How many gallons of cider in 2017

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There's a story behind this. Three weeks ago I picked up juice at my local orchard. My wife also bought apples and a gal. of fresh cider. Well it was opened and we only drank a little then forgot it in the fridge for a couple weeks. Last week I tried some and it was still sweet but had some fizz and a little alcohol. It was sooo good! So I checked the label - NO PRESERVATIVES KEEP REFRIDGERATED

Today I bought another gallon and put it in a small bucket with the lees from the previous gallon and some pectin enzyme.

1069 + 1 = 1070
 
Thanks. I started 5.5 gal. with 71b-1122 ten days ago.

Today I racked it on top of 3 pounds of frozen cherries from B.J.’s. Most of the yeast went down the drain.

how long do you plan to secondary.

12 days. The cherries were mostly grey/white and the cider had a nice reddish hue. Tasted good, too.

Racked it to clear. Will then stabilize and back sweeten with a little fresh cherry juice then keg carb.
 
12 days. The cherries were mostly grey/white and the cider had a nice reddish hue. Tasted good, too.

Racked it to clear. Will then stabilize and back sweeten with a little fresh cherry juice then keg carb.
i used concentrated apple juice then bottled the yeast ate the sugar in 2 days and i had some very carbonated cider! oh and dry :(
 
Today I bought another gallon and put it in a small bucket with the lees from the previous gallon and some pectin enzyme.

Two days at basement temps it’s bubbling away. I might wanna harvest this yeast!
 
Two 55 gallon oak barrels, one 55 gallon plastic barrel, and 6 carboys.

195 gallons!

Edit: Actually, several of the carboys are big ones, so its 198 gallons!
 
Two 55 gallon oak barrels, one 55 gallon plastic barrel, and 6 carboys.

195 gallons!

Edit: Actually, several of the carboys are big ones, so its 198 gallons!

That’s a lot! And big vessels too. What do you do with it, keg, bottle?
 
1 gal WL775 going to rack over cranberries
2 gal Caramel Apple Pie, w/ Nottingham

1292 + 3 = 1295
 
I'm almost ready to bottle my third batch. That's 18 gallons for me!

1295 + 18 = 1,313
 
1323+12=1335.

2 gallons 1.000-dry, still
5 gallons slightly sweeter w/bourbon/cinnamon/spice tincture, kegged and carbed
5 gallons dry hopped w/nelson sauvin, kegged and carbed
 
4gal store brand apple juice with S05. 9 days into fermentation. Quite nice so far, I'm excited!
1335+4=1339 plus a quarter million+/-
 
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I must apologize, as my number above was a tad too high. SO today I checked the records. To date cider made is 253,727 gallons, and that is only that which has cleared fermentation and gone from racking through cross flow. We still have some tanks fermenting and have yet to receive some more raw apple juice in December. So that number, right now, is absolute and a given at 253,727 gallons.
 
Well, there is the website. https://www.fennvalley.com/ And this tank I took a picture of the other day for John Thomas (MiniBrew owner) shows a SS fermenter/storage tank with glycol chiller jacket that is 5,322 gallon capacity. We actually don't make much cider in these tanks as they are a bit small. We use the 7300 gallon fiberglass as a rule for the majority of apple cider ferments, or some of the other new tanks in the next room. We receive in shipments of bulk apple juice (cider) of roughly 5300 to 5500 gallons and ferment in one tank. These simple are too small to hold a full tanker load. You need some headspace for fermentation. I was telling John about the size of the lid on these tanks, 9" , same a a pie plate, as he was worried about finding a large enough lid for some of the larger conical brewing tanks they are designing. We actually have a 1,970 gallon tank that only has about a 4" lid, that has threads internally, and yes, we have fermented in that one as well. BTW, none of them have air locks on them when we ferment. Don't even put the lid on... just ferment away. There is probably over 200 gallons of CO2 gas covering it during fermentation anyway.


20171209_205146823.jpg
 
2 gallons orchard cider in primary, nottingham w/ 7oz pumpkin puree and 1 steeped bag chai tea each. No idea how this will turn out.

1344 + 2 = 1346

not sure if I should add the other 253,727 - seems like cheating! haha.
 
2 gallons orchard cider in primary, nottingham w/ 7oz pumpkin puree and 1 steeped bag chai tea each. No idea how this will turn out.

1344 + 2 = 1346

not sure if I should add the other 253,727 - seems like cheating! haha.
Original post said: "Same rules as previous years. January 1 to December 31, 2017. Ciders and cider variants welcome.

Can we beat last year's 1222.5 gallons?"

Did not say anything about forum members making some at work. It is my work. And I tested another 5600 gallons +/- in tank 66 Friday (12-15) that is too cold to add yeast to, but tastes delicious as apple juice. This client has his apple juice(cider) filtered before shipping as it is not overly expensive and cuts down on waste gallons after the initial ferment. It is NOT unusual to loose 70 or more gallons down the drain at racking due to lees.
 
On my 4th batch of cider 1346+15=1361. Dunno what to say about the 253,727 gallons except how about teaching us to brew cider like the pros lol.
 
Cider is easy to make. To me a lot easier than wine and a WHOLE lot easier than making beer.
Apple juice comes in at around 12-13 brix. If less than 12 brix add sugar to bring it to 12.5 to 13 brix.
It also comes in low in nutrients and acid. Many times the ciders come in at 0.300 or lower in acid. We add Malic (USE ONLY MALIC) acid to adjust the acid up to around 0.650 to 0.700. This will also fix the horrible pH that apple juice has. Pear juice is even worse for it's acid, but that's another story.

We add 3.5 lbs / 1000 gallons (abbreviated M) of Superfood, a complex and mostly complete yeast nutrient along with 1.5 lbs/M of DAP Diammonium Sulfate (a nitrogen source) along with around 40ppm of SO2.

When the cold tankeload of cider we recieveved into one of our fermenting tanks reaches at least 52 degrees we add DV-10 yeast. We found out that this yeast is better for cider than a lot of other yeasts, in that it does not produce a lot of Hydrogen Suflifde in the cider when the nutrient level is not 100%. We add this at the rate of 1lb/M for the sake of easy figuring in small 1+ gallon batches, figure 1gm / gallon. It should take off in a couple of days and ferment pretty vigorously. Ours reach temps of 75-80 degrees on a regular basis, since we don't chill the cider, just let it go. It will go pretty dry in about 4-6 days of start of fermenting, at around 0.5 % sugar. Good enough. Then they are quickly racked and DE filtered off yeast. You will have to loose some of the product in lees. AND add about 30ppm of SO2 at that time.

about 7 to 10 days after initial racking, we cross flow filter it into another tank, and add SO2 to Molecular 0.9ppm (probably add another 30 ppm for home cider making just to make sure. By then it is sparkling clear. Many times the client then just sends a new tanker of juice to us, we receive it, wash the tanker, and then add the newly made cider to it for transport back to their place. To ours we add a small amount of sugar, concentrated apple juice and Potassium Sorbate (prevent further fermentation to the added sugars) and then filter through tight filter pads into our brite tank, where it is CO2 pressurized and kegged or canned.
 
Wow I can't thank you enough! I'll be making way better cider now from the same materials! I will definitely try with the malic acid and SO2. I'm finding my cider made with low acid juice is very bland and just bought potassium metabisulphate as a sanitizer and stabilizer but it smells strongly of sulfur! Do you oxygenate at all or does SO2 add enough oxygen?
 
OK.. SO2 info: Cider is low enough alcohol (EtOH) and unusual higher pH that are just ripe for film yeast and other spoilage, so SO2 is critical to keep it in good shape. It is so much so, the head winemaker has me check pH and SO2 levels in ciders every 30 days, where wines are checked every 90 days.

We don't oxygenate at all. Also SO2 does not add any oxygen, in fact it basically subtracts it. SO2 is an preservative and anti-oxidant. Meaning it prevents things from browning, and can reduce the O2 in juices before fermentation.

Get the pH down to under 3.5, as you adjust your acid up a bit toward at least .600 TA. (total acids) BTW, when you titrate cider, and cherry juices and wines you use a different factor. For grape wines, 10 ml is added to a beaker, and titrated with 0.1N Sodium Hydroxide solution and the result is multiplied by 0.0750 to get the acid. EG: Riesling juice is titrated and the result of NaOH used (0.1N) to achieve a pH of 8.15- 8.25 on a meter is recorded. That number, let's say 11.0 ml is multiplied by 0.075 and you get an acid of 0.825 as TA. Had it been apple juice instead that figure of 11.0 ml is multiplied by 0.067 for "Malic" acid and the result would be 0.737. Cherries, apples and pears are measured as Malic, their primary acid.

Ciders are not beer, so the same idea of aeration don't apply. When apples (or pears) are chopped up and crushed, they are pressed very had to extract the juice from pulp. Juice drips out of the press and thereby the oxygen is getting into the juice in abundance. Hence, your only recourse is to sulfite the juice to kill off various wild yeasts, and subdue some bacteria. Even at that we have had spontaneous fermentation when the temps get to 65 deg+ before we have added yeast. Our cultured wine yeast we use, DV-10 (can by online many places) responds very well to the yeast nutrients. Grapes can have a lot of YAN and FAN, but ciders not as much. If we smell a "rotten egg" odor at the onset of fermentation, we have added 1.5 lbs additions of D.A.P. to alleviate the lack of nitrogen that causes such problems. This also ensures a fairly rapid and clean fermentation.

Rack off the gross lees fairly soon after fermentation. Keeps yeast from digesting older dead yeasts for food and causing off flavors and smells. That bottom mass is also a wonderful storehouse of goodies for MaloLactic bacteria, WHICH you do not want to be growing in your apple cider, or you'll loose that Malic that you went to the trouble of adding.
 
Yes great info, thanks!! I finally got my TA test kit and after bringing TA to .65g/l with malic the difference in my juice is impressive. Hopeful this is what was missing in my first few batches and looking forward to the finished product.
 
1361 + 6 = 1367
Mostly sparkling cider. However my wife is not a fan. So I make her a cherry/Apple cider with no bottle conditioning, i.e. near flat . Total for year 41 bottled, 6 in primary.
 
Looks like my last gallon for 2017....Whole Foods Organic (free glass carboy included) w/ 71B. Trying pectic enzyme and a bit of malic acid for the first time after testing TA.

Total of 16 gallons for me this year (started October). Going to start first week of January with 5 gallons from the orchard! Happy Holidays All!:tank:

1371 + 1 = 1372
(255,099)
 
Looks like my last gallon for 2017....Whole Foods Organic (free glass carboy included) w/ 71B. Trying pectic enzyme and a bit of malic acid for the first time after testing TA.

Total of 16 gallons for me this year (started October). Going to start first week of January with 5 gallons from the orchard! Happy Holidays All!:tank:

1371 + 1 = 1372
(255,099)

Another 4 gallons for me.
1376 (255,103)
 
+15

1381+15= 1396

During the last two months I've made one 5-gallon batch of half Roxbury Russet/ half Golden Russet, using S04 yeast. One 5-gallon batch of ordinary juice; e.g. McIntosh, Gala, Cortland, etc., S04 yeast. And today I pitched WLP720 Sweet Mead yeast on a blend of Baldwin, Northern Spy and Rhode Island Greening. Next month I'll make a 1 1/2 gallon batch of crabapple cider to blend with the others when I bottle them next Fall.
 
1396 + 5 = 1401

Put me down for my 1st 5gals...which will be bottled before 2018 arrives [emoji111]

Cheers!
 
+5 for me. Cider base, for toasted pecan hard cider.

1376+5=1381

I like the idea of a cumulative running total, though that 255 thousand gallons sounds like a lot. I'll run with it though.
255,103+5=255,108
I'll have to check at work, but I (we) have made quite a bit more since I posted. When you receive a bulk tanker of apple juice of 5500 gallons +/- it don't take long to start adding up. I know things are fermenting in the cider dept. as when I visited last night to get some water (long story for another time) I noticed the smell in the air of the 2 tanks (5300 gallons each) that was inoculated with DV-10 yeast is going very well. Should be done yet this week, since we don't cool ciders and let them warm up and finish out.

Ironic, really, that it has taken since 1972 to reach appx 160,000 gallons of wine made, but inside of just a few years our cider production has surpassed the wine production. This is because apples store and then are crushed and pressed "as needed" and we get apple juice long after the apples have been harvested. Not quite so with wine grapes. They don't store.

Also, for yeasts, I would think everyone would be using more or less traditional wine yeasts and not any beer yeasts. Remember to add nutrient, and adjust the acid up a bit with Malic to give your ciders more crispness. Keeps better too. PLUS you can add KMBS (aka Potassium MetaBiSulifte) to help with keeping qualities as well. Hops for beer SO2 for wine.
 
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