Skylark
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2014
- Messages
- 43
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- 5
Hi folks, thought I'd drop in and share my first cider experience. I got a gallon of local unpasteurized cider and plopped a can of concentrate in it to get the OG up to 1.074 IIRC. Hit it with 1 Campden tablet, and some nutrient (DAP/urea). After a day, dropped about .25g of Lalvin EC-1118, and kept the fermenter around 65-68 F. It went like gang-bangers, primary was over in less than a week. It's been sitting in secondary for another week, very still, no activity, and I just tasted it and measured the FG. It is at 1.000, smells pretty strong (calculated 9.5% ABV) and champagne-y, and doesn't have much sweetness or body from the sugar (so quite dry obviously). It also doesn't taste very tart or apple-y, which is a bit unfortunate I think. I'm going to let it sit another week and taste it again, and make sure the gravity doesn't drop any further. I think I will bottle it and refrigerate at that point if it is stable. I may try to bottle-carb a few bottles, perhaps with PET first to minimize risk of bombing (don't wanna piss off SWMBO by blowing up her fridge).
I'm going to my local brew shop tomorrow to pick up two more 1-gallon fermenters so I can try more experiments! I will also pick up an ale yeast (US-05 or WPL002) and a wine yeast (Red Star Cote des Blanc) to see how I like them. The cider season is almost over for the local orchards, so I'm also thinking of trying some crazy multi-fruit concoctions or spiced cider with whatever from-concentrate juices I find at the local supermarket. But that will wait until I use up the two gallons I froze.
I'm going to my local brew shop tomorrow to pick up two more 1-gallon fermenters so I can try more experiments! I will also pick up an ale yeast (US-05 or WPL002) and a wine yeast (Red Star Cote des Blanc) to see how I like them. The cider season is almost over for the local orchards, so I'm also thinking of trying some crazy multi-fruit concoctions or spiced cider with whatever from-concentrate juices I find at the local supermarket. But that will wait until I use up the two gallons I froze.