Drinking my first cider. Success!

[rshortt]

I did up a 1 gallon batch to give cider a try. It consists of about a gallon of cider from the grocery store, 1/2 lb of brown sugar, and EC-1118 yeast. It went 2 weeks in primary then another 2 (minus a day) in secondary. I just bottled it in some flip top bottles.

I'm enjoying a glass and it's pretty good. I measured the gravity at 1.004. It tastes like a dry wine. I think I'd prefer it carbonated though, and I'm shopping for a used CO2 tank and regulator for that.

I'm getting a bit of a buz off this stuff.

 

[MultumInParvo]

Good to hear about the win. Well done. I was just thinking about starting my first cider when I get home. It just seems so easy compared to beer, I'll have to work at not over complicating it...

 

[rshortt]

Yeah it was pretty simple that's for sure. I have another one on the go but now I'm daydreaming about brewing my first beer.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

You can always prime the cider and bottle condition for carbonation just like a beer unless you bulk age it for a year or so. For one gallon I think just two tea spoons of corn sugar, boiled, added to a second gallon jug, rack the cider into that jug to mix well. Then bottle and wait three weeks or more. There are a ton of threads here with the exact math and process on this board.
There is no NEED to go with a kegging system, even though I highly recommend it! It can be a pretty sizeable cost and you really should wait until you decide you will continue homebrewing, or at least continue to buy commercial beer to make the cost worth while.
Best of luck.