First Cider, A Basic Recipe

[Hellosluggo]

Recently became interested in doing a cider, so I've read a bunch of different sources and pieced together the recipe based on others I've seen here and around the tubes. Would appreciate y'all giving it the once over and pushing me in the right direction if something seems screwy.


• 5 gallons Kirkland apple juice
• 2 lbs Brown Sugar
• 4 tea bags (or loose equivalent), English/Irish breakfast tea
• Juice of one lime
• 1 packet US-04 yeast
• 2.5 teaspoons Fermax yeast nutrient
• 5 Campden tablets
• 2.5 tsp Potassium Sorbate
• 2 cans organic FAJC

Steep tea bags in ~ 2.5 cups boiling water for 10 minutes, let cool.

Rehydrate one packet of US-04 yeast in a cup of sterile ~100° water, let stand for 15-20 minutes.

Combine tea, lime juice and apple juice in sanitized fermenter, Add Fermax yeast nutrient, mix well and oxygenate. Pitch yeast.

Primary fermentation for about a month ~65° F, then bring temperature up to ~75° for a week. Rack to secondary for 2-3 months.

In keg, add crushed Campden tablets and Potassium Sorbate. Rack cider to keg, stir gently to mix. Let sit for ~ 2 days.

Thaw FAJC and add to keg, mixing well. Chill and carb to taste.

 

[CKuhns]

Looks like you got a pretty good recipe. (Go for it)

This is very similar to what I do when I want a quick and clean cider and don't have cider from apples.

Couple of comments. More for consideration than anything else as what you have planned will certainly work.
It wont hurt anything but I don't see the need for campden and potasium sorbate after 2 - 3 months in secondary. If kegging to carbonate any residual fermentation will not be an issue.

Here is a copy of my recipe for comparison. (I learned that more FAJC and less sugar brings the apple flavor through a bit better.)
5 Gallon - Cider Recipe (Tastes good young and really good after aging a few months)
• 4 gallons Indian Summer apple juice (Or Equivalent FAJC 14 Cans and water)
Ensure there are NO Preservatives other than Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)
• 4 cans of frozen apple juice concentrate (FAJC)
• 8 - 24 oz of brown sugar (Adjust to target OG)
Target OG 1.060 (1.055 to 1.065)
• 1TBSP DAP / Fermaid K Mix (1 part DAP to 2 parts FK) - Optional but seems to help the ferment.
1 Packet Safale S-04 Yeast (Works Great @ 60-64°F and consider starting it 24 hours prior to pitch)
• ½ tsp Acid Blend (Optional, to taste after primary)
Spices
o 10 Black Tea Bags (Steeped for 10 minutes in apple juice or water and used in Primary)
Secondary for 7 - 10 days
o 2 cinnamon sticks
o 1 clove
o 1 Vanilla Bean
o ½ oz Medium toast oak cubes.

 

[Maylar]

Rehydrate one packet of US-04 yeast in a cup of sterile ~100° water, let stand for 15-20 minutes.

Just one comment - I don't know what you refer to as sterile, but never use distilled water for rehydration. The yeast need some minerals. Tap water or spring water is fine.

The rehydration protocol is printed on the yeast packet. Be sure to get the temperature close to the must before pitching.

 

[Yooper]

I will say that you can make whatever recipe you want- but fermented brown sugar tastes AWFUL to me. I love it when I put it in apple pie, but once it's fermented it tastes like molasses without sweetness or something and I find it extremely weird and bitter. Adding tea (tannin) could very well make it much worse. You can always add tannin later, if it needs it. Some with the lime juice- if you need some acidity to balance the flavor, you can add it later.

 

[Hellosluggo]

Just one comment - I don't know what you refer to as sterile, but never use distilled water for rehydration.

By "sterile," I meant boiled.

 

[Hellosluggo]

Since this will be the first go round for me with cider, I can certainly omit brown sugar... How about an extra FAJC can in place of it, just to boost simple sugars?

 

[MarkKF]

Sugar in the raw is good too.

 

[z-bob]

Kirkland apple juice is fine.

How about just 5 gallons of that, a pound of white sugar, whatever the recommended amount of yeast nutrient is (couple of teaspoons?) and Cotes des Blanc yeast. (I don't like S04 yeast, but some people do)

You don't need any tannin or extra acid for the first batch. You probably don't need them at all.

 

[Hellosluggo]

A quick question about using Campden and Potassium Sorbate in cider... Specifically Campden tablets as I've only ever used them to treat tap water as a pre-boil additive, I'm curious if I'm going to end up with a sulfur flavor that I won't be able to get rid of when using it as a fermentation inhibitor.

I get it that some will say it's not necessary when kegging due to refrigeration, but let's assume I'm dead set on this method in the interest of answering the question regarding the potential of a flavor disaster.

 

[Yooper]

I hate when people cut/paste but since this can be a pretty long winded answer, I'll post a thread here you may find helpful: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=508303

From that thread:

Sulfites:

Sulfites have a bad rap, from people who don't understand them. They are used to kill wild yeast and bacteria initially, in unpasteurized cider (or fruit). They do dissipate relatively quickly, and so the yeast is added 12-24 hours later so fermentation can begin. As they do dissipate, many winemakers will add sulfites at every other racking to keep approximately 50 ppm in their wine. What is great about sulfites is that they work as an antioxidant. That's really the purpose, once fermentation begins. For folks who want a sulfite-free wine, that's really not doable as fermentation itself produces sulfites. But many winemakers will add a bit more (again, at about 50 ppm or less) as an antioxidant as sometimes ciders and wines throw a lot of lees and have to be racked a few times. Sulfites bind with the wine, so that oxygen can't. You can leave them out, of course, once fermentation starts. If you start with pasteurized juice and not fruit, they aren't necessary at the start either. Think of sulfites as replacing the boil in beer- killing unwanted microbes and giving the chosen yeast a chance to outcompete other microbes, but not having lasting effects.

And about sorbate (which does have a slight flavor, while when properly done the campden{sulfites} does not):

The way it works is that sorbate does not kill yeast, but it prevents yeast reproduction. So, in an active fermentation when there are hundreds and hundreds of billions of active yeast, it won't do a thing. But once fermentation stops, and the cider clears, and the cider is racked off of the fallen yeast, it can be added to prevent yeast reproducing, thereby not allowing fermentation to begin again (usually). Sorbate works better in the presence of sulfite (campden), so they are generally added together.

However, it will NOT stop an active fermentation and will not work in a cider that is not clear and done fermenting.

 

[Hellosluggo]

So using 5 Campden tablets and 2.5 tsp Potassium Sorbate for a five gallon batch in this case should be fine with little to no effect on the final taste?

 

[Yooper]

So using 5 Campden tablets and 2.5 tsp Potassium Sorbate for a five gallon batch in this case should be fine with little to no effect on the final taste?

I can taste sorbate, but others say they can't. So it really depends on how strong your taste buds are.

2.5 teaspoons is a decent "dose" which should be below the flavor threshold for most people, I'd think.

 

[Drewed]

Why are you using campden and K sorb? If you are worried about it, you could omit it and stop the yeast by other methods.
1. Keep feeding the yeast sugar until they pass out from too much alcohol. The problem with this is you tend to end up with 18% abv ciders!
2. Heat your finished ferment to 140 to kill the yeast. This works well, and is what I do when bottle carbonating. Some will say it adds a cooked flavor to the apples, or blows off other subtle flavors, but we are only going to 140, not a full boil. The FDA wants 30 min at 145, but that is to kill off everything. The relatively fragile yeast will bite it in about 30 seconds. If I were to batch "Pasteurize" I would sanitize my kettle by boiling water in it with the lid on. Dump the water, add the cider, take it to 140, then let it cool to room temp in the pot with the lid on, and then transfer to the keg. Add the FAJC and carbonate.

Just watch your temps as 173.1°F is the boiling point for Ethanol

 

[Silver79]

As far as your added sugar goes, my friends and I much prefer my ciders that use brown to the times I've used white sugar. The white sugar always leaves me with a rocket fuel taste. Now people say it getts much better if you age it, I prefer to let it sit in the keg to do so and it was usually consumed before the taste mellowed out. I use brown sugar exclusively now to up abv, like 2 lbs in a 6.5 gal batch and adjust taste after primary with Faj. At the risk of contradicting some folks with infinitely more brewing knowledge than myself, I say use the brown sugar the first time and see what you think.