First cider with store bought juice...a few questions!

[jongrill]

I've been out of brewing for a few months.... Troubles of a band director.


I would like to make a cider today but I have a few questions.

What kind of store bought juice am I looking for other than unpasteurized? Our local store is called ShopRite if anyone can recommend something I can get there!

Do I want to heat it or can I just pitch yeast in my fermenter and let it go?

If I wanted to add cinnamon, nutmeg and a little vanilla, would I add in the fermenter or would I only be able to do that if I was to heat the juice?

Yeast! What are my good options?!

Thanks!

Jon

 

[hunter_le five]

There's nothing wrong with pasteurized juice. Just make sure there are no preservatives or artificial flavors in it, and that it's 100% juice (not 15% juice apple-flavored sugar-water cocktail). Juice from concentrate is fine even. The only ingredients should be juice (or juice from concentrate + water). Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) is okay, though some people claim this makes the juice more tart... but to me all ciders taste tart and sour until they've had several months to age anyway. But if you can find fress-pressed unpasteurized 100% juice, more power to ya. I prefer pasteurized though to make sure there's not wild yeasties affecting fermentation.

No need to heat the juice at all. Spices can go straight into the fermenter.

 

[theck]

I just started doing cider this year, on my second batch now... I mostly just wanted to do up cheaper brew with some reused yeast from my ales. I just get the store brand 1 gallon juice with no preservatives, 5 of those... I do a DME starter with my reused yeast, starsan everything, even spray the juice bottles, dump it all into a bucket, dump in 2 lbs of brown sugar, take OG reading, dump in the starter, put on the lid and wait for bubbles. My first batch I pulled when it was close to 1.01 which turned out great, still has a nice apple taste but 6%. The second I decided to keep in there longer but finding my apple taste is staring to go as it is over 1.00 and 9%. I think, sure to be wrong probably, but you can add the cinnamon, etc when you keg or bottle it as well. I plan on back sweetening mine before kegging and maybe tossing in a cinnamon stick or two then.

 

[MindenMan]

I must have read your post wrong; it states just dump 2 pounds brown sugar into fermenter w/o dissolving it in first? There is something about not drying the cider down to 1.010 or below to have the best flavor. I did that myself, and had to back sweeten to get the apple flavor back.
A little cinnamon goes a long way in cider. If it were me, I would make a tincture (or extract) with the cinnamon sticks and vodka , so the amount of cinnamon flavor can be better controlled.

 

[theck]

I must have read your post wrong; it states just dump 2 pounds brown sugar into fermenter w/o dissolving it in first? There is something about not drying the cider down to 1.010 or below to have the best flavor. I did that myself, and had to back sweeten to get the apple flavor back.
A little cinnamon goes a long way in cider. If it were me, I would make a tincture (or extract) with the cinnamon sticks and vodka , so the amount of cinnamon flavor can be better controlled.

Sorry duh.. that would be bad ha... I put 1/2lb and half bottle at a time (shelf warm), stir and scrape it like crazy to dissolve it, it takes a bit but it does fine. I thought about cooking it in water for a bit but got lazy ha... I noticed a little sugar on the bottom after racking the last batch to the keg, nothing significant that would make me not just dump it in.

Ya I was messing around with how much sugar = alcohol content and taste, think I might do 4lb of sugar next time and let it go to 1.010 and pull it. 2lbs was 1.068, if I can get it to 1.079 or so and finish with 9-10% I'd be happy ha... you have to really watch it though when drinking it goes down REALLY well. My last batch at 6% I seem to drink it faster and more of them than I do beer, and notice it after 3 good pints. Can't beat it for <$22-24 for 5 gallons if you reuse your yeast.

Not a bad idea with an extract. I was going to toss in 1-2 sticks, but was kinda wondering if it would overpower it... hate to drink 5 gallons of cinnamon.

 

[HornetSparky]

I have used Treetop brand apple juice with good results. Not complex flavors but tasty. I typically put 5 gallons of Apple juice over 3 cans of treetop apple juice concentrate plus yeast nutrient and pectase (according to package directions; one is 1tsp per gallon and the other is 1/2 tsp per gallon). Safale US-05 has worked well.

On a related note, a friend brought over fresh cider with "<1% potassium sorbate" as a preservative. We have now made two batches of this by simply pitching rehydrated US-05 (with the same concentrate additions as above) and it has worked well. I was surprised but I was unwilling to look the gift cider in the mouth, so to speak.

Lastly, I let it go to around 1.01 then back sweeten with two cans of concentrate, bottle carb and pasteurize. Good results all around.

 

[MindenMan]

theck, Where I live quality bottled apple juice is $4+ dollars a gallon. I don't remember what brand it is, but just Vitamin C, and it is $4.89 gallon. I would be $24.00 deep w/o yeast or brown sugar. I don't want rocket fuel hard cider, it is too dry for my taste and I don't have to worry about falling down if I drink 2. On the other hand, if I have apple jack in mind, then I will up the concentrate strength, and add brown sugar. Granted, it does take significantly longer to eat through the sugar and not make nail polish remover, but good home made schnapps beat the store kind on every level. I get a 750mL bottle for $6.00 making my own, and that price just can't be beat.

 

[theck]

theck, Where are you being able to make 5 gallons for $22-24.00 for five gallons. Where I live quality bottled apple juice is $4+ dollars a gallon. I don't remember what brand it is, but just Vitamin C, and it is $4.89 gallon. I would be $24.00 deep w/o yeast or brown sugar. I don't want rocket fuel hard cider, it is too dry for my taste and I don't have to worry about falling down if I drink 2. On the other hand, if I have apple jack in mind, then I will up the concentrate strength, and add brown sugar. Granted, it does take significantly longer to eat through the sugar and not make nail polish remover, but good home made schnapps beat the store kind on every level. I get a 750mL bottle for $6.00 making my own, and that price just can't be beat.

I get it from a local grocery store here in ohio and their brand... If I remember correctly it was on sale for $4.30 something (got a bunch while it was that low), yeast I've been reusing from my ales... Be using a hefe yeast next from my currently bucketed one after I keg it this week. Brown sugar I think is relative cheap, total all maybe less than $28, little off I guess? Think I saw Walmart had juice for a pretty good price as well, I just get fuel perks from giant eagle. I think some people are even using cheap concentrate to make cider. Either way no massive brew day pulling out the cooler, keggle, stove, etc for less than $30 resulting in a good 9% drink is pretty nice ha...

Btw mine was in the primary for only over a week, it went from 1.068 to less than 1.010 in that time. Lost all it's apple flavor, more like water now... Be back sweeting it, but next time watch it so it doesn't go as far. First I pulled at 1.010+ and it's great. When I first was reading on how to do the juice I saw people putting it away for a month or more, not sure why since in a week most of my sugar was eaten? Maybe for flavor but mine has lost a lot of it. Maybe it mellows out? I guess I could aways toss in more brown sugar to give it a little more of a bump since my first keg is still over half full.

 

[Puddlethumper]

I'm trying my first couple of batches of cider and would appreciate a little input from some of you veterans if you don't mind.

The 5 gal batch I made on the 17th has dropped from 1.058 to 1.003. It doesn't have a lot of apple flavor now but isn't bad. If I'm reading these posts correctly it sounds like I'd probably better get this moved to secondary right away. Right? How long would you expect most ciders stay in secondary?

I've been holding it at 67-69F and used Wyeast 4766.

Can I get some of the apple flavor back by backsweetening at bottling time?

 

[Yooper]

I'm trying my first couple of batches of cider and would appreciate a little input from some of you veterans if you don't mind.

The 5 gal batch I made on the 17th has dropped from 1.058 to 1.003. It doesn't have a lot of apple flavor now but isn't bad. If I'm reading these posts correctly it sounds like I'd probably better get this moved to secondary right away. Right? How long would you expect most ciders stay in secondary?

I've been holding it at 67-69F and used Wyeast 4766.

Can I get some of the apple flavor back by backsweetening at bottling time?

I keep mine in secondary until it's clear, and no longer dropping lees. In one case, it happened FAST, like in 5 days, but I have had some ciders that took much longer to clear. In that first one, I had a ton of lees and so racked to a new carboy and nothing else ever dropped out and so it was packaged pretty quickly. I swear I have one that still isn't clear. Weird, because it was the same yeast strain (s04) and even the same mix of apples but pressed on a different day and treated the exact same way.

In other words, you'll know when it's clear and it might be tomorrow or next week or next month. :cross:

 

[Newsman]

Take a look at this thread. I'm getting ready to make that myself. Just an idea. There are a lot of recipes for hard cider here. My first ever hard cider was just cider and yeast. It had to sit for over a year before it was drinkable.

 

[Puddlethumper]

I keep mine in secondary until it's clear, and no longer dropping lees.
In other words, you'll know when it's clear and it might be tomorrow or next week or next month. :cross:

Thanks Yooper. One source I was following suggested using fining agents to clarify the cider. Do you ever use them?

 

[jongrill]

Guys.... Thanks for the input...I've been away for a few days! After the holiday ill update you on the first batch I did!

 

[Newsman]

Thanks Yooper. One source I was following suggested using fining agents to clarify the cider. Do you ever use them?

Can't hurt. I'm going to use pectic enzyme in mine so that I won't have to worry about the pectin haze I hear about.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks Yooper. One source I was following suggested using fining agents to clarify the cider. Do you ever use them?

I typically don't. There are one or two vegetarian/vegan friendly finings, but I've never really needed to use any as everything clears on its own pretty well.

I've only had a couple of wines that I felt weren't going to clear readily, and I used sparkelloid on them, which worked just fine.

Cold stabilization works especially well to clear wines and ciders, and often just a 10 degree drop in temperature will make them drop clear.

 

[Puddlethumper]

Do you ferment Notty on the cool side with cider the same as with ales?

 

[jongrill]

So I listed bottled the cider.... It was SOUR! Like sour beer sour!


Good thing I like sours.