I need a simple sweet cider recipe

[HillbillyDeluxe]

I have never made cider. I want to do my first batch this weekend. I haveno idea what to do. Can someone giveme a simple cider recipe with easy stepby step directions and ingredients? I havent a clue where to start.

 

[Freezeblade]

First question: do you have a kegging setup? if you do not, it's a tad difficult to get a sparkling sweet cider.

 

[HillbillyDeluxe]

I amnot kegging. I make alot of beer and bottle condition all of it. From what i'veseen the bottle conditioning has to be pretty exact or you get bottle bombs.

 

[Brandon O]

Steep 12oz of crystal 10L and 2 oz of torrified wheat in 3/4 gallon of water at 155 degrees for 30 mins.

Take 1/4 gallon water and heat it to 180 and pour it over the grain bag to rinse it. Now add 2lbs light DME to the pot and boil it for 10-20 mins.

Cool it down and put it in the carboy along with 4 gallons of apple juice. I don't aerate it other than letting it all splash into the carboy. I think it helps it stay sweet too. Pitch nottingham yeast and let it ferment about 2-3 weeks at 68 degrees.

It's really, really good. Good quaffable cider with a bit of malty sweet finish. If it finishes at 1.006 or 1.008 that is sweet. If it goes lower than that you can add splenda to taste.

 

[Poobah58]

Ed Wort's Apfelwein.... Or just juice and yeast....

 

[Brandon O]

3/4 cup of dextrose at bottling. Let it sit in bottles for 3 weeks. It gets better with age, peaking at about 3 months.

 

[jaginger]

What is the purpose of dextrose vs table sugar? I just bought some to use in my next batch, but I am wondering why it is preferred.

thanks

 

[nickmpower]

juice+yeast (i like s04)

or

juice+sugar (however much alky you want) + yeast

 

[HillbillyDeluxe]

Whad do you mean s04?

 

[Tusch]

the yeast, its an ale yeast that commonly leaves some residual sweetness.

 

[Freezeblade]

juice + yeast is not going to lend a sweet cider unless you stop fermentation, even if you use s-04 (my fav for cider) the resulting cider will end up at around 1.000-1.002, which is by no means sweet. Edwort's is most certainly not sweet either, ending up sub 1.000, adding sugar will just dry out the drink even more.

The malt suggestion will work, but I really like to keep malt out of my ciders and keep it for the beer. My suggestion is to do the recipe in my pulldown, but to add in splenda, xythol, setiva or lactose at bottling to taste, to leave a sweeter product, the sweetness will also make the cider be ready to drink faster, as it will cover up a bit of the green-ness. That or wait 'till you have a kegging setup, then you can backsweeten with honey/sugar/apple concentrate, etc. and then force carbonate.

Or gain a liking for dry cider

YMMV

 

[z987k]

Ed Wort's Apfelwein.... Or just juice and yeast....

No to both, neither are anything near sweat.

 

[Poobah58]

No to both, neither are anything near sweat.

Backsweeten! or backsweaten

 

[Brandon O]

Juice and yeast just lacks so much flavor and body IMO. Plus, it seems to take like 6 months to a year before it's not tasting like hooch.

 

[wreckinball9]

I have made a few batches the same way and am very adament about my simple recipe:

- 5 gallons fresh pressed cider
- 2 lbs light brown sugar
-wyeast sweet mead yeast 4184

i ferment in a cold basement (technically too cold) 50s and low 60s. the 4184 stops right around 1.008-1.010 and my ciders are delicious at 10 weeks or so from the beggining of fermentation. if you have fresh pressed cider give the wyeast sweet mead yeast and 2 lbs brown sugar a try.

 

[jaginger]

Wreckin,
So you just leave it in primary the whole time and then go straight to bottling?
Carbonated or still?


Sounds great i think i'm going to try it.

Oh, BTW does it ever get clear with the fresh pressed cider or does it stay cloudy?

 

[wreckinball9]

you can leave it in the primary that whole time if you want, but i use a secondary. i recommend racking at a month and leaving in the secondary another two months (mine is drinkable but pretty cloudy at 1 month in secondary). if you dont have a secondary leave it in the primary 8-10 weeks and bottle. oh i also cold crash it (in whatever vessel its in) for a week or two before i bottle.


if you have access to pectic enzyme you will want to add it to the primary before you dump your cider in. that will help but honestly it doesnt get as clear as other beverages. i then force carb in a keg and bottle using the BMBF. my experience is that its much better carbed. however i have never tried to prime it with sugar and let it carb in bottles. keep us posted on yours

 

[nickmpower]

I put about half of a large can of apple concentrate in mine to sweeten it up. no way do you guys age your **** for so long. I drink it as soon as its remotly clear. Then again, im a college student.

 

[Freezeblade]

I put about half of a large can of apple concentrate in mine to sweeten it up. no way do you guys age your **** for so long. I drink it as soon as its remotly clear. Then again, im a college student.

I'm a college student too, and I age mine for a long time, the key is filling the pipeline, then brewing stuff that's ready earlier so you're not tempted to drink the ciders. I've got a few that are going on a year currently, and I don't feel like drinking them because I've got a bunch of stuff that IS ready.

 

[Pumbaa]

try using a sweet mead yeast, it should leave about 2-3% sugar behind

 

[z987k]

Backsweeten! or backsweaten

hey, maybe I like my cider salty! :cross:

 

[rootbeerjohn]

Natural apple juice (buy at grocery store) with no preservatives (if cant get enough juice, get at least 6 liters and dilute with water to make 18 liters.
2 pounds of sugar and yeast strain EC-1118.

Remember to sterilize equipment. You can sterilize apple juice by brining it to boil.

Mine fermented for 3 weeks then drank some. It was very alcoholic. but too watery for taste. For my next batch I will not add water but all 18 liters of apple juice unfiltered and without preservatives.

 

[Tusch]

Do not boil apple juice, boiling will set the pectins and create pectic haze. Also I don't understand only using half apple juice and half sugar water, sound like some sort of cider hooch. If you can't get all apple juice, then at least use apple concentrate and not sugar.

 

[rootbeerjohn]

Do not boil apple juice, boiling will set the pectins and create pectic haze. Also I don't understand only using half apple juice and half sugar water, sound like some sort of cider hooch. If you can't get all apple juice, then at least use apple concentrate and not sugar.

Yep, i think thats what i got (hooch). I never brewed cider before and got this idea from a cider extract canned kit. That is why this next time around I will use all apple juice. Didn't know about boiling the juice so this time I wont. Thanks.

That hooch really messed me up tho

 

[Tusch]

It's all good Brew on! :rockin: