My First Batch of Fresh Pressed Cider

[acemannw]

I started helping my neighbor when he got into home brewing this summer. It was fun and a I learned so much about how alcohol is made. I had a bad experience as a kid so I am not much of a beer guy, but I do really love hard Cider. He had a me buy a few things that I would need but let me use his kit to get everything made up.

I just did a batch of Fresh Pressed Apple Cider, I started it on October 6th.

6 gallons of fresh cider
1 packet of Champagne Yeast (misplaced the package)
3 pounds of WI honey
2 teaspoons of Northern Brewers Pectic Enzyme
4 teaspoons of Northern Brewers Yeast Nutrient

Primary was for 16 days at 70F in my utility room. Racked it to a secondary for another 14 days. It was so clear! Ended up with a very dry Cider. It needed some help in the flavor department so I added

2 bottles of Natural Apple Flavor
6 cups of Xylosweet
4.5 oz of dextrose for carbonating sugar

Bottled it up and tried to be patient and wait for things to carbonate.

1 Week in: I tried it and there were hardly and bubbles and it was almost still.
2 Weeks in: Wow what a difference the first week was it was really good after two weeks.
3 Weeks in: This stuff is amazing!! The carbonation was right where I wanted it. It was very bubbly and delicious.

ABV must be a little higher then I was expecting because my limit on these is probably 2 bottles.

 

[phug]

Good work



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[Maylar]

Awesome.

 

[acemannw]

It was far easier then I was expecting. Now I am starting to pick up some of my own equipment. Can't rely on him forever.

 

[jstluise]

Nice! I'm on my first batch of cider also...still have some time left but it is exciting seeing the progress!

Did you get any SG readings throughout the process? If not, I encourage you to get some on the next go around, since it will give you a better way to replicate or change your recipe for future batches.

As an example, let's say your fresh cider started off with an SG of 1.030. Adding 3 lbs of honey (at 95% sugar, that is 7.6oz per gallon of cider) will bump your SG up in the 1.050-1.055 range. That give you a potential alcohol level of around 7%.

Also, I was curious what you did after you got the carbonation you liked. Did you put everything into the fridge?

 

[youreanimpulse]

Sounds like the OP sweetened with Xylitol and carbed with a normal amount of priming sugar. No need to cold crash.

 

[acemannw]

Yes sweetened with Xyilo and carbed with regular sugar. I have been getting a couple of bottles that didn't have as much carbonation as I would like so I am thinking I didn't stir it up enough when I dumped in the sugar water.

Seeing as it was my first batch I didn't record the gravity measurements. If I remember correctly it was 1.070 after adding the honey. I got it down to 1.000 after primary and secondary.

It was very sweet apples, next year I am going to ask for more of a mix.

 

[jstluise]

Great! Thanks for the info. At 1.070 you're looking at low 9s for the ABV! No wonder you're sitting pretty after 2 ciders