I have been home brewing for about a year now, and decided I was going to throw together a batch of cider for SWMBO. I was gonna go to the store and pick up a few gallons of apple juice.... Of course with no preservatives. I have been researching a little and see a lot of guys adding 1 cup of corn sugar per gallon of juice to raise the sg... I have an extra package of Nottingham ale yeast I was going to use... I an trying to keep this simple... Probably going to back sweeten when I bottle with lactose. For you cider brewers is there anything I am missing.... I am doing a 3 gal batch. Any helpful hints would be awesome!
First batch of cider.... Any advice?
- Thread starter moorerm04
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I typically brew a 5 gallon batch and use 2 pounds of white sugar and 2 pounds brown sugar. Mott's Natural has a good flavor and works well for store bought juice.
I would not use Nottingham as you need to use a cider yeast. I used white labs English cider yeast myself and it worked great. Just be sure to make a starter for the high gravity. The 4 pounds of sugar I added yielded about 9% ABV, If you want a 5% batch I would halve the sugar.
The trick is to add more juice in the secondary to put some of the apple flavor back in and let it finish fermenting before bottling.
I start with 3 gallons all sugar added dissolved and boiled in about a 1/4 gallon of juice and cooled before adding to the primary and fermenting for 1 month.
Then I add an additional two gallons of juice into the secondary and let sit for another month in cold storage. Lagering and aging go along way with ciders.
I would not use Nottingham as you need to use a cider yeast. I used white labs English cider yeast myself and it worked great. Just be sure to make a starter for the high gravity. The 4 pounds of sugar I added yielded about 9% ABV, If you want a 5% batch I would halve the sugar.
The trick is to add more juice in the secondary to put some of the apple flavor back in and let it finish fermenting before bottling.
I start with 3 gallons all sugar added dissolved and boiled in about a 1/4 gallon of juice and cooled before adding to the primary and fermenting for 1 month.
Then I add an additional two gallons of juice into the secondary and let sit for another month in cold storage. Lagering and aging go along way with ciders.
jwplessner
Well-Known Member
Give it plenty of time on the yeast--more than a month. The yeast will just keep going and going. Also, give it a few tastes before committing to sweetening the whole batch. This stuff will be incredibly dry, and the residual apple flavor can get lost very easily. Added sugar or just a bit too much yeast character could overpower the mild cider flavor.
If you're going with notty, keep your temps down. I'd ferment in the mid 60s. Age will improve it drastically.
If you're going with notty, keep your temps down. I'd ferment in the mid 60s. Age will improve it drastically.
I know I should pitch some cider yeast or a champagne yeast but this is kind of just an experiment.... The nearest LHBS is 45 min away and I don't have high expectations for this. I am just gonna try my hand at it and try and make it fun and inexspensive.
You will not regret getting the right yeast as cider takes a while and you want it to be worth it. I let mine go for 6 months last time as it kept getting better and better. Adding the juice to the secondary will help take out some of the dryness. i started to ferment at 60 then after 2 weeks I brought it down to 50 for the rest of the time.
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
I understand what you are saying and I an sure you make awesome cider.... But Notty is what I have got to work with and like I said I am just trying a little experiment.... It may turn out undrinkable, or it may be outstanding! Idk and that is half the fun!
frankstoneline
Well-Known Member
In the past I've used wine yeasts for ciders, last winter was champagne, which finished a bit dry for my taste. I like a small amount of brown sugar addition if your concern is increased potency, though to my taste I think my favorite "recipe" so far was simply 5 gallons apple juice (fresh press if available), heat just to 160 and turn off the stove, cool to ~65* (I transfer to a glass carboy and stick it outside) then pitch a packet of red wine yeast. Let it run its course at relatively low temps (~55 ambient) for as long as you can stand, then bottle still or with a bit of sugar for carbonation.
beernut70
Well-Known Member
I am going to make a batch also and was looking at a recipe from a local homebrew club which uses Nottingham yeast.
http://www.wyomingvalleyhomebrewers.org/hardcider.htm
Recipe won best of show in a competition.
http://www.wyomingvalleyhomebrewers.org/hardcider.htm
Recipe won best of show in a competition.
TopherM
Well-Known Member
I've made several good batches of cider with champagne yeast (my LHBS doesn't stock cider yeast).
Also, if you keg, you can easily backsweeten with the same juice you use as the base. I just throw 4.5 gallons of juice into the primary, pitch champagne yeast, give it about 3 weeks to ferment out dry, rack to keg, add 1/2 gallon of sweet juice, then cold crash at 33-36 while force carbing at about 14-16 PSI. In three weeks, the carb is done and the cider is very drinkable and sweetened. Backsweetening is a bit more of a chore if you bottle, but you can basically do the same thing with a pasturization step added.
Like someone else said, though. A cider that is given 6 months to condition is FAR better than one that is given 6 weeks, so either drink it slowly or just forget about it until February/March.
Also, if you keg, you can easily backsweeten with the same juice you use as the base. I just throw 4.5 gallons of juice into the primary, pitch champagne yeast, give it about 3 weeks to ferment out dry, rack to keg, add 1/2 gallon of sweet juice, then cold crash at 33-36 while force carbing at about 14-16 PSI. In three weeks, the carb is done and the cider is very drinkable and sweetened. Backsweetening is a bit more of a chore if you bottle, but you can basically do the same thing with a pasturization step added.
Like someone else said, though. A cider that is given 6 months to condition is FAR better than one that is given 6 weeks, so either drink it slowly or just forget about it until February/March.
wolverinebrewer
Well-Known Member
Yes, Nottingham will work fine at these abv. levels. It will be very drinkable so don't worry. I have 5 gal. going on 5 weeks now and I also used an ale yeast S04 slurry. My plan is to hit it with pot. sorbate and add 1 12 oz. can of concentrate then carb and bottle it. It will just be awhile before I'll know how it turns out. I followed Graham's English cider recipe thats over in the recipe section.
I'm currently drinking an apfelwein batch that is 8 weeks old and used 2 lbs. brown sugar and EC-1118. OG was 1.060 FG 0.994 and then backsweetened with 12 oz. concentrate which raised the FG to just over 1.000. This one is very good with no alcohol bite.
