First Cider

[Shotgunwilly]

I am hopping next week I get to start my first gallon of cider.

Been reading lots of information and watching YouTube videos I have come up with the following

1 gallon fresh pressed apple cider now avaible at grocery stores
1 cup black tea steeped for 10 minutes
EC-1118 yeast
Some raisins for the yeast.

Racking for secondary fermentation after 14 days. I know it will be a young cider but am planning on bring it with me for Christmas dinner

What I am undecided on is if I will be keeping it dry, back sweetening or making that caramel sauce for people to add to it.

Will be updating the thread as I do stuff to it or if something interesting happens.

 

[Rish]

Congrats on getting started! I'd recommend getting some proper yeast nutrient like Fermaid O and skip the raisins. It would take a lot of them to make any difference at all. Good luck!

 

[Srimmey]

get some better yeast too.

For cider, I prefer Nottingham or qa23 but there are a lot of great choices that won’t strip out much flavor.

 

[CKuhns]

Welcome

Agree with @Srimmey 1118 will be very aggresive and likely strip out a lot of flavor. Consider US-04 or 05.

 

[Chalkyt]

Yep, all of the above. IME, the yeast EC1118 is a robust fermenter that finishes neutral and very dry and can tend to strip flavour. My go-to for a basic cider is S04. This yeast is quite nutrient dependent so if the juice is low in YAN (Yeast Assimilable Nitrogen which DAP or Fermaid add to the cider) fermentation can stall at 1.002 - 1.004 and so leave a touch of sweetness. But, everyone has their own favourite yeasts... they are all good.

Shop bought juice is for drinking and so can be low in tannin and acid. The black tea will help with the tannin but you will probably find that adding malic acid will help to add a bit of bite to the cider. Ideally you would use an acid titration kit to measure the acid (a target of 5 -7 g/L is good and this will lower the pH which typically is over 4.0 in drinking juice), but in reality you can do a bit of taste testing after fermentation (i.e. take a few small samples, and add acid until you like the taste, then scale it up... lime or lemon juice can also help with this).

For sweetening at this stage of your adventure, I would suggest an artificial sweetener because you can control just how sweet you want the cider. They all have some flavour, gastric, poison to dogs etc downsides so do some research. Chemical or heat pasteurising can be used to stop fermentation above 1.000 and so leave some sweetness, but for your first cider, this just adds another complication.

You haven't mentioned carbonation so I assume you are aiming for a still cider, but that is another story.

Good luck

Cheers!

 

[Shotgunwilly]

I have looked at the store where I am going to get yeast at and found they have D47 and will get some nutrient as well

@Chalkyt I was planning on using xylitol for sweeting and I am not touching carbonation as I don't have any bottles for that yet

 

[brewSJ]

Personal opinion, but I would skip the tea too, especially for a dry still cider. I will grant you probably need more acid to offset the sugar if you back-sweeten, but I like my ciders dry, made from just juice and yeast.

P.S. I see you're in Toronto, so that means you have orchards within driving distance. Next time, I would make the effort to source your juice from an orchard instead of the store if you can. At an orchard, late-season apples tend to work better for cider than early-season ones too (stronger flavors).

 

[Raptor99]

Personal opinion, but I would skip the tea too, especially for a dry still cider.

As @Chalkyt said, apple juice produced for drinking is usually low in acid and tannins. People often add tea to cider to add some tannins. You need to adjust the juice to be more like that of cider apples.

I add powdered tannin and malic acid in primary, and I usually add some oak during bulk aging.

 

[Shotgunwilly]

My first cider was started tonight

1 gal PC Fresh Pressed Sweet Apple Cider Pasteurized
Red Star Premier Cote des Blanc Dry Wine Yeast 1/3 packet
1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 cup black tea stepped 10 min

I slowly added the juice in about 1/4 of the gal at a time and aerated it for 3 minutes each time

My hydro meter was damaged new one is coming and will get reading in a few days, I have juice set aside

 

[Shotgunwilly]

Well I think I did something right, I see bubbles.

 

[Shotgunwilly]

Got my new hydrometer today and tested my juice sample. If I am reading this right it is 1.052.

If I can get this down to 1.0 it will be a 6.8% and I be happy with that

 

[Shotgunwilly]

One week in and it's looking good

 

[Shotgunwilly]

Today I racked to secondary

My SG measurement came to 1.004 so I ended up with 6.3%. I did add more of the cider I used as there was to much head space.

When I tasted it I found it was not bone dry and did not have an bad after taste.

So time to let it age till just before Christmas when I will take another SG reading, rack it again maybe back sweeten and, toss it in the fridge. If I back sweeten I am not sure if I will use none fermentable sugars or the cameral sauce that can be found on the site.

I think it will be a nice addition to Christmas Dinner.

 

[Shotgunwilly]

So my wife came home from being away today.

I let her try the sample I had put aside and she said it taste like apple juice with alcohol in it. So I added some stevia to it and she said it was much better and I do agree. So I think I am doing something right

 

[Shotgunwilly]

Well my first cider is 1 month in now. When I visually checked it I do not see anything growing in it. I have noticed the colour has started to get a little lighter as stuff settles to the bottom of the carboy.

I think late November I will take a sample and see how the taste has changed. Then around December 19th it will go into the fridge for the cold crash before final racking and backsweetening on weekend before Christmas.

 

[Kickass]

Coming along great!

 

[Shotgunwilly]

Well I took my 2nd sample out for testing on 11.23.24. So this makes the cider 2 months and 2 days old lol.

The flavor is much better then it was before. I took a new gravity reading and now I am at 1.002. I have gone down 2 points so sitting at 6.56% ABV. ABV may be higher as there was a small step feed as there was to much headspace after the first racking so added more of the apple cider into the carboy.

With the taste test this time the flavor was not as harsh and the able flavor could still be tasted. I used a control sample of 250 ml or 1 cup to test back sweetening. I added 1 tsp of Stevia and both me and the wife agreed it needed more. This is where did not think, I should have gone up 1/2 tsp and not a full tsp as my wife found it to sweet now. Looks like I be aiming for around 1 1/2 tsp per cup when I do my final back sweetening but I will start lower and slowly more and not do big jumps

I am liking the colour. It has become clearer then I thought it would as I did not use and clearing agents on it. In my next brew I may add pectic enzyme to make it clearer not sure though as I am not entering any contests yet lol

Next time I do anything with it will be mid December when it goes into the fridge for cold crash and then final racking and back sweetening. I do hope my family will enjoy it on Christmas Day.

 

[jnesselrode]

Congrats!

I got a lot of good advice along the way from here and other sources, but I think the 2 things that really improved my store-bought juice-based cider were (1) boost acidity and tannin levels (I did this through acid blend and wine tannin powder) and (2) let it age.

So, I'd recommend holding back some to age. I am down to the last few bottles of cider I made to gift as Christmas presents in 2023. It has greatly improved over that time, but I do feel like it has plateaued.

Good luck with your Christmas tasting!

 

[Shotgunwilly]

Congrats!

I got a lot of good advice along the way from here and other sources, but I think the 2 things that really improved my store-bought juice-based cider were (1) boost acidity and tannin levels (I did this through acid blend and wine tannin powder) and (2) let it age.

So, I'd recommend holding back some to age. I am down to the last few bottles of cider I made to gift as Christmas presents in 2023. It has greatly improved over that time, but I do feel like it has plateaued.

Good luck with your Christmas tasting!

There is lots of great information looking through new and old posts.

If I am able to get another fermentation vessel I am planning on starting next years Christmas cider in January and just leave it alone for the year.

 

[Shotgunwilly]

So cider was enjoyed over Christmas and New Years.

Got a little over 3 liters finished product so I am very happy.

I have learned that I need to give more time from back sweeting to drinking. Did my back sweeting on Christmas Eve and there was strong taste of the sweetener on Christmas but tasted great on New Years Eve. I need to look into different sweetener as many did not like the stevia I used.

Well hears to more brews in 2025. I got my first 2 ciders planned that I hope to start soon

 

[Chalkyt]

Well done. It is good when things work out.

Your experience with non-fermentable sweeteners isn’t uncommon as I understand that we perceive them as “lacking in body” since they don’t provide energy the same way sugar does.

To give you an idea of what is going on, residual sugar in cider gives it a fuller taste (i.e. mouthfeel) than non-fermentable sweeteners. If you want to experiment with sugar, you can stop fermentation either by chemical means or heat pasteurising (which is what I do) when the residual sugar is what you want. Putting sealed bottles in 65C hot water for 10 minutes will stop fermentation.

For example, stopping fermentation at around 1.006 will leave about 10g/L of residual sugar. This is about 2/3 a teaspoon in a 12 oz (330 ml) bottle. It is easy to play around with these numbers to get the taste that you want (even experiment by adding sugar to your fully fermented cider).

You can then measure the SG of your preferred sweetness to see what FG suits your taste. If you go down this path it is worth getting a “finishing hydrometer” (these have a large, easy to read scale that goes in 0.001 increments from 0.980 to 1.020) which makes it easy to read small changes in FG.

Keep having fun. Cheers!

 

[Shotgunwilly]

Well done. It is good when things work out.

Your experience with non-fermentable sweeteners isn’t uncommon as I understand that we perceive them as “lacking in body” since they don’t provide energy the same way sugar does.

To give you an idea of what is going on, residual sugar in cider gives it a fuller taste (i.e. mouthfeel) than non-fermentable sweeteners. If you want to experiment with sugar, you can stop fermentation either by chemical means or heat pasteurising (which is what I do) when the residual sugar is what you want. Putting sealed bottles in 65C hot water for 10 minutes will stop fermentation.

For example, stopping fermentation at around 1.006 will leave about 10g/L of residual sugar. This is about 2/3 a teaspoon in a 12 oz (330 ml) bottle. It is easy to play around with these numbers to get the taste that you want (even experiment by adding sugar to your fully fermented cider).

You can then measure the SG of your preferred sweetness to see what FG suits your taste. If you go down this path it is worth getting a “finishing hydrometer” (these have a large, easy to read scale that goes in 0.001 increments from 0.980 to 1.020) which makes it easy to read small changes in FG.

Keep having fun. Cheers!

I am very happy with my first outcome.

I am trying to get up to my local home brew shop to get some different yeast for my next batch.

I have hinted that I like an immersion circulator for my birthday this year so I can do pasteurization

 

[fluketamer]

i really like so5 for cider.

 

[Chalkyt]

Re your immersion heater... a couple of hints based on my experience are.

- People buying Xmas or Birthday presents invariably get the wrong thing (usually because the salesman sold "something better" that doesn't do the job you want).

- Look for an insulated bucket as heat loss can be an issue in winter when you might be pasteurising.

- The sous-vide usually won't fit an insulted bucket so some sort of bracket needs to be made.

How do I know this ??????

Have Fun.

P.S. I just attached a write-up on heat pasteurising to Dave Farmer's post, just near yours. You might like to look at it.

Cheers!

 

[Fixerman]

I too don't like the aftertaste from stevia. My favorite backsweetening is with maple syrup. You can't taste the maple at all and it lends a more appley taste to the cider. I first stabilize with Campden tablets and potassium sorbate to prevent fermentation from starting up again.

 

[Rish]

I too don't like the aftertaste from stevia. My favorite backsweetening is with maple syrup. You can't taste the maple at all and it lends a more appley taste to the cider. I first stabilize with Campden tablets and potassium sorbate to prevent fermentation from starting up again.

Have you tried monk fruit? It's natural and a little goes a long way.

 

[Fixerman]

Have you tried monk fruit? It's natural and a little goes a long way.

I've tried monk fruit. Didn't do it for me. A lot of people like it tho.