Hello and some questions from a newbie. First post.

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MPKnWA

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Hello there forum members! My first post here. How ya doin?

On a lark I brewed up my first batch of hard cider starting back in October. It was three gallons (in the 1 gallon bottles) of Whole Foods 365 juice with red star champagne yeast and a little frozen apple juice concentrate to increase the sugar. Well, it turned out fairly well and now I've caught the bug to brew up more. Not surprising that I would like cider brewing as a hobby since I was a chemistry major in college and now I'm a pharmacist and a bit of a foodie. Fits my natural interests well I think!

Anyway, enough about me, on to the cider question. I'm looking to start a few new batches and would like some input.

I would like to make a couple gallons to age until summer and a couple gallons to drink soon after it's done - mid February or so. I would like the batch to age to be a bit higher ABV, maybe 8%, and the batch to drink in February a more standard 5-5.5%. I have a good understanding on what OGs to shoot for to achieve this I think. I have a batch brewing now that I am planning on aging a couple months and drinking in the spring.

I have at my disposal:

-Two gallons of a good quality cider - Ryan's Honeycrisp cider
-Access to lots of other good quality pasteurized ciders for purchase for the other batch - I live in Washington State.
-A few yeasts I've purchased - Nottingham, Lavlin L-1118, and Saflager S-23, and the red star champagne
-A hydrometer
-An indoor closet that fluctuates from 62-68 degrees.
-An outdoor closet that stays 50-55 degrees.

My plan in general is to ferment my batches in primary for a couple weeks or until dry, around FG of 1.00 or as low as they go on their own and then rack to secondary for a few more weeks to finish off and let flavors improve a bit. I'm not in a hurry here :). I'll then back sweeten with xylitol to taste and bottle carb with dextrose using swing top bottles. I also have some concentrated apple extract to add just prior to bottling that I used last time and found helped the flavor a bit. My goal is a semi sweet, well carbonated cider from both batches.

For now I'm not really interested in cold crashing, pasteurizing, or kegging.

1. Should I use the honeycrisp juice for the now batch or age it? Should I use it at all?
2. Anyone have ideas of what juice/yeast combo for something to drink now vs. a combo for aging?
3. Any thoughts on what kind of sugar to add to the respective batches to get the best overall flavor of each batch given their timelines for drinking? Frozen apple juice concentrate, brown sugar, white sugar, honey, corn syrup, other?
4. I'm also thinking about adding some pureed apples during primary fermentation. Thoughts on this?
5. Should I age after bottling or rack a 2nd time and age til summer in my 1 gallon carboys?

Ok, thanks for sticking with me. I tend to be long winded when I write. Looking forward to hearing people's thoughts, advice, general musings, etc.

Cheers!
 
Welcome to the site and the hobby.

At this point, your best approach will be to just go for it. Try some things, taste some things, ferment some things, and see what works best. Sometimes our goals for particular batches don't always align with the end result, but a little (or a lot) of trial and error go a long way towards making you a better brewer.

In general, I've found that ciders need to age longer than most people think. Some of the higher ABV batches need quite a while (maybe 6-12 months). I would also avoid any "unnecessary" racking, the oxidized flavors can be more apparent in ciders. Ferment out completely, sweeten if you'd like, stabilize if necessary, then bottle and age.
 
I try to age mine 6-8 months before bottling. But sometimes the bottles sit for months before consumption.

But I just made a one gal. test batch. A month later it's all gone. It was so good but I wonder what time would have done?
 
Welcome to the site and the hobby.

At this point, your best approach will be to just go for it. Try some things, taste some things, ferment some things, and see what works best. Sometimes our goals for particular batches don't always align with the end result, but a little (or a lot) of trial and error go a long way towards making you a better brewer.

In general, I've found that ciders need to age longer than most people think. Some of the higher ABV batches need quite a while (maybe 6-12 months). I would also avoid any "unnecessary" racking, the oxidized flavors can be more apparent in ciders. Ferment out completely, sweeten if you'd like, stabilize if necessary, then bottle and age.

Thanks for the reply! I've been thinking about it since I posted and was leaning towards just going for it and seeing what happened. I appreciate your perspective on things not always turning our how you intend. Good to hear. I'll just keep judicious notes so I can remember months down the road why things might have turned out as they did.

Thanks also for mentioning the oxidation that may take place with racking. I had not considered that.
 
Hi MPKnWA and welcome. There is one way to inhibit oxidation when you rack. First you keep the racking tube at the bottom of the target carboy so the exposure to air is minimized. But even more importantly when you rack you rack onto ***K-meta (the equivalent of 1 campden tablet per gallon. Best to buy powdered K-meta (no fillers) and you simply dissolve the K-meta (Potassium metabisulfite) in a tiny amount of water. The K-meta (typically used to sanitize wine making tools and equipment, but also to inhibit wild yeast and bacteria (at a lower concentration) is used to inhibit oxidation -the free SO2 does that work. Wine makers typically routinely rack onto K-meta every 60 -90 days and we can age wines for years with little concern for oxidation.

*** If you add K-meta to a full carboy you run the risk of nucleating the CO2 and creating a volcano and K-meta doesn't dissolve well in alcohol ( you probably know this already but others may not)
 
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