confused about making chemical-free sweet cider

[jseyfert3]

Simple and not adding anything:

Sanitize your airlocks, drain a cup or two of cider from each bottle, add yeast, add airlock, done. This is literally all you have to do. In a few weeks you'll have cider. Better if you let it sit for longer though.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Hatman - and welcome. Just be sure that there are no added preservatives to the juice to inhibit fermentation. They work and you will have a hard time (at the best of times) to ferment such apple juice. But in fact, if there is no added preservative you may not even need to pitch any yeast as there will be enough yeast indigenous to the juice for the juice to self ferment if you leave it out at room temperature.

 

[jseyfert3]

But in fact, if there is no added preservative you may not even need to pitch any yeast as there will be enough yeast indigenous to the juice for the juice to self ferment if you leave it out at room temperature.

The OP listed pasturized juice, so there wouldn't be any natural yeast left, but if they can find unpasteurized preservative free they could.

I mean I suppose you can leave anything out and it will get natural yeast from the air, but it may not be the natural yeast you want.

Fresh pressed, no added yeast cider is something I'd like to try. I need to locate an orchard that has cider apples for this fall.

 

[Hatman]

Simple and not adding anything:

Sanitize your airlocks, drain a cup or two of cider from each bottle, add yeast, add airlock, done. This is literally all you have to do. In a few weeks you'll have cider. Better if you let it sit for longer though.

Thanks for this - it sounds unbelievably simple! One question... With 3 gallons of juice in 3 different jugs how much yeast is ideal? Should I get a hydrometer for this or can I leave that till I try more complicated techniques

 

[jseyfert3]

Thanks for this - it sounds unbelievably simple

It is. I'm a newbie, my fermentation/brew log is only up to batch #4, but cider is ridiculously easy. I've made 3 batches of cider and one extract beer kit. The beer is a mild pain, but not the cider.

In my case my first two batches were almost 6 gallons (in 6 gallon carboys), my last one I dialed back to 5.5 gallons for extra headspace as I almost had krausen coming out the airlock on a previous batch. Plus I switched from Montrachet campaign yeast to S-04 ale yeast and as I understand the krausen will be higher.

My first two cider batches I used cheap juice and added ~2 lbs sugar per batch, which worked out to ~7.3% ABV. My batch yesterday I decided to do with no added sugar to see how that tastes and with an IG of 1.046 it should be ~5.2% ABV. Then I'm going to do a batch today targeting 8% ABV with the same yeast (S-04) used on the no sugar batch, to compare for myself how the taste goes away as the ABV is cranked up.

For my batch I did yesterday, my process was

1. Sanitize the 6 gallon carboy and associated equipment (hydrometer, turkey baster for taking a sample for hydrometer, funnel, measuring cup, stopper and airlock, yeast packet and scissors for good measure cause I had star-san in a spray bottle)
2. Pour 5.5 gallons of juice into carboy, purposely pouring on the side of the funnel so it swirled which helped to have it spread out as it fell to oxygenate the juice a bit.
3. Use turkey baster to draw a sample to get IG (initial gravity) reading.
4. Pour (dry) yeast onto surface of juice.
5. Add airlock.
6. Move downstairs.

This is what it looks like as of a few minutes ago:

One question... With 3 gallons of juice in 3 different jugs how much yeast is ideal?

I thought you had 4 gallons of juice? In any case, usually a package of yeast is good for about 5-6 gallons. To some extent more yeast is better, I don't know where more is too much though. Likely you can just split the package between the bottles.

Should I get a hydrometer for this or can I leave that till I try more complicated techniques

You need a hydrometer if you want to estimate how much alcohol the juice might make before fermenting starts, or if you want to calculate the actual ABV produced. Also useful to check if fermentation is done, but you can just let it sit for a while (which is good anyway for cider) if you don't have a hydrometer. It's not required to have one though.

Oh, and one last step for you: Once you pour off that two cups of juice, re-cap and shake the bottle to oxygenate the juice prior to adding the yeast. Also note two cups is my estimate for sufficient headspace, I have not (yet) done a one gallon batch of cider.