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Wow, I thought my 25 gallon day was an accomplishment! This is super impressive. Looks like you’ve got a setup and system that is dialed in.

Well Phoenix definitely gets above room temp :) Just a follow up on this. I actually ended up racking the fast-fermenting cider into a secondary so I can pumpkin spice it for fall (reserved a gallon to taste alone). I racked the slower fermenting cider on top of the lees and it just took off...

I bought both packets at the same time from my LHBS. But being in AZ, stuff gets shipped through Phoenix, and I'm sure that heat can affect some yeast packets more than others.

I hadn't considered the butterfly effect. Thanks, Jeff Goldbloom!

When I do wild ferments, I sometimes use 1 gallon of entirely blemish free, rinsed apples as a starter (no sulfites at all) and use that to inoculate a larger batch that I have added a little bit of sulfite to. Just trying to minimize any possible unfavorable microorganisms

So I picked apples at two friends houses the other week. They live in the same neighborhood, just a few hundred feet between houses. I juiced the apples from each tree separately. Each tree had similar looking and tasting apples. The each had a ph of 3.5 (based upon oh strips), each had the same...

Right now it’s all fermenting, but a friend of mine is a professional brewer and she said she’d be interested in buying 40 gallons for a apple beer (a real fruit beer, not that Red’s type garbage) trying to decide if it’s worth my time or not!

Holy smokes, $4 a gallon for juice!! The best I can get is $8 a gallon for the Sprouts / Whole foods juices, which don't make nearly as good cider as the fresh-pressed stuff. I'm in Arizona, so I've seen a HALF gallon of fresh pressed juice for $13... There aren't any other options really, so...

Looks great! I made a very dry blueberry cider, and it's not my favorite... In the future I'd want there to be more residual sugar and not let the blueberries ferment out. Mine tastes kind of like I added some cheap red wine to a dry cider :confused:. Hope yours is more to your liking!

I would say getting the juice from said fruit would be even better, as I've had a moldy experience with just throwing bits of apple into commercial juice years ago when I was trying to get a wild ferment.

Hmm, looks like bits of mold... how long had it been sitting with this much head space? Anyway, if you don't rack it into the corny, ought to be fine, yeah?

Thanks for your replies. I should have used the term "unripe apples" as that is what I meant. Anyway, it looks like a bumper crop coming this year after a total dud last year due to late frosts. Just hoping to prevent tree damage!

So after a terrible apple year last year, my area has apples trees that are LOADED with apple and will probably break a lot of branches on local trees. If I pick some early apples now to help prevent tree damage, how useful are these early apple for hard cider? I'd love some feedback.

I'm 3 weeks into a pear cider from pears picked at a friend's house. I used Red Star champagne yeast for 3 gallons, and it's still fermenting away as well. Sounds like a similar story... I'd much rather it go slow and ferment to dryness than either making rocket fuel in 3 days, or the yeast...

Well I guess I would have had my answer if I waited another 24 hours. This is the rather active fermentation that I've going going on right now. I guess that 36 hour window was enough!

TandemTails, I did take an initial gravity with a refractometer: 13.6 Brix. I did not think to take a new reading after only 36 hours. I have read that Saccharomyces species of yeast (even the wild ones) are more tolerant to SO2, non-Saccharomyces species are less tolerant, but still more...

So on saturday I pressed a little over 2 gallons of my prettiest, cleanest, and blemish free apples that I picked around town and let it sit for 36 hours by itself to hopefully get the good wild yeasts going. At the same time, I pressed some more questionable (but not moldy, rotting, or gross)...

If your neighbor's tree is eating apples (something really bland, like a red delicious), you may consider either adding a small proportion of crab apples (even 5% can make a difference). Or you can add a bit of malic acid and wine tannins from your LHBS to give a bit more character. I also like...

In my opinion, the extra corn sugar shouldn't pose any issues with fermentation or bottle conditioning, but it may end up a little hoochy / boozy if not back sweetened or otherwise flavored (cherry juice, or something). You can always let it ferment out and see how you like it. You have...

I just moved to town a few days ago, and will be facing the same problem as you. When I was here for my interview trip, I was told by someone at Mother Road Brewing that they host a homebrew club meeting, and i witnessed them help a home brewer with caps... Not much info, but I hope to learn...