Is Cider the fastest fermenting beverage there is?

CornyKegs 728
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I checked the bottom and it is labeled 7 which is bad. It also says 5pp compatible on it. Which I think is just a recycling note. So basically this is bad plastic and it makes me cautious about even giving my kids juice in it. I hope I am right in assuming that my fermenting buckets are safe. They are labeled food safe. Here is it Noob question, can I ferment beer and cider in the same bucket I'm thinking no. Thanks again for pointing this safety concern out. I guess I will dump them in my bucket next time for sure. And or I will also find Juice in a better container.
 
You can't have too many glass jugs. Half gallon and one gallon jugs can be had in a case of 4 pretty cheaply. Sometimes you can get them free with certain brands of apple juice, though most are in plastic nowadays. They all have a 38 mm threaded mouth and take a #6 rubber bung. If I use cider that comes in a plastic jug I always transfer it to a glass carboy before starting the batch. For bigger batches, plastic PBA free food grade buckets can be had even at Lowes.
 
Assuming that the product is tested every so often to verify that it is what it says it is, the recycle codes of 1 and 2 are the "safe" ones according to a coupe of people on this forum that purport to work in the plastics industry. the products with code 1 are supposed to be less oxygen permeable. the buckets are labeled 2 but aren't normally used for long term storage so less worry of oxidation. I plan to get a couple 2 gallon and lids from home depot along with grommets for the airlocks from my LHBS. I'm currently hunting for water bottles with code 1 to use as carboys. And yes I know they may be slightly lower quality than a purpose made carboy but I can find them as low as $5 each.
 
Blacksmith1 said:
Assuming that the product is tested every so often to verify that it is what it says it is, the recycle codes of 1 and 2 are the "safe" ones according to a coupe of people on this forum that purport to work in the plastics industry. the products with code 1 are supposed to be less oxygen permeable. the buckets are labeled 2 but aren't normally used for long term storage so less worry of oxidation. I plan to get a couple 2 gallon and lids from home depot along with grommets for the airlocks from my LHBS. I'm currently hunting for water bottles with code 1 to use as carboys. And yes I know they may be slightly lower quality than a purpose made carboy but I can find them as low as $5 each.
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Here's one that's close to that in price: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077HSWGBB/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
Blacksmith1 said:
I was talking about this type. https://tampa.craigslist.org/hdo/fuo/d/brooksville-water-can-with-6-bottles/6770915033.html hopefully I can get my truck fixed before these are gone.
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If you sign up for Sparkletts, they'll bring you as many as you want. They usually pick up the spent ones when they deliver new ones, but as far as I can tell you can keep them indefinitely. We got a bunch of them (far more than we needed) when the water company issued a boil water notice, and Sparkletts doesn't seem to care whether we keep them or return them.

YMMV.
 
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I figure sparkletts is a local to you company as I've never heard of them. here it's Crystal Springs or Zephyrhills, (both from the same aquifer) and both like to charge a deposit on the bottles. there is also Primo water at Walmart but it's filtered tap water and if I'm paying for the water I'll go for the spring water.
 
Maylar said:
For bigger batches, plastic PBA free food grade buckets can be had even at Lowes.
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Maylor is right. Just $3.25 for a 5 gallon food grade bucket: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Encore-Plastics-5-Gallon-Commercial-Food-Grade-General-Bucket/1000309157

or

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leaktite-5-gal-70mil-Food-Safe-Bucket-White-005GFSWH020/300197644

I'm going to get one to use with Star San. I had initially tried using Star San in a large stainless steel pot as the sanitizing vessel, but then I found that other metals would react with the pot when sanitized in the presence of the Star San--I presume a galvanic reaction of some kind.
 
add a 12v battery charger and you can do crude electroplating or even remove rust if your polarity is correct. (also works with baking soda)
 
NeverDie said:
Maylor is right. Just $3.25 for a 5 gallon food grade bucket: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Encore-Plastics-5-Gallon-Commercial-Food-Grade-General-Bucket/1000309157

or

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leaktite-5-gal-70mil-Food-Safe-Bucket-White-005GFSWH020/300197644

I'm going to get one to use with Star San. I had initially tried using Star San in a large stainless steel pot as the sanitizing vessel, but then I found that other metals would react with the pot when sanitized in the presence of the Star San--I presume a galvanic reaction of some kind.
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Thanks, yeah, I remember these from when I first started. They are to small for 5g beer batches though so I didnt get one. I assume they are "2" hdpe, these are safe I hope. So beer and cider fermenters separate? So glad you pointed this out. Hopefully at sams I will have a safer option, but if not, then will use hdpe 2 bucket. Cant believe they put childrens juice in that shat. Kinda pisses me off.
 
dmtaylor said:
Three words: Cote des Blancs. ;)
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I received the Cote des Blancs and tried it. You're right! It does preserve more of the apple flavor. Also, it seems to ferment very quickly: in just 50 hours it converted a bottle of 17 BRIX Martinelli apple juice into a 6 BRIX cider. I had to cold crash it or it would have kept on fermenting. I think I'd like to try doing a cyser with it next. :cool:
 
NeverDie said:
I received the Cote des Blancs and tried it. You're right! It does preserve more of the apple flavor. Also, it seems to ferment very quickly: in just 50 hours it converted a bottle of 17 BRIX Martinelli apple juice into a 6 BRIX cider. I had to cold crash it or it would have kept on fermenting. I think I'd like to try doing a cyser with it next. :cool:
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Holy smokes. Hope it doesn't cause headaches. I ferment cold so I have no idea what it does warm.
 
dmtaylor said:
Holy smokes. Hope it doesn't cause headaches. I ferment cold so I have no idea what it does warm.
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How cold? It fermented that quickly at room temp (70F), so I agree it would probably do better at something cooler. I really didn't expect it would go so fast!
 
NeverDie said:
I received the Cote des Blancs and tried it. You're right! It does preserve more of the apple flavor. Also, it seems to ferment very quickly: in just 50 hours it converted a bottle of 17 BRIX Martinelli apple juice into a 6 BRIX cider. I had to cold crash it or it would have kept on fermenting. I think I'd like to try doing a cyser with it next. :cool:
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Wow...seems awful fast for a wine yeast! Was that just 1gal? I've yet to use Cotes....but plan to give er a whirl. Did it cold crash pretty well? How were the lees?
 
bmd2k1 said:
Wow...seems awful fast for a wine yeast! Was that just 1gal? I've yet to use Cotes....but plan to give er a whirl. Did it cold crash pretty well? How were the lees?
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Just 5 cups = 40 fluid ounces. I put it in the refrigerator this morning, and so it's still cloudy. Not sure to what degree it will clear up, but I have time to wait and see.

I'm going to launch a cyser with it today and put it in the garage to ferment. The garage is presently about 60F or so, but trending upward. Therefore, this may be my last shot at trying it until next winter.

Right now I'm only trying to determine which yeasts will make the short-list. After that, I'll be slowing down quite a lot and probably relying on a TILT to more precisely monitor fermentation on just one batch at a time. I figure that way I can have some hope of figuring out the right FG.
 
dmtaylor said:
I've tasted >150 commercial ciders. The following are several world-class ones that I've tasted more than once, in random order.
...
Seattle Semi-Sweet (oh, yum...).

Cheers.
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Seattle Semi-Sweet as world class? Really? That's not the local opinion at all. Off the top of my head, Finnriver, Alpenfire, Eaglemont and Dragon's Head are have stuff that's better.

Granted, you're paying $7-9 for a 500mL or $15-25 for 750mL then. Seattle Ciders, you pay ~$2-3 for a 16oz can.

Volume of "Real" cider/dollar, Seattle is pretty dang good. I'll give it that.

I don't know how widely Seattle Cider is distributed. Probably decently. But if you're in the area, there are a ton of other things to try that are pretty much universally liked more than Seattle Semi Sweet.

There's at least two other cidery's in the Seattle metro area as well that I haven't tried. Pretty sure there are two on Vashon Island and I'm only remembering one(Dragon). There's one in the San Juan's. That's just west of the Cascades in Wa, I'm sure there are more in Eastern Washington.

Portland has a bunch as well. There are at least two on Vancouver Island, but I've no idea about mainland BC. I'm sure there are some in Vancouver as well.
 
wasully said:
Seattle Semi-Sweet as world class? Really? That's not the local opinion at all. Off the top of my head, Finnriver, Alpenfire, Eaglemont and Dragon's Head are have stuff that's better.

Granted, you're paying $7-9 for a 500mL or $15-25 for 750mL then. Seattle Ciders, you pay ~$2-3 for a 16oz can.

Volume of "Real" cider/dollar, Seattle is pretty dang good. I'll give it that.

I don't know how widely Seattle Cider is distributed. Probably decently. But if you're in the area, there are a ton of other things to try that are pretty much universally liked more than Seattle Semi Sweet.

There's at least two other cidery's in the Seattle metro area as well that I haven't tried. Pretty sure there are two on Vashon Island and I'm only remembering one(Dragon). There's one in the San Juan's. That's just west of the Cascades in Wa, I'm sure there are more in Eastern Washington.

Portland has a bunch as well. There are at least two on Vancouver Island, but I've no idea about mainland BC. I'm sure there are some in Vancouver as well.
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I'll take your word for it. I've tasted a couple of bottles but haven't been out to that corner of the country yet.
 
I forgot to say this though: Seattle's semi-dry is my go-to "I want some cider but don't want to pay local organic premium nano-cidery prices" cider.

Some of their botanicals are decent as well, but I prefer Finnriver's. But, for 3x the price(and a cheaper operation, not being actually in Seattle) it should be better!
 
bmd2k1 said:
Wow...seems awful fast for a wine yeast! Was that just 1gal? I've yet to use Cotes....but plan to give er a whirl. Did it cold crash pretty well? How were the lees?
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I'd like to try it on a hard lemonade. I'm presently fermenting my very first hard lemonade using the Pasteur yeast, because it has no trouble handling the high acid content, but on the next trial I think I'll try Cotes.

I'm using this recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/full-hard-lemonade-recipe.348811/
 
dmtaylor said:
Three words: Cote des Blancs. ;)
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Reporting back:

Well, it's a pretty aggressive yeast. It fermented an OG 1.106 cyser to an apparent FG1.000 in 18 days, and that was in my garage where the temps were definitely cool. It finished ahead of S-04 and Nottingham and D47, all of which started around the same time in the same environment with equivalent OG cysers. All of those are still slowly fermenting.

It actually floculated quite nicely. However, I'm going to refrigerate it for a day to clarify it a bit more and then I guess pasteurize and backsweeten it. Or would it be better to use Xylitol? Not really sure. Maybe I should split it and try it both ways.

Oh, and the final pH is 3.73.
 
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NeverDie said:
As the saying goes: when you've got a hammer, everything looks like a nail. ;)
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Thats one of my favorite sayings, we say, when your only solution is a hammer, then every problem is a nail. I just racked 5g of daddy juice 2.0. This time pomegranate juice. Its killer.
20190208_200529.jpeg
 
applescrap said:
Sure! What I like about it, is its killer good. Super expensive organic pomegranate juice back sweetening hard cider. Thats all there is too it. I guess one thing I like is getting some healthy juice while I drink ;). Wife loves it too.



https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?threads/662317/
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In the recipe in your link you seem to fermenting the pom juice, not backsweetening, as the intro paragraph would seem to imply. As written, it seems contradictory. And then there's black cherry juice too, I guess as a primer of sorts?
 
NeverDie said:
In the recipe in your link you seem to fermenting the pom juice, not backsweetening, as the intro paragraph would seem to imply. As written, it seems contradictory. And then there's black cherry juice too, I guess as a primer of sorts?
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Thanks for looking it over, doh! think i fixed it. daddys orchard is blackcherry juice, daddys juice 2.0 is pomagranate. They are only backsweeteners in both recipes at 1qt to 1g. I have started a new thread contemplating fermenting them.
 

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