Cider diary - 1st batch

[pudland]

Hello all!
I will be updating this as it moves along.
Please make comments or ask questions!!
The apples were grabbed off the ground from my neighbors tree.
We cored and juiced them and got about 6 gallons.
Added 6 crushed campden tablets, stired and let it sit for 24 hours.

 

[pudland]

We skimmed off the foam on the top (not sure if that was necessary) and took a gravity reading.
We added 2 lbs of light brown sugar and 1/2 lb of cane which brought it up to 1.074, added the correction factor of 3, gave us 1.077.

 

[pudland]

We added the nutrient, stirred well to aerate and added the yeast. We gave it a gentle stir and transfered it to the 6 gallon carboy.

 

[pudland]

We put a thermometer in his basement and the temperature has read a low of 66 and a high of 68. Oh, we used red star champagne yeast.
Now we wait! I'm expecting the yeast to take a bit to get started so a week won't cause me concern.

 

[pudland]

We tapped off 1/2 a gallon prior to adding the nutrient and pasturized it at 175-180 degree for a 1/2 hour in a clean Sailor Jerry bottle. Not too sweet and the tart just nipped at the back of my jaw. Dang it was good!

 

[podz]

Sounds good. Good luck and hope it turns out well!

 

[pudland]

24 hours after pitching yeast.

 

[pudland]

http://youtu.be/KdqKjMKrVAw?list=UUdTwxGKMOApxM9ZDT_EVHUg

Video of the fermenting. Look like the process is going well?

 

[podz]

Looks like it's going well, yep.

Is this your first attempt at cider?

 

[pudland]

Yes, first batch of cider. I had have a gallon batch off strawberry wine and a 5 gallon batch of plum wine under my belt but that was over 5 years ago. I wanted to pull a gallon from this batch prior to pitching for back sweetening and bottle carbing, but I totally missed that step! Now I have to decide what to use out of all the different ways I've read on the forum here. How do you prefer to back sweeten?

 

[podz]

How do you prefer to back sweeten?

I don't. If I want sweet cider, I simply stop fermentation when the gravity is somewhere between 1.020 and 1.010. Hint, the higher the number, the sweeter it is. Use a hydrometer and a 100ml graduated cylinder to take measurements.

What I mean is that when it's reached that level of gravity, I simply siphon it out into PET bottles and put them into my fridge. It will be extremely cloudy at first, but drops completely clear (yeast settles to the bottom of the bottles) after two days in the fridge. This is the technique called Cold Crashing. Of course, during the winter, you can cold crash by simply putting your carboy outside ;-)

 

[pudland]

So if I let it ferment out, rack to the secondary for clarifying, back sweeten to 1.020 - 1.030 and bottle, I should have sweetness and carbonation. I have read through the sticky about stove top pasturizing so I am aware of the possible danger of not paying attention to what the bottle are doing during carbing. No outdoor cold crashing here yet! We hit 90 degrees today. Snow is a ways off!

 

[podz]

Getting both sweetness and carbonation without the use of a keg is a royal pain in the ass.

If you can afford a corny keg and a small C02 tank, then I'd go that route. Otherwise, follow the sticky you've been reading. Anyhow, 1.030 is very sweet...

 

[pudland]

Oh I believe you! The 1.030 was the highest I would take it, figuring carbing would eat that down to some lower gravity.
I do have a keggerator, an empty 1/4 barrel and a C02 bottle. I'll have to Google the number of gallons in a 1/4 though. It doesn't look like it'll fit 5 gallons. They call that "force carbing"? Correct?

 

[podz]

If your standard keg is 16 gallons, then 1/4 keg is 4 gallons. You won't get a full 5 gallons out of a 5 gallon batch anyway, what with all the yeast slurry at the bottom and a sample or two when racking.

Yep, force carbing.

 

[pudland]

Got it.
I have everything to do the force carbing it seems. I need to research how to take the ball valve out of the keg for cleaning and filling.
I made this spreadsheet to follow and still missed step 10! Doh!

 

[pudland]

Day 4 after pitching the yeast and fermentation is less than 1 bubble per minute. Going to let it rest for another week at least before checking gravity.

 

[podz]

Airlock activity typically indicates fermentation, however fermentation can often occur without it.

 

[pudland]

So we took a gravity reading last night and it's at an even 1.000. That gives us about 13% ABV. We racked it into a secondary to settle out. We started discussing back sweetening....

We plan on juicing more of his apples for back sweetening. We are going to pasteurize the fresh juice, let it cool to ambient temp before adding it to the cider.
So he brought up about maybe cutting the ABV down with the fresh juice.
He prefers low to mild carbonation. He is more focused on taste at this point.

He wants to back sweeten to his taste, then we will measure the SG. Regardless of what THAT SG is, we are looking to add enough brown sugar to take the SG up to .010-.015 above that, then bottle. Let the bottles sit at 70F for a few days then test 1 bottle, and so on until its to his taste, then pasteurize.

Is it correct to say that cutting 5 gallons of 13% ABV with 1.25 gallons of fresh juice would bring it down to about 9.75% ABV?

Thanks!

 

[podz]

Is it correct to say that cutting 5 gallons of 13% ABV with 1.25 gallons of fresh juice would bring it down to about 9.75% ABV?

No, it will start to ferment again and go up to the top of the yeast's alcohol tolerance. Which yeast did you use again? If you used champagne yeast, it might well go up to 18% ABV.

If you don't want it to ferment more and do want to cut the ABV%, then you need to pasteurise the whole lot right after adding the fresh juice.

 

[MindenMan]

To back sweeten you have two options, one is to use a non fermentable sweetener, and the other is to add campden or the like, to stop the yeast from re-starting, and then sweeten as much as you like.

 

[pudland]

No, it will start to ferment again and go up to the top of the yeast's alcohol tolerance. Which yeast did you use again? If you used champagne yeast, it might well go up to 18% ABV.

Champagne yeast. Understood that the ABV will go up if we allow it to ferment out fully again.

Here is what we were thinking would happen(theoretically):
Current = 5 Gal @ 13%ABV.
Add 1.25 Gal fresh juice. Bringing ABV to approx 9.75%.
Take SG reading. Lets say the juice brought it up to 1.015.
Add Brown Sugar to reach SG 1.025.
Bottle and store at 70F for 24 hours.
Open a bottle and check carbing and taste and SG.
If its to his taste AND low-moderately carbed. Pasteurize.
Say Final SG happens to be 1.015. It did not fully ferment out, hence some sweetness is tasted. How can the ABV go above the original 13%? Wouldn't it end between 9.75% and 13% because we did not allow it to fully ferment?

Thanks!

 

[pudland]

So we back sweetened with juiced and pasturized apples from his tree, added brown sugar to taste. Mixed it up real good while bottling then pasturized at 160 for about 20 min. The batch has been in the fridge for 2 1/2 weeks now. I don't see any bad "colonies" and am guessing the floating thingies are pulp since we didn't filter the back sweetening juice. We've poured the cider off the sediment AND shook the bottles before drinking. Pouring off the sediment gives an apple flavor with added tartness. Mixing the sediment gives a sweeter, less tart flavor. Nice, 2 flavors in 1 bottle! BTW, it's approximately 6.3% abv.
We believe the apples are baking apples but not sure. Also, when we started the cider, the apples were more green then red.... but we used what had fallen to the ground. We are both pleased with the end result. I'm on my 4th bottle now and it feels like my left eye is wondering a bit! Cheers!

 

[BrewTech117]

Looks good - How was the carbonation? I messed up on my last batch and didn't mix the sugar with water before adding it so i got very little carb in mine.

 

[pudland]

We actually didn't worry about carbonation.... ours was flat..... like real cider. Taste is a matter of preference. Ours is no carbonation is just fine!