More "appleness" in cider

[Chalkyt]

At last we are getting a few ripe "late summer" apples. It has been a brutal summer with high temperatures, little rain, strong winds and an invasion of cockatoos (noisy, white, ravenous, native parrots). This has limited the potential crop, but we will have something.

So, I want to make the most of whatever apples we get over the next month or so (i.e. autumn or fall). Rather than waste too much time and apples "experimenting" I thought I would seek some "do it" or "don't do it" views on what I plan.

Santa was good enough to bring me Claude Jolicoeur's book, which I have digested several times. So the first bags of apples which have been sweating for a few weeks in the cool room should give me around eight litres of juice. I plan to use this for four two litre batches. Two with SO4 and two with DV10.

I want to end up with lightly carbonated cider, so one of each type will be carbonated using sugar and one with FAJC (by freezing then partly thawing juice). i.e. four potentially different ciders.

Rather than the usual tsp or so of sugar per litre, I will try Jollicoeur's approach of letting secondary go right down (although there is a view that SO4 might stop above 1.000, which would be good). Then add the sugar or FAJC to bring the must up 0.004 above this level. Bottle and seal.

As these yeasts have a reputation for retaining "appleness", and FAJC should have more "flavour molecules", what are peoples' opinions about this approach?

The cool store is holding at around 18C (65F) and should go lower once the cooler weather arrives. I would like to ferment low and slow but that temperature is the best I can work with right now. In a couple of month's time, I might be able to get into the 50F-60F range.

 

[madscientist451]

I found that the early apples (late summer) don't really make the best cider. Your apples are probably different than what I get so maybe its worth trying.
Another approach is a blend of as many different apples you can get.
If you have a freezer, you can freeze the juice as the apples come along and blend everything together and ferment when the weather is cooler.
Yet another way is to get more carboys, ferment the early, mid-season and late juice separately, and then do some taste trials and blending when its all done.
If you can get any pears, make a separate batch with those and if the apple cider is too acidic, you can add blend some pear in to lighten it up.
I've used WL 002 and the cider usually stops at about 1.002, and leaves just a hint of sweetness. I'm thinking the SO4 will be about the same. I've never tried DV 10. My go to yeast is Brewer's best Cider House Select. You can save the yeast and re-pitch into the the next batch, a healthy dose of yeast is a good thing.
Your volumes seem somewhat small to me. I don't know what you are using to get the juice out of the apples, but for me, all the time and effort involved with cleaning my grinding and pressing equipment isn't worth it for 8 liters of juice.

 

[gunhaus]

You just basically described the cider (With S-04) technique my brother uses most often for his house cider that he's been doing for years. Once finished and aged just a bit it is pretty flavorful. He does make the occasional batch of 5 day sweet cider https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/5-day-sweet-country-cider.265986/ if he runs dry between batches or something, and has been happy with that as well. I have done this myself but only once - but i found it quite nice! I would agree with the other advice about freezing abd blending or some form of blending if your early juice is a little bland. But if it tastes good right off, it should be good at the end.

 

[Chalkyt]

Yes, the batches are quite small. I had planned to just use our heavy duty domestic juicer. Unfortunately that is all the apples I have right now (of course it is still far too early for a reasonable ripe crop) and I wanted to get some idea of the best way to head once we get a reasonable quantity.

Thanks for the hint bout freezing the juice then thawing for blending. I will try that. I must admit that one of the first ciders I made was with all Red Delicious, which are great for eating. The juice OG was 1.055 but I suspect that a lot of the eating flavour is sugar because the resulting cider was very bland.

SO4 seems to be popular, and DV10 was recommended by Nebraskan as a good yeast for retaining some appleness. Unfortunately here in Oz, we don't have access to all the yeasts available to you guys. I had to go to eBay for the SO4, and found only one supplier here via Google who repackages DV10 from commercial size blocks. My go-to yeast is normally Nottingham which is readily available.

 

[gunhaus]

I Have used Notty on cider with no complaints - Give it a go, and see what you think.

 

[gregbathurst]

Jolicoeur's book is very good, but not so relevant for a warm place like Australia. If your apples are well ripened you shouldn't have too much trouble getting some apple flavour in your cider, warm climate apples get riper and more flavour than a place like Canada, you don't need so many tricks and sweating apples isn't necessary in my experience. I will be harvesting next week, a very small harvest due to the conditions. because the summer has been so warm and sunny my apples and pears are already up to about 20 brix, normally I would be harvesting a few weeks later but it has been an exceptional summer in NSW, the sugar levels in my apples are what I would normally expect for my winegrapes. You shouldn't have any problem with flavour this year.