NovemberEchoes
Member
Hey all,
I've been interested in brewing cider for awhile now, and after a trip to Asheville, NC a few weeks ago I've got four batches going. The first couple I started before I found this forum, just going by the info they gave me at the brewery supply store. The others I started after a week or so of pouring over these threads. I'm gluten-free, so I'm hoping to get some experience with cider before moving on to gluten-free brewing.
Here's what I have at the moment:
Batch 1: 1 gal. organic apple juice, Red Star champagne yeast, 1 cup corn sugar, racked and cold crashed after fermenting dry (so actually an apfelwein, and not a cider). I was excited about brewing and failed to use any pectin, sanitize as properly as I should have, let it go through secondary fermentation, or measure the specific gravity. Shame on me, but it came out drinkable, which is all I was hoping for a first attempt.
Batch 2: 1 gal. organic apple juice, pectic enzyme, Red Star Montrachet yeast. Initial SG of 1.02. Currently in secondary fermentation.
Batch 3: 1 gal. organic apple juice, pectic enzyme, Safale s04 yeast, 1/2 cup corn sugar. Initial SG 1.052. Currently in primary fermentation.
Batch 4: 4 gals. organic apple juice, pectic enzyme, 4 cups corn sugar, White Labs English cider yeast. Initial SG 1.062. Currently in primary fermentation (pitched earlier this evening).
I'm excited about comparing everything once it's done. For the first three batches I actually decided to simplify things and ferment in the bottles they came in, which were one gallon apple juice jugs I bought at Earth Fare. The fourth batch I used a five gallon plastic carboy. Now, the one gallon jugs I can fit in my mini-fridge that I dedicated to my homebrewing experiments for cold crashing and storage, but not the carboy. I'm thinking when batch four is done with secondary fermentation, I'll split it into four of the glass jugs I have leftover from the juice and try a few different aging and bottling processes.
My main question at the moment is this: Would bottle priming in the one gallon glass jug be asking for a bottle bomb? I know standard wine bottles aren't acceptable, but champagne bottles are. At the moment I only have a few beer bottles, and no champagne bottles. The glass on the jugs seems pretty thick, but it's not something I'd really like to risk.
Thanks for any input you might have, and thanks to everyone who posts here. Once things at work calm down a little I'm going to investigate some local orchards, as I live in Boone, NC. Seems a waste to be surrounded by all these apples and use store-bought juice...
(Edit: Fixed my SG readings)
I've been interested in brewing cider for awhile now, and after a trip to Asheville, NC a few weeks ago I've got four batches going. The first couple I started before I found this forum, just going by the info they gave me at the brewery supply store. The others I started after a week or so of pouring over these threads. I'm gluten-free, so I'm hoping to get some experience with cider before moving on to gluten-free brewing.
Here's what I have at the moment:
Batch 1: 1 gal. organic apple juice, Red Star champagne yeast, 1 cup corn sugar, racked and cold crashed after fermenting dry (so actually an apfelwein, and not a cider). I was excited about brewing and failed to use any pectin, sanitize as properly as I should have, let it go through secondary fermentation, or measure the specific gravity. Shame on me, but it came out drinkable, which is all I was hoping for a first attempt.
Batch 2: 1 gal. organic apple juice, pectic enzyme, Red Star Montrachet yeast. Initial SG of 1.02. Currently in secondary fermentation.
Batch 3: 1 gal. organic apple juice, pectic enzyme, Safale s04 yeast, 1/2 cup corn sugar. Initial SG 1.052. Currently in primary fermentation.
Batch 4: 4 gals. organic apple juice, pectic enzyme, 4 cups corn sugar, White Labs English cider yeast. Initial SG 1.062. Currently in primary fermentation (pitched earlier this evening).
I'm excited about comparing everything once it's done. For the first three batches I actually decided to simplify things and ferment in the bottles they came in, which were one gallon apple juice jugs I bought at Earth Fare. The fourth batch I used a five gallon plastic carboy. Now, the one gallon jugs I can fit in my mini-fridge that I dedicated to my homebrewing experiments for cold crashing and storage, but not the carboy. I'm thinking when batch four is done with secondary fermentation, I'll split it into four of the glass jugs I have leftover from the juice and try a few different aging and bottling processes.
My main question at the moment is this: Would bottle priming in the one gallon glass jug be asking for a bottle bomb? I know standard wine bottles aren't acceptable, but champagne bottles are. At the moment I only have a few beer bottles, and no champagne bottles. The glass on the jugs seems pretty thick, but it's not something I'd really like to risk.
Thanks for any input you might have, and thanks to everyone who posts here. Once things at work calm down a little I'm going to investigate some local orchards, as I live in Boone, NC. Seems a waste to be surrounded by all these apples and use store-bought juice...
(Edit: Fixed my SG readings)
