermentation. Didn't time, but something like 2-3 months. Guess it was kind of like lagering. Wasn't amazing as it was not a complex cider, but was good.

 

[Sequoiacider]

A quart? Definitely a nano-brew there. My first thought was a mason jar with a drilled lid and a grommet to hold the airlock, but a quart size mason jar would probably be too full, and a half gallon would have too much headspace. It seems a 48oz jar would be the right size. You could probably find something cheap that comes in a 48oz glass bottle, empty it, pick up a drilled rubber stopper from the hardware/brew supply store and attach your airlock that way.

Regarding amount of yeast? Give it a dirty look and it will probably have enough yeast. JK. If a 11.5 gram packet is typically recommended for 5 gallons, then for a quart you would need only .575 gram (1/20th of a packet) to properly inoculate a quart.

 

[bucketnative]

I have fermented 1/2 gal of apple juice right in the bottle it came in. I drilled a hole for a rubber grommet for an airlock in the cap. Sanitized the cap, dropped a small bit of yeast in the bottle and sealed it up.

Bottom line - use the bottle it came in.

 

[RPh_Guy]

+1
Just keep it 50-60°F. No need to add yeast.

I'm wondering what container you have that won't fit an airlock.

 

[LittleRiver]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/brewing-system-brew-single-pint-homebrew.html

 

[S-Met]

I think a #2 or #3 stopper will fit the average milk-jug sized opening. I think its the same up to a gal.

For the odd wide-mouth, id just loosly set the lid on top.

Headspace shouldn't matter too much, you will have minimal expansion.

 

[Chalkyt]

Yep, as above. I left a 500ml grolsch bottle of juice in the fridge for secondary top up. After a couple of weeks when I racked the primary, I opened the grolsch bottle and had a very enthusiastic volcano. No added yeast, it just fermented by itself at around 3 degrees C even though I thought the cold would put it to sleep until I needed it. SWMBO would probably been a bit unhappy if it had turned into a bottle bomb inside the fridge.. lesson learned, maybe a bit of campden tablet in there next time!

I use about a teaspoon of dry yeast (SO4, Nottingham etc) with the same amount of DAP per gallon (5 litres), so 1/8-1/4 teaspoon would be about right for a quart (a litre).

 

[RPh_Guy]

maybe a bit of campden tablet in there next time!

Airlock, or cover with foil or plastic wrap and rubber band.

Or freeze it in a plastic container.

 

[Chalkyt]

Yep, good idea for next time since I lost about half of it to the volcano.

 

[S-Met]

Yep, as above. I left a 500ml grolsch bottle of juice in the fridge for secondary top up. After a couple of weeks when I racked the primary, I opened the grolsch bottle and had a very enthusiastic volcano. No added yeast, it just fermented by itself at around 3 degrees C even though I thought the cold would put it to sleep until I needed it. SWMBO would probably been a bit unhappy if it had turned into a bottle bomb inside the fridge.. lesson learned, maybe a bit of campden tablet in there next time!

I use about a teaspoon of dry yeast (SO4, Nottingham etc) with the same amount of DAP per gallon (5 litres), so 1/8-1/4 teaspoon would be about right for a quart (a litre).

But how did it taste?

 

[Chalkyt]

Pretty good, actually. I didn't measure the SG but I guess it was around 1.010, nicely sweet with good fizz!!!

 

[Seamonkey84]

Would headspace really be an issue during primary? I know with wine and mead it’s not a problem since there’s a lot of co2 being generated, but with lower gravity/abv of cider and beer, is there not enough CO2 to protect the brew?

 

[balrog]

Airlock, or cover with foil or plastic wrap and rubber band.

Foil.

 

[Sequoiacider]

Would headspace really be an issue during primary? I know with wine and mead it’s not a problem since there’s a lot of co2 being generated, but with lower gravity/abv of cider and beer, is there not enough CO2 to protect the brew?

The headspace isn't typically a problem in primary since active fermentation produces many volumes of CO2 which displaces the O2. It is still generally considered to be good practice to keep headspace to the minimum possible, while still leaving a little bit of headspace to account for Krausen/Foaming during fermentation.

 

[Seamonkey84]

I haven’t made any ciders yet, just a cyser, but it’s good to know if lower gravity brews need more protection. I’m planning on doing a gallon or two of cider or apple wine very soon. Just can’t decide if I want a low abv cider.
Im use to brewing my wine and meads with fruit in buckets at least twice the volume of the brew.

 

[Chalkyt]

This year, following advice from this forum I carried out my primary fermentation in an open container just covered with a cloth. For each gallon batch I used about six litres of juice in a 10 litre bucket. With both SO4 and WLP775 around an inch of foam developed in the turbulent phase. The same thing in a primary carboy resulted in a very messy airlock as the "krausen" overwhelmed the airspace and was forced out of the airlock.

The open container seemed to be an easier way to go, since turbulent primary only lasted a week or so before I racked to secondary. A side benefit of this approach is that for a gallon batch, there is enough primary to completely fill the secondary carboy so that there isn't any head space, even after discarding the settled bulk pulp etc.

My experience is that enough CO2 is generated in primary to protect the brew even in an open container. The 2019 cider using this method is the best so far.