First True Cider

[Ryan98720]

Hey guys! New here! I’ve been stalking the forum lately and was curious for some advice!

i recently took a trip to Gatlinberg and had a chance to stop by the Tennessee Cider Company shop they have down town! we did a tasting and the cider was so good! Anyway, this has sparked me to want to try my hand at cider making again! I’ve made cider once before with a 1 gallon kit from Amazon.. it turned out okay… I bottle carbonated them… at the time I did not understand that the yeast would continue to eat the sugar in the bottle… I was lucky that nothing exploded lol but at the end of the day I prefer my cider to be sweeter… most nights I go out I enjoy an angry orchard to drink if that tells you how sweet I like them… anyway all that to say I wasn’t impressed my first time around and just shoved everything in a cabinet in the far reaches of the kitchen…

I think it’s time I try it again… this time I think I want to add some flavoring to it or at least to a couple bottles… I’m thinking I ferment the first time without any additions other than maybe some sugar to increase the alcohol content depending on my starting specific gravity of the juice. I’m not sure what yeast to use. I’ve heard good things about cote de blanc but if you have any suggestions I’m open! If there’s anything with a doughy or sweet taste that would be good! I want it to taste like apple pie

After the first ferment I was thinking of cold crashing in the fridge to clarify the cider before bottling. Then I was thinking about mixing in some spices… not sure when to put in the spice blend… was thinking about using a cheese cloth or something to make it easy to remove… anyway I was then thinking of back sweeting with apple juice concentrate and maybe a touch of maple syrup… also may throw in some vanilla extract… i Plan to sweeten to taste then follow directions for priming the bottle with sugar.…

finally let the bottles carbonate… I saw a trick of using a coke bottle as a measure of carbonation that I wanna try. Once the come bottle feels right I want to follow the steps on here to carefully pasteurize the bottles to kill the yeast and stop fermentation. I figure this way I’ll be able to enjoy sweet and bubbly homemade cider… over sweetened initially to account for eh carbonation step.

Are there any errors in my thinking? Or does anyone have suggestions that would make things better or easier? Like I said, total newbie to this but I’m a biology major and love cooking so this stuff is really interesting to me!

Thanks y’all!

 

[Zambezi Special]

I like my cider real dry, so I haven't made sweet/fruity ones.
I think maybe a nice Belgian tripel yeast might give you a nice flavour. Just make sure it is not a diastaticus as they eat everything that even remotely resembles a sugar.
You could use stevia or sorbitol to sweeten as they don't ferment.

I've not pasteurised any cider, I'm sure others will pitch in with help

 

[Chalkyt]

If you want to go back to "first principles", FYI, I add sweetness to my cider by fully fermenting then "over-priming" (as you suggest) for carbonation, then pasteurising while there is still some sugar left. I have tried this "on the way down" but you need to monitor the SG closely to pick the right time, so I find it easier to fully ferment then add back AJ (or AJC) to the appropriate level. I generally don't use straight sugar for this, but you can. I have also had some good "touch of sweetness" fully fermented ciders using Fermentis AS-2 and TF-6 yeasts.

I find that the "official" levels of sweetness for semi-sweet, sweet, etc are too high for my tastes so I work on grams of sugar per SG change. i.e. I allow two gravity points (plus "a bit for luck") per volume of CO2 and numbers like five gravity points per 10 g/L (2 teaspoons) of sugar for sweetness. e.g. Bottle at SG 1.010 and pasteurise at 1.004 results in something like two volumes of CO2 and 6g/L of sweetness which is about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in a 330ml (12 oz) bottle. The coke bottle trick works for carbonation, although I use a Grolsch test bottle fitted with a pressure gauge in the flip-top to more accurately monitor pressure as a proxy for volumes of carbonation (see Andrew Lea's "Carbonation Table").

A number of cider-making books have SG vs sugar tables and I imagine that you will also find lots via Dr Google. A good web-site for such stuff is Vinolab although their "sugar" figures also appear to include the non- fermentable elements in juice (only around 80% of the elements that result in juice SG is sugar, the other non-fermentable 20% is tannins, acids, etc).

See Pappers post at the top of the forum re pasteurising or my post of 1 Feb 2021. As a general rule, if you heat bottles of cider up to 65c over 8 -10 minutes then let them cool down, fermentation will be stopped.

Have fun!

 

[bernardsmith]

Perhaps a simpler technique is to ferment the cider brut dry, then add non fermentable sugars (some add chemical tastes but some don't) and then bottle prime by adding a correct amount of sugar that will all be converted to CO2 (and a little bit of alcohol). No need to pasteurize. Heat destroys aromatics and flavor molecules but if that is not an issue then that's not an issue. Apple juice typically will have a gravity of about 1.050 or perhaps a little higher , so even without added sugars to increase the ABV you have a cider at about 6-7% ABV. Not a wine that you drink by the glass, but cider is traditionally a drink that you quaff by the pint... and at 6.5% ABV that ain't a watery beer (4% ABV, plus or minus)

 

[Chalkyt]

As indicated above, non-fermentable sugars are an option. I have found that making cider often involves trade-offs, and this is another of them.

Some non-fermentables that I have used (like Xylitol) taste just like sugar (but it is toxic to dogs), others might add chemical tastes or produce gastric upsets. On the other hand, heat pasteurising exposes you to the risks of cooking the cider or producing bottle bombs if the temperature and/or carbonation is too high.

So, you do your research and "pays your money and makes your choices". My routine for sweet-carbonated cider involves heat pasteurising, while other people are happy with non-fermentable sweeteners. I must say that so far, the AS-2 and TF-6 yeasts mentioned above have produced good "touch of sweetness" ciders from simply fully fermenting and adding AJ to 1.005 at bottling time (or whatever your carbonation calculator suggests)
... a very simple, straightforward process with no pasteurising and the result suits my taste.

 

[JulianDave]

Perhaps a simpler technique is to ferment the cider brut dry, then add non fermentable sugars (some add chemical tastes but some don't) and then bottle prime by adding a correct amount of sugar that will all be converted to CO2 (and a little bit of alcohol). No need to pasteurize. Heat destroys aromatics and flavor molecules but if that is not an issue then that's not an issue. Apple juice typically will have a gravity of about 1.050 or perhaps a little higher , so even without added sugars to increase the ABV you have a cider at about 6-7% ABV. Not a wine that you drink by the glass, but cider is traditionally a drink that you quaff by the pint... and at 6.5% ABV that ain't a watery beer (4% ABV, plus or minus)

OP, I recommend you do it this way. This method is the 'easy button' for making a sweet sparkling cider. For nonfermentable sweeteners I like erythritol.

 

[bernardsmith]

OP, I recommend you do it this way. This method is the 'easy button' for making a sweet sparkling cider. For nonfermentable sweeteners I like erythritol.

I agree. Erythritol is a good sugar. Not quite as sweet as sugar so you may want to bench test any amount you are thinking about adding.

 

[bushpilot]

I agree. Erythritol is a good sugar. Not quite as sweet as sugar so you may want to bench test any amount you are thinking about adding.

This is what works for me as well.