First Cider Question

[brewnvt]

Hi All, this is going to be my first try at cider so I wanted to get peoples opinion on my recipe.

I'm planning on adding 5 Campden tablets to 5 Gallons of non pasteurized cider and let that sit for 24 hours. Bring SG to 1.060, pitch ale yeast and add 2.5 tsp pectic enzyme to help clear cider, and 2 tsp. yeast nutrient to help the yeast. Let the cider sit for 2 weeks or until SG has stabilized. After the SG has stabilized, add 1oz sugar/gallon to carbonate and Campden tablet (1/gallon) and 2.5 tsp. potassium sorbate to stop fermentation then bottle.

Will this recipe give me a sweet or a dry cider? Will an ale yeast be able to ferment the SG down to around 1.000 or will I need to use a champagne yeast? Do I need to balance the acid at all with cider? Thanks for your opinion and any help you can provide!

 

[dinnerstick]

your plan starts out ok, but gets a bit weird at bottling... once it is fermenting i would leave it for a while. it will probably take a good few weeks (or months depending on many variables; yeast, temp, etc) to ferment out, any ale yeast will take 1.060 to below 1.000, and then it could take months to clear. the flavor will then start to improve greatly with a few more months, it may taste harsh when young. i generally ferment for a couple months, and transfer to a secondary to bulk age for another few months, then bottle and leave for a few months. if you want to carbonate you shouldn't add the campden and sorbate since that will prevent the necessary yeast activity. if you want it sweet and still then you can add the chemicals and then sweeten. don't know about oz and gallons, just sweeten by taste until it is where you want it. best bet for a first go, in my opinion, is make it dry, aged, and carbonated. nearly foolproof, but requires patience.

 

[MeadHorn]

Here's what I can impart from my cider endevours, take it for what you will.

1) You should mix your nutrient and pectic enzyme with your Campden. This way the nutrient will be nice and mixed in and (most importantly) it gives the enzyme time to do its job. I've noticed a difference in taste and clarity between letting the enzyme sit for 24 hrs vs throwing it with the yeast.

2) As of now, the only yeast I've used is ale yeast (Safale US-05). Other posts I have read seem to prefer ale yeast to wine yeast (see the sticky about the juice/yeast experiment, good stuff there). The cider ends up dry no problem, so unless you like it that way, you'll need to look into methods of sweetening it while carbing it.

3) Speaking of carbing, if you plan on bottle conditioning, especially if you let it go dry, I wouldn't bother with the sorbate/k-meta. If you do what you were planning, you'd end up with a still cider. If the cider has reached it's FG (if I let my cider go dry from 1.06, it finishes below 1.0 easily), then rack onto 1oz of sugar/gallon of cider, then bottle right away. You'll end up with a nicely carbed cider without fear of bottle bombs.

4) As far as the acidity is concerned, it depend on the juice really. If your cider was freshly cold pressed, it should retain that nice tartness. In any case, here's what I do: before I bottle, I taste a sample. If I think it tastes bland or flat, that's usually a sign that it needs a bit of acid. For my gallon batchs, I add 1/4 tsp of acid blend, miix it in (gently), and wait an hour to taste again. For my personal taste, if never added more than 3/4 tsp, but better to add a little at a time, because it's a PITA if you add too much.

Oh, and one final word. If you do ferment it dry, you'll probably need to let the cider age a touch before it'll taste right (the apple taste can be very weak, but will get stronger over time). If you can wait at least a few months, your patience will be well rewarded!

 

[RobWalker]

Just a few things...

I've never needed citric acid in cider. apples are made of them - but it's your choice, it'll just have a little more bite.

+1 on ageing, all cider gets better after a few months - it'll bring out the apple flavour and round off the sharpness. There's nothing worse than drinking a strongbow/bulmers from the pub and getting a nose full of yeast too :/

All ciders will ferment bone dry unless you use an unfermentable sugar such as malt, burnt honey can do it too. As it's been said, k-sorbate etc will rule out sugar carbing because the yeast won't reproduce. Cider is a little tricker than wine and beer to get it sweet and carbed, there's no surefire way to get a good result at home without putting the effort in. Your choices as I see them are this...

1) Stabilize and don't carbonate, or force carbonate in a keg. Pressure Barrels make serving sweet, fizzy cider MUCH easier!
2) Ferment it dry, clear, then backsweeten with sugar or apple juice, then bottle and pasteurize when it's carbed (about 1 week.) This is my usual choice - it's okay to add extra sugar to get a stronger cider and then "water it down" with apple juice back to 4-5%

That's about it, I reakon!

 

[sashurlow]

Pretty much what they said...
I will add this note. Fermented dry does not mean there is no sweetness. My first ciders were fermented dry and still have sweetness and taste incredible. If your palate is thinking Woodchuck then there won't be much sweetness, but after brewing my own, Woodchuck is syrupy to me now. Oh... and patience, lots of patience...

 

[Pappers_]

As mentioned above, the method you describe won't work. If you'd like to make semi-dry/sweet bottle carbonated cider, take a look at www.makinghardcider.com.