Quick cask-conditioned ciders...

[DubbelDach]

OK, so attempted a cider a long time ago and it sucked. Bone dry (0.997) and I junked it up with honey, brown sugar, etc... Came into some cider a few weeks back and decided to do some easy small batches.

Went to Cherry Hill Orchards and picked up a gallon each of apple cider and cherry/apple blended cider. Both are heat pasteurized but contain no preservatives.

Took them home, poured them in buckets and added yeast nutrient and pectin enzyme. Then I split a packet of Notty between them and let 'er rip.



Once it was fermented out, I racked to new buckets and added 3 tbsp of Xylitol as per the Making Cider website. Needed more, both were incredibly tart. Added in increments and got to 7 tbsp each.

Then I boiled and added DME as a priming sugar. 0.4 oz of DME to 1 gallon, conditioning at 68F for each batch to achieve 1.4 volumes.

Placed the ciders in polypins and they're conditioning in my basement. Will serve them in my Portable Cask Serving Station.





Good idea/execution? Any suggestions or criticisms welcome...

 

[Ickythekid]

I'm really interested in how the cherry one comes out. There's a lot of people posting what they did but not enough of them coming back and saying how it turned out.

 

[Jaysus]

Yeah, that cherry one looks great!

 

[Ch4s3]

I'd be curious to hear about the cherry as well. The set up looks great!

 

[DubbelDach]

Quick update...

The polypins have swelled, so I moved them to the fridge. Swelling will go away as the gas is absorbed into the cider.

Will try one of these soon! Markers:

 

[Jaysus]

That Apple Bottom one rules!!

 

[Ickythekid]

Ya can't go wrong with the Vargas girls.

 

[DubbelDach]

Tapped the Apple Bottom last night at our homebrew club meeting:



I was incredibly happy with it... The sweetness from the xylitol was perfect. I used 7 tbsp for the 1 gallon. The carbonation was on, and it held in my portable cask serving station. I had problems before with beer not priming well and going flat. But the cider kept a nice carbonation and foamed up a nice temporary head when pumped.



I will definitely be buying more cider this weekend and firing it up again. Will probably tap Cherry Popper this weekend as well...