Baugher's Hard Cider

[wscott823]

Baugher's Hard Cider 1.0

This recipe is a work in progress, I kind of threw this together after reading some basic do's/don'ts for cider brewing. This is only my 2nd attempt at brewing cider, so I'm just hoping it turns out. With 2 packets of champagne yeast I was hoping to do two things:

1) speed up fermentation
2) Get a crisp finish to the cider without too much sweetness.​

Not sure how long fermentation will take before bottling to avoid exploding cider.

Ingredients:
4.5 Gal. Baugher's Orchard Cider (No preservative)
2 lb bag light brown sugar
2 pk EC-1118 Champagne yeast

I disolved brown sugar in 2 qts boiling water for 5 minutes, set aside in primary plastic fermenter. I then pasteurized 4.5 gallons cider at 160 degrees for 45 minutes in attempt to kill off any wild yeast strains. Would've done more, but I'm limited by my 5 gal equipment right now. Pitching the yeast as directed on packaging, I chilled cider to about 75 degrees and actively stirred the cider "wort" for 5 minutes. Finally added to the brown sugar syrup.
O.G. reading: 1.064 S.G.

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Fermentation wasn't looking too promising as I never once saw a bubble from the air lock for the first 7 days. I switched it from the plastic fermenter to a glass carboy and took a S.G. reading

7 day reading: 1.023 S.G. (evidently some fermentation was going on)
SWMBO was moving the carboy, seemed to be a little heavy for her and was sloshing around quite a bit, but she ended up churning the airlocked container quite well. I thought it would have an undesired effect on the cider, but now I'm pretty sure she helped aerate the brew enough to knock it out of a 'stuck' fermentation.
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Not sure if the glass carboy is making a difference, but there is definitely a lot more bubbling going on now. I plan on getting another S.G. reading at 14 days (5/11)

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Post #10 explains my suspicion why the primary fermenter wasn't as active as I planned. The secondary fermenter is still churning out rhino farts at a much slower rate than a week ago, but I plan on bottling the cider on Saturday morning.

 

[olllllo]

I moved this here. Generally the recipe database is for tested recipes. This one appears to be new.

 

[SeamusMac]

Do you have any idea as to which apples are blended to make the Baugher's Orchard Cider? I've heard that the right blend is key to making good cider and if yours turns out to be good then I'll have somewhere to start!

 

[wscott823]

I called up the orchard and they informed me their blend varies upon when you get the cider during their season. I picked up this cider at the tail end to which they commented it's probably a blend of Red/Golden Delicious as well as Staymen apples.

For cider in the future I'd like to choose fresh apples myself from the orchard using Fuji, Empire & Gala.

 

[gregbathurst]

Do you have any idea as to which apples are blended to make the Baugher's Orchard Cider? I've heard that the right blend is key to making good cider and if yours turns out to be good then I'll have somewhere to start!

Blending is definitely an important part of cider making.
However when dessert apples are used the variation in flavours is limited, though still important. European ciders are made using a mix of dessert and cider apples, which have defined flavour charactistics of bitterness and acidity. I think the most important thing is bitterness (tannins) which can really add complexity and body to cider, but take ageing to fully develop. If you can't get cider apples then using some crab apples or wild apples can add tannins which really improve cider. Have a look around your neighborhood for any likely trees. I have heard that cider apples aren't part of the American cider tradition but when you hear about the booming micro-brewery scene I am sure the same sort of thing could happen with cider.
If you are using ingredients like honey or brown sugar the flavours from these would tend to reduce the effectiveness of blending.

 

[SeamusMac]

Blending is definitely an important part of cider making.
However when dessert apples are used the variation in flavours is limited, though still important. European ciders are made using a mix of dessert and cider apples, which have defined flavour charactistics of bitterness and acidity. I think the most important thing is bitterness (tannins) which can really add complexity and body to cider, but take ageing to fully develop. If you can't get cider apples then using some crab apples or wild apples can add tannins which really improve cider. Have a look around your neighborhood for any likely trees. I have heard that cider apples aren't part of the American cider tradition but when you hear about the booming micro-brewery scene I am sure the same sort of thing could happen with cider.
If you are using ingredients like honey or brown sugar the flavours from these would tend to reduce the effectiveness of blending.

Thanks for the response; quite informative! I read somewhere that adding tannins to cider is the appropriate way to add bitterness and complexity to ciders, although this was after starting my Wyeast 3068 batch. I work in the produce industry so I have access to a variety of cheap apples with which to blend and try to obtain the perfect cider! I'm not into adding any fermentables to the cider like brown sugar, so the blend seems to be key.

This fall I intend to try numerous gallon batches to experiment with using crab apples for tannins as well as wold yeast for fermentation.

 

[SeamusMac]

I called up the orchard and they informed me their blend varies upon when you get the cider during their season. I picked up this cider at the tail end to which they commented it's probably a blend of Red/Golden Delicious as well as Staymen apples.

For cider in the future I'd like to choose fresh apples myself from the orchard using Fuju, Empire & Gala.

I'm not entirely sure what Staymen and Empire apples are like, although I can probably find something similar.

 

[gregbathurst]

This year I made one 10 gallon batch which is about 40% wild crab apples. It packs quite a tannin punch! though I really like it, I'm sure many people would find it too tannic. The tannin adds plenty of body and leaves your mouth just a little "furry" after, a very dry finish. I see it as similar to the views on hops in beer. Some like their beer lightly hopped, others are "hopheads", seeking out super alpha hops and adding heaps. All these things make home brewing more interesting, you can seek your own perfect brew, and the world would be boring if we all liked the same thing.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

And all I can choose from is "tree top" or "Safeway" brands.
Time to go and cry myself to sleep.

 

[wscott823]

So the other day I was watching this by Bobby_M when it dawned on me why my primary fermentation seemed so inactive. He talks about fully boiled wort losing most of it's oxygen during the boil and I probably removed much of the oxygen from my cider when I pasteurized it for 45 minutes. A valuable lesson learned for future brewing and probably enough to motivate me to explore better aeration methods for my next brew.

Sorry if this info is business as usual to you guys, I just thought I'd share for any fellow noobs such as myself

Cheers

 

[wscott823]

Just bottled the cider earlier this afternoon. Could definitely taste the alcohol this time.
S.G.=0.998 after 19 days fermentation.
Can't wait until this stuff is done conditioning in the bottles, will probably be serving some up at Memorial Day picnic next weekend.

I used 3/4 c. corn sugar for bottling, would you guys suggest letting it condition for longer than 7 days?

 

[Freezeblade]

Was the cider clear when you bottled? You need about 2-3 weeks to carbonate cider in the bottle, longer if you leave the cider to clear longer (mine takes about a month I think, but I usually let them bottle condition for about 2-3 months as of late, so I don't really know at what point they will be done carbing) General rule is 3 weeks though, for cider or for beer.


As a side note, if you drink all of your cider up when it is too young (matter of opinion, but most would consider 19 days from pitching far too young) you are doing yourself a disservice IMHO. If you DO plan on drinking it all in 7 days, save a few bottles and stash them away in a closet and forget about them for 4 months or more, then open one up, and you will have wished that you didn't drink all of them so soon.

 

[wscott823]

First of all: Holy crap you're a busy guy. 2nd, the cider was a little murky. I thought since I used two packets of yeast it would speed up the process of fermentation, but I guess I have to get a better understanding of how it works with cider.
Thanks for the informative post.

 

[wscott823]

Update on the cider:
Was bottled on 5/16, has been conditioning now for over 2 weeks. The bottles don't seem to be getting any clearer, so curiosity got the best of me and I decided to try one. Actually let the wife try it for me, I'm on antibiotics for the next two weeks (not supposed to be consuming alcohol).
Despite the murkiness of it, she said it was quite good and even got a little buzz off one. She described it as an apple champagne, dry and crisp flavor. This one seems like it achieved my initial goals for the recipe. I'm still gonna let the rest age for a while and let the harsh flavors mellow out.