New Member, Same ol' Story

[AdamJoseph]

Great documentation! I too am going through the same steps you are with my first cider, or because I added honey I was told it is now called a "Ciser"?? Can anyone validate that?

Anyhow, great thread! I am looking forward to your tasting notes/summary.

Cheers

-Adam

 

[RPowell]

I'm thinking of starting another gallon batch, this time with little or no additional sugar in the primary to keep the abv down a bit and using Safale 04 yeast. Since I'm fermenting dry and backsweetening, additional sugar up front does little for the taste and seems to be useful only to get the alcohol content up.

I'm also thinking of starting a batch of hard lemonade, using the same yeast. It seems I've been bitten by the homebrewing bug

 

[bernardsmith]

Great documentation! I too am going through the same steps you are with my first cider, or because I added honey I was told it is now called a "Ciser"?? Can anyone validate that?

Anyhow, great thread! I am looking forward to your tasting notes/summary.

Cheers

-Adam

Yes, I believe that mead made with apple juice or cider is traditionally called cyser
http://middlemountainmead.com/documents/what-is-mead.pdf

 

[RPowell]

Getting there - a test bottle tonight gave a small pop and the definite presence of bubbles. They didn't really survive pouring into a glass, but this is really encouraging. i'll do another test bottle tomorrow. I may just go ahead and pasteurize tomorrow...

 

[RPowell]

second batch is already carbed. i'm going to pasteurized tonight. question: are bubbles in the bottles normal? They're not floaters, and there's not much in the bottles, and it looks more like the bubbles from yeast working... I opened one, no off aroma or flavors, so I think i'm ok, but it would be nice to have some confirmation of sorts.

 

[RPowell]

ok pasteurization done. no bombs, but they're still cooling.

1) pre warmed bottles in ~110 degree water
2) brought water to between 176 and 182 degrees
3) put silicon pad in
4) slowly lowered bottles in
5) 10 minute timer
6) carefully remove bottles to a bin with a lid on it for cooling.


I got worried that I wasn't getting the job done. Depending on which of the two pots I used, the water got down to either 145ish or 155 ish at the end of 10 minutes. With the last batch of bottles in the pot that cooled the most, I put a bottle of water (loosely capped) in with the cider. At the end of 10 minutes, the bottle temp was ~160. it got down to about 150 after 3 minutes. The charts I've seen tell me that 30 seconds @ 155 would be more than enough to get the job done, so I'm pretty confident that I now have pasteurized, carbonated honey/pomegranate cider.


My first brown sugar batch STILL hasn't carbed enough to call it that. I'll try again in 3 days...

 

[lowtones84]

I would assume that getting the temperature above 150F would kill the yeast. Was the carbonation where you wanted it, or did you just decide it was time to pasteurize?

I was going to say stop opening bottles so often, but I understand that you're new to the process and want to pasteurize. It may be good to do some cider that goes completely dry just so you understand the timeline for that. But hey, you're learning and documenting well, so I'm not going to scold you

 

[RPowell]

Both batches fermented completely dry. The brown sugar hasn't carbonated fully yet. The Honey/pomegranate batch carbonated PERFECTLY (for me) so I pasteurized that one tonight. I'm going to wait 3 or 4 days for the brown sugar batch to test again. it seems to be carbonating, but *very* slowly. It's also getting really, really smooth.

next up, another brown sugar batch to see if i can get it right and... hard lemonade at my wife's request. she's put up with so many of my wild ideas, it's an honor to fill this request for her

 

[RPowell]

just pitched batch #3, which will eventually be a brown sugar batch. no additional sugar this time, just juice, nutrient, pectic enzyme, safale 04 and a bit of luck. going to bottle from primary this time, i think, if the taste is ok after backsweetening. Meant to toss in a portion of a cinnamon stick. /drats.

 

[RPowell]

Ok, my very first batch not only carbonated, it OVER carbonated in the span of three days. It's been bottled since July 4th. I checked it on monday, flat as a board. Checked it again on thursday and... well... some were still flat, most were WAY WAY WAY too carbonated to drink and when I opened one I was honestly surprised the bottle didn't blow up in my hand. I ended up throwing away my last 6 bottles. I don't mind, though, I drank the majority of that batch just testing to see if it was carbed or not. I theorize that I had bad capping technique. On the overcarbed bottles, the caps were bent after removal. On the flat ones, they still looked perfect.

on a brighter note, pitched a batch of hard lemonade last night.
1 gallon of Simply Lemonade
1/2 pkg of EC-118 (I took a bit of sugar, nutrient and lemonade to start the yeast first)
1.5 tsp nutrient
1 cup lemonized vodka (I took the zest of one lemon, chopped it up and soaked it in vodka for about an hour)

it is currently bubbling merrily away in the basement as we speak.

3rd batch is done fermenting. i'll be bottling that Saturday! I need to work in some cinnamon flavor. I thought about using cinnamon oil or boiling some cinnamon sticks and using the water to melt the brown sugar I intend to use in backsweetening. Any thoughts?

 

[RPowell]

just bottled my 3rd batch of cider.

did a second yeast pitch on my hard lemonade to make sure it's really done fermenting (per a recipe I found for hard lemonade). Gonna give it a few days, backsweeten and bottle.

 

[RPowell]

3rd batch was perfectly carbed and delicious. Pasteurized it with no issues. Thanks, pappers!

 

[RPowell]

Had a bit of a scare - checked my (perfectly carbed) batch of hard lemonade and every bottle had floaties in it. Cracked one open and found... PULP from the lemonade we used. whew! There weren't any foul odors or taste, so, I just when ahead and pasteurized them. Wife loved the test bottle we opened!

I don't imagine they'll last long enough for any pulp in the brew to cause any issues. That said, next time i'll filter or make sure to use lemonade w/out pulp.