First try at cider – need advice

[Codfishhead]

Would like to try a few experiments to make some cider for a friend. He likes sweeter ciders from what he’s said. I personally am not a cider drinker so know nothing about good or bad cider taste.

I’m looking to buy a half dozen gallons of store bought 100 percent apple juice from concentrate. Any pref on which brand?

From what I’ve read here I need to start off with a 1.060-1.065 OG. I am going to try Wyeast 3056 as well as 3068. Figure 3 single gallon batches of each one.

Question is what is the OG of store bought juice and how much of what sugars should I add. Found some post using 2/3 organic sugar and 1/3 corn sugar.

Are those the best sugars to use to make a sweeter style cider? About how much is needed for each gallon to boost the OG to 1.065?

Thank you

Jay

 

[buzz1670]

I do a 5 gallon batch.One pound of light grown sugar,5 teaspoons of bentonite and a packet of wyeast 1118.Starting gravity is 1.060.Start with that.

 

[Sandow]

Got a small batch of high test running right now that tastes great so far. I started with apple juice concentrate diluted only 50% and nutrients. Estimated etoh was 16% but the red star champagne yeast I used caps out at 13-15%. Been racking for about two weeks and tastes great. Nice strong apple flavor and just enough residual sweetness. My point is this, if you are starting with concentrate, why enhance the gravity with anything other than more concentrate?

-Sandow

 

[Codfishhead]

Sorry. I probably not explaining it correctly.
I’m going to buy apple juice in gallon size containers. They state on them it’s from concentrate. I’ve read you need to add sugar to boost OG to 1.060. I’ll just check when I get it tonight and see where it stands out of the bottle. I can add whatever amount of sugar is needed to boost the OG.

Now that I wrote that I guess I can just buy the apple juice concentrate and dilute with water until I hit the 1.060.