Making my first cider

[BlakeL]

I'm looking to make my first cider. I have a 1g jug of Whole Foods apple juice and I plan on using the nottingham yeast so it doesn't finish too dry. Should I add some sugar to increase ABV and how much is recommended? After it's done fermenting, what is the recommended amount of sugar for carbonation?

 

[LeBreton]

The ABV part is up to you. Higher alcohol ciders typically have less apple character and will need to age longer.

Priming sugar is typically 1oz/gallon.

 

[dbhokie]

Well that depends on how "hard" you want your cider.

Many people enjoy 5-6 percent ciders, some want much harder, you can sweeten with honey (a particular favorite of mine) to add alcohol, brown sugar (goes well), molasses, table sugar or the saccharide of your choice.

Take an SG reading of it, and see where you are at. That will give you an idea of potential ABV. Then determine where you want to be. Notty doesn't attenuate very high so you will end up with a sweet product, but you may have to add sugar if you want something very stout.

Carbonation is up to the maker. Some make still, petillant, or sparkling spiders. I'm not really sure what volume level you go past to get to each. Still is obviously flat. Petillant I would imagine would be something around up to 2.75 or so? Sparkling higher.

 

[BlakeL]

I think i'll try it first without adding any sugar and see how it turns out. Would S-04 or S-05 be good yeasts to use as well? I didn't realize that nottingham yeast was so expensive compared to other dry yeasts.

 

[kewlio250]

I think i'll try it first without adding any sugar and see how it turns out. Would S-04 or S-05 be good yeasts to use as well? I didn't realize that nottingham yeast was so expensive compared to other dry yeasts.

in my opinion the S-04 is much better than the US-05

 

[D_Nyholm]

I've used nottingham and s05 and they tasted very similar and finished right around 1.010 and I sweeten them with Apple juice concentrate up to around 1.015 or so. Makes right around a 7% cider as I add 2 lbs of dextrose to 6 gallons of juice.

 

[BlakeL]

How long does it typically take to ferment out? Does it take 2-3 weeks before bottling like beer? I would like to bottle condition this stuff quick because of some friends coming into town early next month.

 

[smh]

You might just barely have it fermented out by then depending on temperatures. It's pretty unlikely though. Cider isn't quite like beer in that it needs a bit of aging time to come into its own. Also, it tends to lack more nutrients so the ferments can be slower. I wouldn't count on this being ready in that time frame.

 

[dbhokie]

I have a 30 day lapse in turning Juice into Hard Cider, then a 3 month lapse until the mother converts the alcohol into acetic acid.

Although, to be fair, I don't make cider for drink consumption normally. I process it to make ACV.