My first cider!

[RDMWest]

Hey everyone,

I'm new to brewing, and pretty darn excited about it. I just recently started my very first batch, and thought I'd share! I'm looking forward to some more complex stuff when I get the basics down.

It's pretty simple, just a gallon of organic Columbia Gorge pasteurized cider, pitched with Red Star wine yeast. Forgive me if I am using any terminology incorrectly, total 'noob' here. I don't have any gravity readings or anything, I got too excited and started it off before I got my hydrometer in the mail. ipe:

Here are a couple pictures of my complex equipment.




Side note here; how to I rotate attached images? Tilting my head isn't very satisfying.

 

[bernardsmith]

This is a very enjoyable hobby (read: obsession). Looks good. Good luck!
PS. If you know the total amount of sugar that is dissolved in the liquor you can very reasonably estimate the starting gravity (One pound of sugar dissolved to make one gallon will have a gravity of 1.040) and commercially pressed juice will have a nutritional label that will include the number of servings and the amount of sugar per serving. Multiply these two numbers and you have the total sugar content of each jug. The total volume of the jug then gives you the liquid volume.. (lbs (or oz) per gallon or equivalent)

 

[RDMWest]

PS. If you know the total amount of sugar that is dissolved in the liquor you can very reasonably estimate the starting gravity (One pound of sugar dissolved to make one gallon will have a gravity of 1.040) and commercially pressed juice will have a nutritional label that will include the number of servings and the amount of sugar per serving. Multiply these two numbers and you have the total sugar content of each jug. The total volume of the jug then gives you the liquid volume.. (lbs (or oz) per gallon or equivalent)

Awesome! Simple, logical, and I wouldn't have ever thought of it on my own. Thanks!

 

[mikerlynch26]

Awesome keep it up! And get a bigger jug! You're going to need it once you go through that batch and realize you just made something awesome

 

[RDMWest]

Thats the plan! I have 4 one gallon jugs now, some bigger better stuff is in next months budget.

 

[jaypick1980]

Question: I have had mine fermenting for 3 weeks now, it has cleared up nicely and still lots of soda type bubbles are rising and the airlock is bubbling about 1 every 30-45 seconds. Is this ready to bottle? Also I want a carbonated cider so would I need to add anything to ensure proper carbonation? I just don't want bombs, would be a shame to waste cider like that. Thank you for any guidance. I don't have any fancy equipment to take readings so it has been guess work thus far.

 

[mikerlynch26]

Like many on here will say, if you don't want bottle bombs get a hydrometer. It's the only way to make sure that fermentation is done. Then once you're sure you can add measured priming sugar and bottle.

That being said, since there are still bubbles and airlock activity I can confidently say you are not done fermenting. Cider can take a very long time to finish out (read: 2 to 3 months). Give it a swirl to off-gas some of the CO2 being built up and don't rush it. Start another batch. Order a hydrometer off amazon. You've got time.

The wine yeast will most likely take the juice down to 1.000 or even .998, so I'd use that as a benchmark. Anything above 1.005 and you're not done.

 

[Shawn3997]

To sweeten *and* carbonate you'll have to add a sugar that the yeast will eat (for carbonation) and a "sugar" that they won't eat (for sweetness). I add Splenda but any non-sugar "sugar" will work.

OR you can pasteurize, which is what I'm going to try on my next batch. To pasteurize (and someone correct me if I'm wrong), you add sugar in until it tastes just right then add in your normal carbonation sugar amount and bottle. Then you either open one up every other day or so and test carbonation level, or fill a 2 liter plastic bottle up and cap it.

When it's nice and full (rock hard or is that too much?) you raise the temperature of the bottles up past 160 F for like 5 minutes or something OR just put all of the bottles in your dishwasher and turn it on "sanitation" cycle. Then you're done -- just cool to drink.

I use 150 grams of Splenda and 5 ounces of dextrose in a 5 gallon batch of cider. I use EC-1118 which gets me down to 1.002 or less after a month. It takes about 4 weeks from that before they are totally carbonated and ready to drink. Watch out they'll likely be 6.5% ABV drinks or higher.

As stated above, adding one pound of table sugar to your apple juice will raise the ABV even more, I think 40 points gets you another 5% or more ABV.

I often mix my apple juice with whatever Welch's offers in their mixed-juice drinks, such as Strawberry-Raspberry which also contains some grape juice and apple juice and pear juice and other good stuff. As long as it's just real juice and has nothing else in it except vitamin C, you're good.

Also if you want to jack the taste up a bit you can add in some frozen concentrate when you add the yeast. Use a little less than 1/2 can per gallon. Note that this will also raise the ABV of the finished cider.

Cider is lots of fun, but you gotta be patient (which I'm not). Probably one month fermenting and another month after it's bottled and then it's prime stuff.

 

[thaymond]

To sweeten *and* carbonate you'll have to add a sugar that the yeast will eat (for carbonation) and a "sugar" that they won't eat (for sweetness). I add Splenda but any non-sugar "sugar" will work.

OR you can pasteurize, which is what I'm going to try on my next batch. To pasteurize (and someone correct me if I'm wrong), you add sugar in until it tastes just right then add in your normal carbonation sugar amount and bottle. Then you either open one up every other day or so and test carbonation level, or fill a 2 liter plastic bottle up and cap it.

When it's nice and full (rock hard or is that too much?) you raise the temperature of the bottles up past 160 F for like 5 minutes or something OR just put all of the bottles in your dishwasher and turn it on "sanitation" cycle. Then you're done -- just cool to drink.

I use 150 grams of Splenda and 5 ounces of dextrose in a 5 gallon batch of cider. I use EC-1118 which gets me down to 1.002 or less after a month. It takes about 4 weeks from that before they are totally carbonated and ready to drink. Watch out they'll likely be 6.5% ABV drinks or higher.

As stated above, adding one pound of table sugar to your apple juice will raise the ABV even more, I think 40 points gets you another 5% or more ABV.

I often mix my apple juice with whatever Welch's offers in their mixed-juice drinks, such as Strawberry-Raspberry which also contains some grape juice and apple juice and pear juice and other good stuff. As long as it's just real juice and has nothing else in it except vitamin C, you're good.

Also if you want to jack the taste up a bit you can add in some frozen concentrate when you add the yeast. Use a little less than 1/2 can per gallon. Note that this will also raise the ABV of the finished cider.

Cider is lots of fun, but you gotta be patient (which I'm not). Probably one month fermenting and another month after it's bottled and then it's prime stuff.

The hot cycle on the dishwasher is an interesting suggestion. Have you tried it? Does it work? I have used the Dishwasher to aid in rinsing bottles BEFORE bottling, but never for pasteurization. If it works, I have a new cider bottling process. If not, I'll have made a couple of cases of grenades.

 

[Shawn3997]

I have not tried it but I will next month with my next batch and report back here. I use the dishwasher on "Sanitation" cycle now though to clean and sanitize my bottles before bottling day. There is a good plume of steam coming out of the dishwasher during the end of the cycle so I figure it'll get hot enough for long enough. This seems like the safer way if a few bottles blow up, ya know?