Cider Making - Wild Fermenting

BGBC said:

Interesting. It does seem low for the ciders/juices I've worked with in the past. All have been around 1.055 +/- 0.002.

My wild cider is still chugging along after 2+ weeks (took 3+ days for the first bubbles to appear) and I'm getting a lot of the sulfuric/rhino fart smells coming out of the airlock. Hoping that calms down and doesn't impact the final product.

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FWIW, I recently racked my wild cider (no added yeast) and it was only down to 1.008 after ~2 months. I topped it up with some fresh AJ to reduce the headspace, so that's probably higher now.

Was pretty surprised to see it still so high. Taste was good, a little tart balanced with the apple flavor. Still a mild sulfur odor, but not terrible.

Very interesting BGBC, I will try and take a reading of one of my wild ciders next weekend if I remember, the timing is about the same so it would be interesting to compare. Mine were certainly sulfury to start with, but I think that has dropped significantly.

Please let me know how this turns out! This is awesome! Super pumped to hear how these strains/blends do in cider.

BGBC said:

FWIW, I recently racked my wild cider (no added yeast) and it was only down to 1.008 after ~2 months. I topped it up with some fresh AJ to reduce the headspace, so that's probably higher now.

Was pretty surprised to see it still so high. Taste was good, a little tart balanced with the apple flavor. Still a mild sulfur odor, but not terrible.

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Just checking back in here. I noticed today that this airlock was bubbling again, 3-4 times a minute. I also added some nutrient about 2 weeks ago, but it took several weeks for it to kick back up again.

Maybe I should have left it in primary longer, but there was a lot of lees built up and it hadn't shown any sign of activity for a month or so.

Subscribed. Also, I have my first batches of funky cider bottle conditioning as we speak. 1 gallon cider fermented with my sourdough starter; 1 gallon with wyeast 3724, brett lambicus, and lacto; and 1 gallon mostly wild fermented because I didn't pitch any yeast but I probably cross contaminated it at some point a couple months down the road with the second batch because I am a goofus and forgot to sanitize my wine thief.

I made a batch if cider four weeks back. I also mini-mashed 1/2# carapils and 1# golden naked oats with it. Then added 2# of brown sugar. OG was 1.074. I pitched only wyeast Brett B. And let it ferment warm at 74. Checked last week when I noticed activity had stopped. Gravity was at 1.000 !!! In only three weeks!! Taste was dry as you would expect from 1.000 but flavor was good. I bottled all of it except one gallon which I put in a jug with some whisky soaked oak chips.

My friend made a 100% brett b cider a month or so ago. Turned out real crisp and tasty. Now he's fermenting a three gallon batch with WLP575 and brett b. He's gonna age it on oak cubes, I believe.

A couple weeks ago I check gravity and tasted my spontaneous ferment cider that I've had since the fall (unpasteurized orchard cider, no added yeast or bugs, just what was already in there). I let it go for maybe 2 months in primary, where it hit 0.999 and tasted like sulfury ass, before I racked it off the less (of which there wasn't much). It's been sitting since, and when I just checked it it had dropped to 0.998 (where I'm guessing it's probably going to stay), but the sulfur notes are almost entirely gone (a hint instead of a punch in the face), and it's got some neat fruit and funk note going. I was initially worried it was going to be a dumper. I'm planning on waiting until late spring and then bottling it.

A lot of people hate on the champagne yeasts but I personally think they make the best dry ciders (also my favorite style). I've been experimenting with a few this year and so far I am very happy with the DV10 cider I made. Keep the temperatures below 68 when you ferment.

CorporateHippie said:

I made a batch if cider four weeks back. I also mini-mashed 1/2# carapils and 1# golden naked oats with it. Then added 2# of brown sugar. OG was 1.074. I pitched only wyeast Brett B. And let it ferment warm at 74. Checked last week when I noticed activity had stopped. Gravity was at 1.000 !!! In only three weeks!! Taste was dry as you would expect from 1.000 but flavor was good. I bottled all of it except one gallon which I put in a jug with some whisky soaked oak chips.

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I should mention that I re-used the yeast cake from that and poured more apple juice along with 2# of brown sugar (same recipe as the original just minus the grist). This time I am going to ferment at 62 and see if the 12 degree swing will do anything to fermentation time, final gravity, and/or flavor.

ALSO....the oaked version of the Brett Cider will come in just over 10% ABV !!

I tasted the sourdough starter cider last night: It's fantastic. Crisp, dry, refreshing, and still has some apple flavor. There's the faintest bit of alcohol heat, but that's probably because I fermented too warm at the start of fermentation (like, very warm, in a misguided attempt to bring out some lacto character. D'oh!) and I suspect that it will age out. 10/10 would brew again. I think I've found a new house yeast strain, now I just need to try it in a beer.

That sounds good! Time for an update on this thread, I have sampled all the ciders today. All including the wild ciders fermented out to 1.000 giving an ABV across the board of 5.25%.

With the apple juice used, these were always going to be fairly neutral ciders which in turn should allow the yeast / bacteria to shine. There is certainly a big difference.

Wallonian Farmhouse - Neutral, dry, little funk, low acidity.

Brett Brux - Good flavour, slightly more acidity than Wallonian.

Melange - More of an alcohol kick, good funky flavour, nice acidity.

Farmhouse WLP 670 - Funky, tasty, very nice.

Amalgamation - As above, very good.

Wild Ciders - All 3 demi's have similar characteristics reminiscent of the WLP 670 and Amalgamation ciders and are very good. I wouldn't hesitate to wild ferment again.

These ciders will have to wait a while until they get bottled so they may well develop further over time, however at this point all are pleasant and drinkable. My recommendations (against my personal taste in Cider) would be WLP 670 and Amalgamation. The YeastBay yeasts performed very well in the cider overall however based on these experiments I would not personally recommend Wallonian Farmhouse for Cider (if you're taste in cider is similar to mine, funky) as it is too neutral.