Brand New Cider Advice?

[GreenArrow]

Hello everyone!
I'm brand spa king new to home brewing but it's something I've been reading about and wanting to try for years!
Now I know there are a ton of begginner threads on here but o was just hoping you guys could point me in the right direction.
My equipment literally shipped from Amazon this morning so I have a little time before starting my first brew (cider) and I'm just looking for some quick tips to help me out.
Becuase it's my first batch I'm only going to try a gallon with cider I got from a local orchard. It is pasteurized so no worries there. Thanks, Green Arrow.

 

[ejcrist]

Welcome aboard! I'm brand new at making alcohol myself so I'm right there with ya. Knowing what I know now, if I were giving myself advice I'd say to get a good book such as "The Everything Hard Cider" book, sanitize everything religiously, ferment in a bucket with a loose fitting lid - don't use an airlock until after primary fermentation is done and you racked into a carboy, and above all, if you're using k-meta you only need a very small amount to get 50 ppm which is about where you'll want to be in the cider pH range of 3.4-3.8. The directions on the bottle call for 1 tsp to a gallon but that's for sanitizing and not suppressing wild yeasts pre-fermentation. Also, don't sweat it too much since everything fermenting pretty much makes itself. All you're doing is steering it along to try to get the best tasting end result. But it's going to turn into alcohol pretty much no matter what you do.

Also, and this is just me, but I've never made less than three gallons when I started since you're going to lose some between rackings if you want to make it clear. Racking isn't a requirement if you intend to drink it right away but for clear and aged cider you'll want to get it off the lees. Now that I have several batches of wine and mead under my belt I don't do anything less than 6 gallons which'll end up 4.5-5 gallons when you're done, and even that amount goes really quick when you get to drinking it and sharing with friends and family which I find the most enjoyable aspect of the hobby. But that's just what works for me though. You go ahead and make any amount that works for you - it's all just personal preference. You'll have a lot of fun no matter how it turns out and you'll learn a lot of neat stuff along the way. I've been enjoying it so much it's one of the few things I see myself doing well into old age. Good luck and keep everyone on the forum posted.

Gene

 

[dmtaylor]

You don't really need equipment to make good cider. There's nothing to "brew" with a cider, at least not traditionally. It's more like wine that way, only less alcohol. Just drink a few ounces of the juice, throw in some US-05 or Cote des Blancs yeast, and put a little aluminum foil over it, leave it at room temperature or a bit colder for a few weeks, and you'll get hard cider. What I'm saying is, you can ferment in the same jug the juice came in, if you want. I do this half the time. Or, if you want, you can sanitize a fermenter and do it that way. That works too. I do that the other half of the time.

Personally I'm a big fan of heat pasteurization. Who knows how long ago the orchard pasteurized it, unless it says on the jug. So I bring the juice to about 160 F for about 15 minutes, then cool and do what I specified above.

From there, I like to rack the cider about once a week to try to slow down fermentation on purpose. Low and slow is the way to go, to preserve the most aroma and sweetness. After a couple of weeks, check the gravity. If it's at 1.010 or less, then rack again and add gelatin to remove the rest of the yeast. Then refrigerate for another month. If you only make one gallon, then by the time you would be ready to bottle in a couple of months, you'll probably sample it so many times that it will already be gone. Works for me.

 

[Maylar]

Please read Yooper's beginner thread in the sticky. Everything you need to know is there.

 

[Pappers_]

Put some apple juice in a sanitized jug, add some Nottingham yeast and then an airlock. Let it go until fermentation is done, then rack into bottles or another jug and enjoy your non-carbonated cider! That's the easiest approach.

For a fuller and better explanation to make better cider, read through this primer which is stickied in the cider forum https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=508303

 

[menerdari]

I put my cider under airlock right after I pitch my yeast, works fine for me.
The cider I buy is pasteurized at the mill where I buy it so no need for camden tabs or K-meta ( at least before fermenting) and no need to pasteurize again. It is in a sealed jug after it is pasteurized, no new wild yeast or bacteria are going to be able to get in.
I do add yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme about 12 hours before pitching yeast.