I made about 20 gallons of cider last weekend. I want to make hard cider out of some of it. It was a mixture of apples and is very good cider. I have an American Harvestor cider press. What is the best way to make hard cider. I want to try making applejack out of the hard cider. The cider has been in the refrigerator since I made it. I have Safbrew T58 yeast to help get it started. I mixed about 6grams into 12oz of cider tonight to get it started. I have a Mr Beer home brewery keg (2 gal). To ferment the cider in. Now what do I do?
First time hard cider maker
- Thread starter Ard
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My recommendation, find one of the recipes here on the forum and follow it. But the first thing you'll have to do before pitching your yeast is warm the cider back up.
gratus fermentatio
Well-Known Member
Interesting choice of yeast, have you looked at the flavour profile(s) and/or results others have gotten on it yet? If not, you might want to have a look at this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/safbrew-t-58-a-160245/
The easiest it gets is simply adding the yeast to your juice in the fermenter. Plenty of people do it this way & end up with a hard cider with an ABV of ABOUT 5%, depending on the sugar content of the juice. I'd add a dose of yeast nutrient & yeast energizer too, they'll give the yeast nutrients the juice doesn't have & help insure you get a good, healthy fermentation.
Next is Ed Wort's apfelwein. It's VERY EASY and really the only difference is that you add sugar to the juice & end up with a harder cider with an ABV of about 8%. I think it takes a little longer to age, but it's good. Here's the recipe:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/
Now here is another, slightly more involved, yet still pretty simple recipe for a malt cider called Graff:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/
I love Graff, (thanks Brandon!) and have experimented with Brandon's base recipe quite a bit & have found it's almost impossible to mess it up. I usually use Nottingham ale yeast cuz I like the results, but I've also used Safale US-04 & US-05 with good results.
I always add a dose of yeast nutrient/energizer & most times I also add DAP (Diammonium Phosphate) for a good, healthy fermentation; they also can eliminate, or at least reduce the sulphur smells that stressed yeast can emit, we call those "rhino farts."
There are plenty of cider & cider-like recipies on this site; some more difficult, some not. You might want to get a bucket fermentor & a 5 or 6 gallon carbouy though. After you make a hard cider that is really awesome, you'll wish you had made more.
Regards, GF.
