My first cider

[Painter]

I picked up two gallons of local preservative free cider at a farmers market and decided to make hard cider, pretty much on a whim. I bottled it in late February, so I figured it was about time to give it a try.

It was a two gallon batch and I used three tablespoons of sugar to bottle condition. I would prefer a bit more carbonation, but it has a bit of sparkle.

The flavor was somewhat disappointing, kind of like a thin chardonnay, and not much apple flavor or aroma.

I have to admit that I have only had hard cider once before, and that was in England a number of years ago, so I don't recall too much about it. I will have to sample a couple of commercial offerings before I pass final judgment on mine. Right now I would call it drinkable, and I might find it thirst quenching on a hot day, but it isn't something that I am looking forward to repeating.

 

[ericbw]

Think of it like a sparkling wine or champagne. That's what dry hard cider is like. There are lots of different ways to make it a little sweeter and have more body. Some commercial ciders are more beer-like, and some are wine-like. And there are some that are pretty bland.

Try adding a splash of fresh cider or apple juice to your glass of hard cider and see if that gets closer to what you were looking for. It sounds like it needs more carbonation as well, so if you do a next time, you might need to add more priming sugar.

 

[BPal75]

Yes your results sound spot on if all you did was ferment cider. It will really dry out and finish rather thin without some form of back sweetening. I also like to add a bit of tannin and malic acid to up the bite and mouthfeel. If you back sweeten next time, make sure to either add sulfite a to the cider before you sweeten (if force carbing) or pasteurize the bottles after appropriately carbed to prevent bottle bombs.


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[MindenMan]

As far as back sweetening goes, there are many options, To use a non fermentable sweetener like Splenda, lactose or Equal, you get the idea. There is always corn sugar, frozen apple concentrate, white sugar, etc.. Being a new cider maker that wants sparkling cider, here is a suggestion: get three small PET bottles, 8-10 oz, one bottle you leave alone, and use the other two for sampling cider. If you let your test bottles get as hard as a store bought soda, that is about the level of carbonation that will be in your cider, at that point pasteurize bottles, and let them age. I successfully used my dishwasher to do my cider bottles, and had no blow outs. Or, if you want still cider, see above post.

 

[ericbw]

As far as back sweetening goes, there are many options, To use a non fermentable sweetener like Splenda, lactose or Equal, you get the idea. There is always corn sugar, frozen apple concentrate, white sugar, etc.. Being a new cider maker that wants sparkling cider, here is a suggestion: get three small PET bottles, 8-10 oz, one bottle you leave alone, and use the other two for sampling cider. If you let your test bottles get as hard as a store bought soda, that is about the level of carbonation that will be in your cider, at that point pasteurize bottles, and let them age. I successfully used my dishwasher to do my cider bottles, and had no blow outs. Or, if you want still cider, see above post.

Are you using the PET bottles that are sold for beer and soda making? Or regular soda bottles? You run them in the dishwasher on the top or bottom rack?

 

[aellis]

Yes your results sound spot on if all you did was ferment cider. It will really dry out and finish rather thin without some form of back sweetening. I also like to add a bit of tannin and malic acid to up the bite and mouthfeel. If you back sweeten next time, make sure to either add sulfite a to the cider before you sweeten (if force carbing) or pasteurize the bottles after appropriately carbed to prevent bottle bombs.


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How much tannin and malic acid do you add? I'd like to up the complexity of my cider as well.

Yesterday I added some overly dehydrated (burnt) grapefruit zest to one 2L of graham's english cider, and added some dehydrated apples to another 2L. I'll see how those turn out in a few months.

 

[tokerlund]

I will have to sample a couple of commercial offerings before I pass final judgment on mine. Right now I would call it drinkable, and I might find it thirst quenching on a hot day, but it isn't something that I am looking forward to repeating.

Be warned if you try something like Woodchuck you have to temper your response. I took a hydrometer reading of woodchuck once when my wife was having a bottle. She always says she likes my wine and ciders but is worried I make them with too many calories. I had to test it and see if the commercial stuff was worse than mine. It read 1.040. . . . that is damn near what my hydrometer is when I START making a home-batch. Those commercial ciders have a LOT of sugar or apple juice in them. If you compare yours against is, yours will HAVE to have less flavor because they add a lot of the flavor after fermentation. You can do that too, but remember you are comparing Apples to Apple Cider.

 

[BPal75]

Tannin probably between 1/8 and 1/4 tsp per 5 gallon batch. I wouldn't go much more than that. Malic acid depends on how acidic the apples are you're using, as well as when they were picked. Typical store bought cider tends to use sweeter apples in my experience and in those cases I like to use about 1 tsp of malic acid per 5 gallons. Gives the cider a nice little bite and enhances flavor in my opinion (kinda like adding salt to food). Good luck!


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[aellis]

Thanks BPal, I'll give it a shot. You add this when you bottle, right?

I'm using Kirkland apple juice, and the end result is fine for what it is, but after having things like Sarasola Sidra Natural, Domaine Dupont, Istastegi, heck, even Hogan's that slaps you upside the face, I'd like to be able to get a little more out of my homemade stuff. I'm going to try to get some good juice this fall, from bittersweet/sharp apples, and see how that goes.

 

[bernardsmith]

Another thing you might try - and this will provide more flavor as well as more alcohol is to freeze the apple juice and then collect the juice as it thaws. You can double the sugar content without adding table sugar or brown sugar and so concentrate the apple flavor. If your store bought juice had a starting gravity of about 1.045 then you can approach 1.085 or higher using this technique... The other approach is to go to a local orchard and use the juice they press from their apples.

 

[BPal75]

I usually add when I pitch the yeast. I'm not sure if timing matters really, you could probably add at bottling.


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[aellis]

That's a great idea, thanks. Along the same lines, could you just start with AJC, and only add maybe half the water or whatever? Of course it may not be the same quality as non-concentrated juice.