First Try at Cider: Fast Ferment Method

[NSMikeD]

After watching a BeerSmith Podcast with Mary Izett, author of Speed Brewing: Techniques and Recipes for Fast-Fermneting Beers, Ciders, Meads and More, I was inspired to break out my one gallon gear and jump in.



On the left is Dark and Stormy Cider following her recipe adding a half cup steeped tea consisting of:

vanilla bean
grated ginger
star anise
cinnamon sticks,and
molasses

using a gallon of Stop and Shop 100% Apple Juice , and the left jug is a basic cider using Stop and Shop Honey Crisp Style Apple Juice.

1/16 tsp of yeast nutrients was added and pitch with Nottingham dry yeast.

The Dark and Stormy read 11.5 Brix (1.046) and the HoneyCrisp read 11 Brix (1.044). I plan to ferment to completion 7-10 days and then prime and bottle for 4 - 7 days, chill and consume.


I like the idea of fast fermenting beverages to supplement the 2.5 gallons I brew, keg and tap to break up the routine and more importantly being able to share with friends who don't share the same love of craft beers that I have.

If this goes well, I have my eye on a Strawberry Peppercorn Mead recipe in the book.

This method appears to be a lot of fun.


Questions? Advice? Comments? Anyone else start out this way or using Izett's methods?

 

[Maylar]

Keep it below 70 degrees with Nottingham or you risk generating fusel alcohols. And 1/16 tsp seems light on the nutrient.

 

[MindenMan]

I agree ^^^ fermenting too warm will cause "fusel alcohols" the worst IMHO is the one that smells like acetone. I know from personal experience with the acetone smell...

 

[NSMikeD]

thanks, I do ferment (at least so far before the warm weather arrives) between 65° - 68°, the room is pushing 70° today, but the jugs are cool.

Appreciate the information about the yeast. The recipes both call for 1/16th of a teaspoon for 1/4 packet of dry yeast for a 1 gallon batch, but in her first chapter on yeast and yeast nutrition, her table reads 2/3 of a teaspoon. The label on my Fermax says 1 - 1.5 tsp per gallon, so I added just shy of a teaspoon to each fermentor.

 

[bembel]

The extra few days you wait when fermentation temp is kept well below 70 is nothing compared to the body crushing, incapacitating hangover you will suffer from fusel alcohol from a faster ferment. Your brain cells will thank you for waiting!

 

[Korken91]

NSMikeD, I heard the episode your talking about with Mary Izett and bought her amazing book minutes after! I can warmly recommend her and her husband's podcast about all things fermented on http://heritageradionetwork.org/series/fuhmentaboudit/ you can find it on stitcher and ITunes as well. Hope your cider will be good.

 

[mikerlynch26]

I wonder if this is one of those things where the prevailing knowledge "mead requires a year or more to be good" was accepted by all and then Bray and his BOMM comes around....

Will look this up

 

[mwilcox]

I wonder if this is one of those things where the prevailing knowledge "mead requires a year or more to be good" was accepted by all and then Bray and his BOMM comes around....

Will look this up

quite a bit of hyperbole here, most specifically the "accepted by all"

one can make cider quickly. One can make cider slowly. Depending on the style I'm making and the apples/juice involved, one method is sometimes better than the other.

My best New World cider blends are made very slowly. My best ice cider takes more than a year to be ready. Spiced cider I've made in a couple months, and I've made some very good cider with other fruit in a few weeks. With all of them I work to keep my yeast happy. The alternative isn't very drinkable to me but others may not be bothered by it.

There are a few crotchety pros who insist things have to be slow. They're not willing to change, and that's fine. That attitude is far from ubiquitous.

cheers--
--Michael

 

[NSMikeD]

Izett's recipe instructions said to ferment 4 - 7 days between 65° and 80° then bottle. Her bottling instructions are to bottle before reaching terminal gravity - bottle between, 1.002 - 1.008 depending on desired sweetness recommending between 1.004 - 1.006 for most of the non-beer beverages in the book. These are meant too be consumed daily soon after bottling.

The ciders have been fermenting in ambient temperature at 70° for 9 days (waiting on some parts so I can build an ale fermenting chamber, so not much I can do about temperature right now) . Their respective gravities are 1.020 and 1.019, ABV's 3.41% and 3.28%.

I was planning to bottle today. The low ABV doesn't bother me as I am not looking for strong cider - more of a refreshing cocktail. The pipette samples I tasted today were very nice. No obvious off-flavors.


I presume either the fermenting is going very slow, or I am stuck.

I'll put these back in the cellar for a few more days and take another reading to check on the gravities to see whether or not they are stuck.

Anything else I should be considering?

BTW, while I have tasted very few hard ciders in my life, I did try Samuel Smiths the a few weeks ago (my local deli carried it) and really liked it. I looked up some cider ABVs a for comparison and learned that SS is 5% ABV, so a high ABV is not my goal

 

[Drewed]

If you bottle at that high of a gravity, you should pasteurize the bottles. There is enough to sugar left in that cider to cause bottle bombs if you don't.

 

[NSMikeD]

If you bottle at that high of a gravity, you should pasteurize the bottles. There is enough to sugar left in that cider to cause bottle bombs if you don't.

Thanks, I'll be bottling into 750ml with swing tops and one test plastic bottle so I can have an idea when they are carbed. These are meant to be consumed fairly quickly. Meanwhile, I'll be able to vent off excess pressure.

 

[Drewed]

I ran across this the other day regarding swing top bottles. Might be an idea worth trying.

I have been using a pressure relief system on my swing top bottles with Kombucha which is an unpredictable secondary. It doesn't get any simpler than this. I must say that I'm using 1L bottles, not 12 oz or 500 ML so the technique would require a slight mod. I loop a rubber band through the bail..... a standard wide rubber band (size 64), feed it through itself so I have what amounts to a double half hitch around the bail, and the loose end stretches down under the bottle. The bail is NOT snapped, the rubber band pulling down on the bail which pulls down on the top is the only thing holding the top down. They carbonate very well, and if you pop the top at room temp, they will gush, but put them in the fridge and they are perfect. I believe they will pressure up to about 30 PSI, but I haven't measured it.

H.W.

 

[NSMikeD]

I bottled today. The Honeycrisp dropped to 4.0 brix for 1.016 FG and dark and storm is stuck at 5.0 brix, 1.02

ABV is lower than my target (3.41 and 3,68) but the ciders taste really good.