First cider batch

[bragona71]

I have been brewing for a couple years so I figured I'd try a cider since my neighbors tree was dropping apples all over. I cleaned. Sanitized everything like I would with beer. Ran through a juicer dropped a campen tablet in. It's about 3.5 gallons. I have it in a 6 gallon carboy. My plan is to leave it over night and tomorrow throw some premier blanc yeast in it tomorrow after work. So I have a couple questions. First how long do I let it ferment? Second I plan on adding pomegranate,when should I add? And lastly I don't plan on bottling I put all my beer into a keg as secondary. Can I rack to keg and carb for serving? I'm all my reading I don't find anyone kegging cider.

Thanks for your thoughts!!

 

[oldmate]

Leave for a month or until clear, rack to secondary and add your pomegranate. You sure can keg, but I don't so someone else might be able to help you with that one.

 

[bragona71]

Cool thanks

 

[ericbw]

It takes a long time for cider to finish. It usually ferments very dry and sometimes has little apple flavor. You'll want to add some apple flavor and sweetness back in. The best way to do that is to add fresh juice in (if you have it, freeze it to stop the yeast). That's called backsweetening, and it is a good time/way to add flavor, too.

Ferment it dry (about a month). Add the pomegranate juice to the keg to sweeten and dilute. You might want to add some frozen apple juice concentrate as well. Then rack the fermented cider into the keg. Seal and carb like a beer.

I usually do about 2 gallons of fermented cider (minus the sediment) and add back in another gallon to make 3. The cider will ferment to about 6% on its own if you didn't add sugar. If you dilute it by 1/3 with fresh juice, you cider that's about 4.5%.

If you want more alcoholic, then add the concentrate to sweeten it but dilute it less. So if you have 3.5 G to start, you'll end up with about 3+ after fermenting. Then add 1 can concentrate plus 1/2 gallon pomegranate. See how it tastes. That's a little over 5% at those ratios.

Kegging is the best and easiest way to get sparkling sweet cider. Follow the link in my signature - there is an explanation of how we do it.

If you don't filter, be sure to drink it relatively quickly because there can be some remaining yeast activity even in the fridge.

 

[Maylar]

I have been brewing for a couple years so I figured I'd try a cider since my neighbors tree was dropping apples all over. I cleaned. Sanitized everything like I would with beer. Ran through a juicer dropped a campen tablet in. It's about 3.5 gallons. I have it in a 6 gallon carboy. My plan is to leave it over night and tomorrow throw some premier blanc yeast in it tomorrow after work. So I have a couple questions. First how long do I let it ferment? Second I plan on adding pomegranate,when should I add? And lastly I don't plan on bottling I put all my beer into a keg as secondary. Can I rack to keg and carb for serving? I'm all my reading I don't find anyone kegging cider.

Thanks for your thoughts!!

Kegging cider is just like kegging beer, except for one detail - beer has unfermentable sugars and cider doesn't. Cider finishes dry with no residual sweetness. If you want to add sweetener after ferment you have to stabilize the cider with chemicals or use unfermentable sugar.

And as eric noted, the time line is a lot longer than for beer.

 

[Paps]

I don't find anyone kegging cider.

Thanks for your thoughts!!

I keg ciders.
As previosly mentioned,
cider takes longer then beer & will continue to ferment unless you pasturise it or kill off the yeast by other means.

Personally i treat it just like a beer but my method for doing ciders is somewhat different than the `norm`
I don't backsweeten at all (because i don't need to)
But my ciders are high ABV which might not be what you are aiming for.

Cider on nitro is pretty interesting as well.

 

[ericbw]

I keg ciders.
As previosly mentioned,
cider takes longer then beer & will continue to ferment unless you pasturise it or kill off the yeast by other means.

Personally i treat it just like a beer but my method for doing ciders is somewhat different than the `norm`
I don't backsweeten at all (because i don't need to)
But my ciders are high ABV which might not be what you are aiming for.

Cider on nitro is pretty interesting as well.

It is unusual, but it opens up different possibilities like nitro!

I like how much diversity there is in cider these days.

 

[bragona71]

Cool thanks for all the advice. Paps. The higher abv the better other wise I'll just make apple juice. And I'm not a sweet kinda guy. So I'll go slow and sample after I ad pomegranate. The only reason I'm adding pomegranate is my wife tried one at a tap room and said make that.

 

[Paps]

The higher abv the better .

Check out my drop down in my name.
Very high ABV cider but it does finish very sweet.
Perhaps use a LBS less of sugar for a dryer finish.

 

[OffbeatBrew]

If your neighbor's tree is eating apples (something really bland, like a red delicious), you may consider either adding a small proportion of crab apples (even 5% can make a difference). Or you can add a bit of malic acid and wine tannins from your LHBS to give a bit more character. I also like my ciders bone dry, so it makes more of a difference when you're using bland apples, whereas back-sweetening will cover up the lack of depth of character and will give more of the "apple" flavor we Americans are used to because of Angry Orchard, Woodchuck, etc..

 

[ericbw]

Oh yeah, +1 on tannin. About 1/8 tsp per gallon.

 

[bragona71]

This is my first batch. I love all the advice. Thank you. I plan on making more and will experiment with your ideas and see what works for me

 

[MikeTodd]

This is my first batch. I love all the advice. Thank you. I plan on making more and will experiment with your ideas and see what works for me

Thats what I have been doing. I'm working on 1 gal test batches. So far I have used:
EC-1118 - twice
Muntons Ale
Cote des blancs
S-04 -twice
And everything from Indian Summer cider to FAJC to adding pumpkin or cherry or black tea and I have my first gallon of fresh pressed, unpastuerized from my local orchard going. Just trying to figure things out.
I still have some Premier Blanc to try as well.

 

[Paps]

EC-1118 = beastmode

 

[MikeTodd]

EC-1118 = beastmode

Yeah, it scared me. Went from 1.070 to .99 in 6 days.