Another good apple year in New England

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

wreckinball9

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
275
Reaction score
1
Location
Lakes Region NH
Well, much to my relief, the apples in my area flourished even with some weird weather this year- the hurricane, a fall heat wave, excessive rain, etc.
I just picked up 60 gallons of fresh pressed cider, directly from the farm. Unpasteurized, unpreserved, just as nature intended, for $2.75 gallon in bulk.

Used half dose of campden for 24 hours before the pitch.
Did 40 gallons with 16 lbs light brown sugar (which is 2 lbs per 5 gallons) and safale S04.

Did the other 20 with 8 lbs brown sugar and Wyeast 4184.

I will try to stop both recipes at 1.010 by racking and cold crashing. I will probably sulfite and sorbate the 4184, because as Kevin has pointed out in his thread, it will start back up and dry out even after several rackings and cold crashing.

this is the third year in a row i have done these recipes on this scale. the results are usually good, although the s04 cider ends up being quite tart occasionally, probably due to the mix of apples. Here in NH its mostly macs, with some macoun and some cortlands.
 
i am jealous. juice doesn't come that cheap for me here in northern california even though there are a few orchards nearby. we even have three trees hear in our yard, but sadly the apples aren't very good.
 
wreckinball9 said:
Well, much to my relief, the apples in my area flourished even with some weird weather this year- the hurricane, a fall heat wave, excessive rain, etc.
I just picked up 60 gallons of fresh pressed cider, directly from the farm. Unpasteurized, unpreserved, just as nature intended, for $2.75 gallon in bulk.

Used half dose of campden for 24 hours before the pitch.
Did 40 gallons with 16 lbs light brown sugar (which is 2 lbs per 5 gallons) and safale S04.

Did the other 20 with 8 lbs brown sugar and Wyeast 4184.

I will try to stop both recipes at 1.010 by racking and cold crashing. I will probably sulfite and sorbate the 4184, because as Kevin has pointed out in his thread, it will start back up and dry out even after several rackings and cold crashing.

this is the third year in a row i have done these recipes on this scale. the results are usually good, although the s04 cider ends up being quite tart occasionally, probably due to the mix of apples. Here in NH its mostly macs, with some macoun and some cortlands.

After cold crashing do you bottle or keg? Do you keep it cold from then on?
 
After cold crashing do you bottle or keg? Do you keep it cold from then on?

I keg some, bottle some, and keep some in better bottles for long term storage/ageing. I don’t keep all of it cold so occasionally the bottles will carb on their own. This is especially true with the Wyeast 4184, but the ale yeast doesn’t typically start fermenting in the bottle once it has been cold crashed and racked.
 
Back
Top