drubes14
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2012
- Messages
- 65
- Reaction score
- 19
Hey guys,
So, long-time reader, first-time user. Thought I'd get a little more involved in the forums, given all of your great advice so far. Cheers.
So, a few days back I started my first batch of hard cider. I just finished up a batch of NB's Innkeeper, and decided to wash their West Yorkshire Ale strain from Wyeast. Looking for a little inspiration, I headed down to the local co-op and ended up buying 5 gallons of fresh, pasteurized, unpreserved apple cider.
I decided to try out a cider- based on the ciders I'd tried previously, I wanted a semi-sweet that still had a nice profile showing off the fresh cider's complex flavor. Also, I have hopes the strain's high flocculation will help clear out any cloudiness, as I ran out of pectic enzyme!
Doing a bit more research, I came up with the following recipe; this seems to be a New England-styled cider.
For a 5 gallon batch:
Ingredients
5 gallons fresh pasteurized cider (no preservatives)
1 lb. raisins
4 tea bags
1 gallon water
1 packet West Yorkshire Ale (for this batch, I washed this yeast from a previous batch)
1) Washed yeast, let sit in refrigerator for 1 hour to separate yeast from trub. Removed after 1 hour to let bring to room temperature.
2) Took 1 gallon water and 4 bags of black tea, slowly raise temperature to boil. Steeped tea bags to full saturation, removed bags when water simmered. Added tea for extra tannins/depth.
3) Added 1 lb. raisins while tea was boiling; let boil 15 minutes until raisins reconstituted slightly and soaked up about 1/2 gallon. Added raisins for extra fermentables, yeast nutrient, and additional tannins.
4) Tossed raisin-tea into sanitized 6 gallon fermentation vessel. Added 5 gallons of fresh cider.
5) Vigorously stirred to introduce lots of oxygen to the must.
6) Pitched the yeast slurry at 62 degrees; also sustained temp for fermentation. A bit low for ale yeast, but I wanted to default to cider fermentation temps on this one.
7) Capped it off with lid and airlock: OG 1.051 (plus any additional sugars from raisins)
I didn't notice any activity for over 36 hours, which worried me a bit; I pitched on Friday afternoon. However, by Saturday at around 10 PM it had really taken off. I chalk up this late start to the yeast slurry taking time to adjust to the lower temperature and potential lower cell count (pulled the slurry from secondary).
The plan is to keep it in primary for 2 weeks, and then bottle from there. Will keep this thread updated, with pics if possible. Let me know if you have any suggestions or comments!
Cheers,
Drubes
So, long-time reader, first-time user. Thought I'd get a little more involved in the forums, given all of your great advice so far. Cheers.
So, a few days back I started my first batch of hard cider. I just finished up a batch of NB's Innkeeper, and decided to wash their West Yorkshire Ale strain from Wyeast. Looking for a little inspiration, I headed down to the local co-op and ended up buying 5 gallons of fresh, pasteurized, unpreserved apple cider.
I decided to try out a cider- based on the ciders I'd tried previously, I wanted a semi-sweet that still had a nice profile showing off the fresh cider's complex flavor. Also, I have hopes the strain's high flocculation will help clear out any cloudiness, as I ran out of pectic enzyme!
Doing a bit more research, I came up with the following recipe; this seems to be a New England-styled cider.
For a 5 gallon batch:
Ingredients
5 gallons fresh pasteurized cider (no preservatives)
1 lb. raisins
4 tea bags
1 gallon water
1 packet West Yorkshire Ale (for this batch, I washed this yeast from a previous batch)
1) Washed yeast, let sit in refrigerator for 1 hour to separate yeast from trub. Removed after 1 hour to let bring to room temperature.
2) Took 1 gallon water and 4 bags of black tea, slowly raise temperature to boil. Steeped tea bags to full saturation, removed bags when water simmered. Added tea for extra tannins/depth.
3) Added 1 lb. raisins while tea was boiling; let boil 15 minutes until raisins reconstituted slightly and soaked up about 1/2 gallon. Added raisins for extra fermentables, yeast nutrient, and additional tannins.
4) Tossed raisin-tea into sanitized 6 gallon fermentation vessel. Added 5 gallons of fresh cider.
5) Vigorously stirred to introduce lots of oxygen to the must.
6) Pitched the yeast slurry at 62 degrees; also sustained temp for fermentation. A bit low for ale yeast, but I wanted to default to cider fermentation temps on this one.
7) Capped it off with lid and airlock: OG 1.051 (plus any additional sugars from raisins)
I didn't notice any activity for over 36 hours, which worried me a bit; I pitched on Friday afternoon. However, by Saturday at around 10 PM it had really taken off. I chalk up this late start to the yeast slurry taking time to adjust to the lower temperature and potential lower cell count (pulled the slurry from secondary).
The plan is to keep it in primary for 2 weeks, and then bottle from there. Will keep this thread updated, with pics if possible. Let me know if you have any suggestions or comments!
Cheers,
Drubes
