Should I join a "club" that allows me in?

[Uncle Bob]

I'm a wordy guy. I typically (never,) join these forums. I do however have a strong interest in learning and have a dozen or so hobbies (inclusive of my wife's interests,) that are shared between my wife and myself. Including: a rather impressive vegetable garden, raising livestock (pigs, goats, chickens, horses, and TBD low land beef cattle,) charcuterie, hot and cold smoking, cheese making, and cider making. It is in fact the cider making brought me to this forum. Over the past ten plus years or so we have continued to plant apple trees at the rate of two tree per year here on our horse farm. To date we have always pressed our own cider. This year, 2021 our trees where overwhelmed with fruit. Staying close to home, because I/we can (wife still goes off to work, a bit younger than her still spry husband has a decade to go prior to retirement) I maintain the farm. Our respect for covid and the fact that our second granddaughter (11 months old) has been going through chemotherapy
keeps us sheltered from others. We have seen our granddaughter who resides a mire 1.5 hours away twice as a result of what she/we are all going through.
ENOUGH of the background, you get the flavor. We are house bound (much by choice) and we continue to live off our land. The topic is "making hard cider." In the past we have picked, crushed, and juiced or apples. We have a blend of trees on site; Empire, Braeburn, Cortland, Fugi, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, and Macintosh, as well as a few wild apple trees that are scattered throughout the area and able to supplement our homegrown varieties.
POINT: Want to learn. Have my first batch of four 1 gallon jugs of cider sitting in the basement all with air locks (and another 5 gal. bucket of cider just starting the fermenting process (as of this afternoon)), labeled with the different yeasts used, first batch of four 1 gallon stopped fermenting (no signs of perking for about one week), doing a cold crush and nearing the time to go to stage two; bottling.
I'm inclined to do the whole 'plastic bottle' pressure test prior to doing a pasteurization of glass bottles. In short, taste at this point is not my total priority. I suspect it will be "okay," and the next attempt will be for flavor, taste, clarity, (etc.)
TO MY NEWLY FOUND "FRIENDS": What might I expect? What would you suggest as my "beware" issues as I test my first attempt (which I'll probably test on my wife.)
Glad to be on board. As noted, I'm wordy, won't be this wordy in the future, simply making my introduction and setting a stage.

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from Colorado

You may want to review the Ed Wort apfelwein thread, I love that stuff, it is great aged.

 

[Brüverine]

Hey Bob, welcome aboard!
Sounds like you have an impressive variety of projects to keep you busy!

Sounds like you are well on your way to having your first ciders. A couple of questions:

Do you intend to carbonate any of your ciders, or would you like them all to be still?

Which varieties of yeast did you use? Interested to hear what you may have to look forward to.

It also might be helpful to know what the base of each cider is (given your robust orchard varietals). By the end of this "experiment", I would wager that YOU will have a lot to teach all of us!

 

[mashpaddled]

Welcome. I planted a few dwarf cider apple varieties in one of my gardens so in a few years hopefully I will be with you. We have a lot of culinary apple trees in the neighborhood (I am within a thirty minute drive of @Cyclman over in east Denver) but apples with more bitterness and/or sourness are preferable for adding structure to the cider that culinary apples tend to lack. One thing you may consider as you gain greater skill as a cidermaker is adjusting tannin and acid content to the final product but for now a good healthy fermentation and a decent beverage is a great beginning goal.

Ciders are all over the map on still to sparking and dry to sweet. What kind of cider do you want to make?

 

[Uncle Bob]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from Colorado

You may want to review the Ed Wort apfelwein thread, I love that stuff, it is great aged.

I will follow up with your recommendation. Certainly a lot of information out there. I find it all interesting, one of my issues is conflicting information (not that I have found any within this forum, but suspect eventually I will.) Much like some of my prior projects gone wrong, I tend to try things as per suggestions, some gets spit out very quickly.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Hey Bob, welcome aboard!
Sounds like you have an impressive variety of projects to keep you busy!

Sounds like you are well on your way to having your first ciders. A couple of questions:

Do you intend to carbonate any of your ciders, or would you like them all to be still?

Which varieties of yeast did you use? Interested to hear what you may have to look forward to.

It also might be helpful to know what the base of each cider is (given your robust orchard varietals). By the end of this "experiment", I would wager that YOU will have a lot to teach all of us!

 

[Uncle Bob]

Thank you for your kind note. Yup, I did not mention in my introduction but we live in Maine. If you don't have a whole bunch of projects, it can be a long cold winter. Try to keep ourselves busy year round.
In response to your question: I am seeking a level of carbonation. This being my first go around, if it falls flat, it falls flat. I'll know soon enough. I feel I'm on the right track ... I am trying a number of different yeasts each in their own gallon jug.
1) SafeCider AB-1,
2) SafCider AS-2,
3) Premier Blanc
4) Premier Cuvee'
and the 5 gallon bucket I used Cider house Select yeast.
As for the apple varieties used, all of them. I do appreciate that I should be more accurate about the varies and percentages of each strain, and eventually I will keep a record. At this point, my Empire, Honeycrisp, and Fugi trees are yielding far less fruit than the others. They are ALL in there, in the next couple of years they should all be producing ample quantities to be more precise.
To be mentioned: I'm not really crazy about cider, but I like to play around, have many of the proper tools, and looking to find something that I may like. I suspect if I were to find something along the lines of a gentle, somewhat dry, sparking, apple wine, I might like it. So I play. If indeed you have a suggestion for the "target" product I would certainly welcome your suggestion, if such a product exists.
Being new to the game, and only feeling my way through trial and error, I should also note I do prefer a product with as little haze as possible. All the products above have had the pectic enzyme added to that desired end. I suspect from what I have going so far, I'm probably as "clear" as I'm going to get and it is acceptable.
If the truth be known, more of a martini drinker, no vermouth, very, very clear.
Thank you for reaching out.

 

[Brüverine]

My only recommendations would be to try a champagne yeast as well! I think that might end with a nice result and should help clear the cider as well.

I also know that some folks will use sparkolloid for fining their wines...so I imagine it would work here too!

 

[BrewinInPA]

I've used champagne yeast many times.. red star works great .., I've also had good success with nottinghame ale yeast and voss kveik. Just rack to secondary jug after like two weeks, add a clarifier like gelatin or biofine if you want your cider clear. You can back-sweeten with a non-fermentable sugar. If you are planning on doing a lot of batches, get a kegerator, some corny kegs, a corny adapter kit and then just keg and force carbonate your cider just like beer.

 

[Uncle Bob]

My only recommendations would be to try a champagne yeast as well! I think that might end with a nice result and should help clear the cider as well.

I also know that some folks will use sparkolloid for fining their wines...so I imagine it would work here too!

Thank you for the tip. I was under the impression, possibly mistakenly, that the Premier Blanc was a champagne yeast. I'll follow up and confirm but as per your suggestion, and that of some articles read I thought it sounded good and that I enjoy the champagne yeast in my trials. Thank you.

 

[Uncle Bob]

I've used champagne yeast many times.. red star works great .., I've also had good success with nottinghame ale yeast and voss kveik. Just rack to secondary jug after like two weeks, add a clarifier like gelatin or biofine if you want your cider clear. You can back-sweeten with a non-fermentable sugar. If you are planning on doing a lot of batches, get a kegerator, some corny kegs, a corny adapter kit and then just keg and force carbonate your cider just like beer.

Just confirmed, it was Red Star champagne yeast I used on one of my trial gallons. Looking forward to the outcome. So your thought is that I will have to back sweeten? I have kegerator running beer from the basement to my kitchen sink, any more kegs around here and and the place will look like a tavern. On second thought...
Thank you

 

[Drewch]

1) SafeCider AB-1,
2) SafCider AS-2,
3) Premier Blanc
4) Premier Cuvee'
and the 5 gallon bucket I used Cider house Select yeast.

I've only done a few batches of cider, but so far I like the results I get from English Ale yeasts -- they still ferment fairly dry but their ester production lends a perception of sweetness even in a 1.000 FG cider.

 

[Brüverine]

You were absolutely correct! My bad I missed that one.

 

[khannon]

Or get wild.. not wild yeast, but try our some beer strains, probably the best feedback I have gotten on ciders were one with S-04 and one done with Belle saison yeast.

 

[TheMadKing]

Or get wild.. not wild yeast, but try our some beer strains, probably the best feedback I have gotten on ciders were one with S-04 and one done with Belle saison yeast.

I love S04 and Brett mixed together

 

[Uncle Bob]

Thank you for the tip. I was under the impression, possibly mistakenly, that the Premier Blanc was a champagne yeast. I'll follow up and confirm but as per your suggestion, and that of some articles read I thought it sounded good and that I enjoy the champagne yeast in my trials. Thank you.

I've only done a few batches of cider, but so far I like the results I get from English Ale yeasts -- they still ferment fairly dry but their ester production lends a perception of sweetness even in a 1.000 FG cider.

I have plenty of apples left on my trees as well as many in the neighborhood, certainly see no reason not to try your suggestion of English ale yeasts. Totally in the mood to try anything suggested by those that have some experience. It may not be today, tomorrow, or even the near future, but I won't give up until I find something I like. The micro beer enthusiasts have proven 'the sky's the limit' when it comes to trying new/different things.