99 Questions

[KaoticBliss]

Hi Everyone!

First post and first time brewing. I have a ton of questions and hope to get some of them answered. I am still learning the terms so please talk to me as if I am 1st grade. 😀

I am attempting to make apple and/or pear cider. I have an ample supply supply of fresh (free) fruit from local farms here in the Pacific Northwest.

Here are my questions:

1. Should I be worried about bacteria and whatnot in my cider. All of the fruit came from trees nothing from the ground. All of this will not be made into hard cider.

2. What supplies are most important? I have carboys, food grade buckets and plenty of bottles. Should I have things like a hydrometer or thermometer?

3. How many days in advance of pressing is it acceptable to cut/prepare the fruit? My plan is do it Saturday or Sunday but with so much fruit I would like to get a head start.

4. Should my first fermentation be done in a carboy or a bucket?

5. I have narrowed down my choice of cider yeasts down to 3 options. Cider House Select, Mangrove Jack's and Vintner's Harvest. Any suggestions?

6. I have read quite a bit on back sweetening. Most things say use frozen juice concentrate. Can I use leftover cider from pressing? Or even better yet can I just make my own.

7. Speaking of sweetening being the I am getting fresh apples in season will I need additional sugar to ferment?

Thanks everyone!

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[Maylar]

1) Yes. There will be wild yeast and bacteria on the apples. First thing to do after pressing is to treat the juice with potassium metabislfite (K-Meta) - typically 1/4 TSP for 5 gallons. That will kill unwanted stuff. Wait a day or 2 before pitching your yeast.

2) Hydrometer is a must-have. Thermometer is handy too, I use one of those IR guns. Need something called an autosiphon and tubing for racking and also a bottling wand. Need a stirring paddle. Must have cleaning and sanitizing chemicals, like One-Step cleaner and StarSan. Read up about sanitation. Need air lock thingies too.

3) If treated with K-Meta a few days is OK.

4) Your choice. I do buckets for the first part (primary), then siphon to carboys for the secondary.

5) Can't comment, I haven't used those.

6) Yes and yes. Keep extra juice in the cold fridge.

7) Don't add sugar. Your fresh juice should start with gravity at about 1.050 (here's why you need a hydrometer), which will give you about 6.5% alcohol.

Good luck & have fun.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi KaoticBliss - and welcome.
Simply adding apple juice to "backsweeten" your cider will mean that you are adding a great deal of liquid (about a gallon) for every lb of sugar in the juice. The reason why many recipes suggest "concentrate" is that you add the same amount of sugar but in much less liquid. So, if you are interested in using apple juice to sweeten your cider one thing you might consider is concentrating the juice and you can do this quite simply by freezing some of the juice you press and then allowing that frozen juice to slowly thaw. You collect the liquid AS IT THAWS.. and so what thaws first is the sugar rich portion of the juice, and what thaws later is the water rich portion of the juice. If you aim to collect the first third (by volume) of the thawing juice you will have collected just about all the sugar and flavor without applying any heat to concentrate the juice - and so you would not have set the pectins. You can then compost the water rich ice.

Don't know those yeasts. My go-to yeast for cider is 71B.

 

[oldmate]

99 questions and a pitch ain't one.

 

[normonster]

*Edit - Oldmate beat me to it and was funnier.

 

[Sourz4life]

To add on to what others have said. I like to do wild ferments off apples as you generally have wild yeast and Brett on them, which can make for a really good cider. But if you want it to be only your yeast you would add 1 campden tablet (sulfites) per gallon of juice and let it sit after mixed for at least 24 hours. This will inhibit wild yeast from growing. Also with yeast selection, don't just limit yourself to "cider" or wine yeasts. Any yeast will ferment it and they all lend their own special qualities. I prefer carboys, minus stainless steel. Easier to keep oxygen out and less oxygen permeable. Back sweetening isn't just adding sugar at the end. If you keep adding sugar (minus lactose) then the yeast will just continue to eat it and increase the alcohol content. Racking off the yeast and doing this won't work either as yeast will still be in suspension. So it also depends if you plan on carbonating. If you plan to then back sweetening and plan to keg carb is not to difficult. You could either flash pasteurize or you can add campden tablet and potassium sorbate to stop any further fermentation from happening. Doing this will let you add sugar without the yeast eating it but that means no more cO2 creation which is where the keg would play in. The other way around this is making a high abv content cider which maxes out the yeasts tolerance, but then your dipping into wine territory.

 

[KaoticBliss]

Here is my batch brewing away!

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[lukebuz]

Love the carboy crate, dude! What other cool projects you have?

 

[KaoticBliss]

Love the carboy crate, dude! What other cool projects you have?

Thanks... it is rather funky. 😀

Nothing really, have a bit of vinegar going from the leftover pulp. I need to get started on a coffee table I want to build. Other than that not a damn thing.

 

[KaoticBliss]

Love the carboy crate, dude! What other cool projects you have?

Thanks... it is rather funky. 😀

Nothing really, have a bit of vinegar going from the leftover pulp. I need to get started on a coffee table I want to build. Other than that not a damn thing.

 

[lukebuz]

I'm going to steal that carboy crate idea. Funny thing about your coffee table. That's MY plans too! I have a buddy who works for Kreg, so he hooked me up with all their jigs. Now I can join boards and make some neato projects look professional (which I most certainly am not!).