New to cider brewing

[1bottlerocket]

I bought a second 12l Speidel fermenting barrel for racking to secondary and that arrived today.

I am going to rack to secondary this weekend and let it sit at about 16°C in the cellar. I read another thread about someone who added oak chips and am seriously considering trying that with one of the 12l batches to see how that comes out. I am close to France so I am going to look into getting some oak chips for this experiment.

The fermenting went more quickly than I had hoped but again more learning along the way.

My first batch of cider is developing. I just cracked a couple more bottles tonight and it is roughly at the four week mark for bottle conditioning. The tart flavors have smoothed out and it drinks better. The carbonation is at a nice level for me, like a nice Russian Imperial Stout, and the tannins are beginning to come through in a better way.

 

[1bottlerocket]

I racked to secondary this weekend and took some gravity readings.

The White Labs English Cider yeast seems to have stabilized at 1.002

The Mead Yeast is slightly below 1.000 to 0.992 or so.

The Wyeast is sitting at 1.000 right on the money.

The taste went tart on all of them. I was initially most impressed with the WL English Cider but it now tasted somewhat watery.

The Wyeast still has the bite at then end but also went dry and tart.

The Mead yeast has the oddest flavors of the 3 that I tried. It is tart like the others and somewhat more acidic tasting.

I am planning on dropping some medium toast French oak chips in one of the secondary vessels and leave them and taste it periodically to see how that develops. I had a Sheppys vintage reserve that is oak aged and I really like the taste of this.

The plan is to let it sit in secondary for a month or two before bottling.

I am really pleased with the way the yeast settled at the bottom and cleared. This time the initially fermented juice is much more clear when I siphoned off.

I managed to to only loose about 1l per 23l so I think my yield is going to be more than expected. I also think just one batch really helped me to learn how to handle everything in general and especially when racking. I could only read so much before I actually had to try something and learn through hands-on experience.

Regarding the equipment I can highly recommend the Speidel fermenting vessels. They are built very sturdy and solid. While they are not quite as easy to clean as a bucket they do clean up well and with minimal effort.

The built in spigot at the bottom is located at just the right height to get a good amount of liquid out when racking. Had I known about them before buying the buckets I probably would have went with those instead. The only wish I have for them is a graduated marking to tell liquid volume.

I will be sure to update on how the oak chips are going and when I get ready to bottle.

Back to the drawing table!

 

[1bottlerocket]

I ended up with the medium toast French Oak chips and dosed 15g/10l in one of the 12l Speidel fermenting jars. I am going to give it a taste this weekend to see how much taste the chips are imparting to the cider.

I may go ahead and bottle some of the of the other cider up too. Right now it is all sitting in secondary aging away. It is so much more clear than the first batch I made.

 

[1bottlerocket]

After another couple of weeks sitting in secondary, I had a chance to take a small tasting sample to see how the cider is progressing. So far, the Mead yeast seems to be developing the best taste over the long term.

The White Labs English cider and the Wyeast cider have a watery, thin taste. They will definitely benefit from some added sugar to sweeten them up a bit. I also think some bottle conditioning will benefit them over the long haul.

The sweet mead yeast has smoothed out and most of the sour, off flavors have disappeared. It has the best mouth feel and taste of the bunch right now. I also noticed that the wyeast batch has not cleared as well as the other two.

I m going to try and bottle it a couple of weeks and carb them up.

 

[1bottlerocket]

Bottling day on Friday! I got a long weekend and some time to myself (for a change!)

It has been fun reading through the threads and some books while waiting for the day to arrive!

Will keep you all posted on developments. So far, the Mead yeast is developing best.

For the next round I am going to try some Ale yeasts from White Labs and another Wyeast and try to ferment in the cellar. Temps are pretty stable at 16°C this time of year so it may be worth a go for a long term fermentation.

 

[1bottlerocket]

Bottling day arrived!

I ended up bottling two of the three I had fermenting. The batch with the white labs English Cider yeast came out middle of the road so far. I sweetened it up with a simple syrup mixture of 1c xyltiol/1c water for 23l batch. It ended up giving it just the right amount of sweetness. I primed 0.5l bottle with 10ml of a priming sugar mixture (350 ml water with the priming sugar, I forget right now how much there was).

Bottling went much more smoothly this time, but I still learned a few more things along the way. Next time I will sweeten two or three days ahead of time and wash the and sterilize the bottles a few days in advance too.

The oak chips imparted an amazing taste! I never would have thought to do that without reading about other people trying. I used 30g of medium toast French oak / 10l of juice. It really brought out a nice vanilla flavor combined with a touch of sweetness from the xylitol. I never thought vanilla would match well with cider but I have since changed my opinion. It is definitely going to be an add-in for the next round.

I ended up not bottling the Mead Yeast batch. The taste really went south after topping off with the store bought apple juice. I sweetened up and added some oak to this batch too. The plan is to let it sit longer and then bottle in a week or two.

I am still learning a lot but this was great fun. I am looking forward to seeing how these develop over time.

 

[1bottlerocket]

The carbonation level is developing very well. Using 10ml/0.5l bottle of priming sugar mixture definitely made a huge difference. The carbonation level s nice and it adds to the overall drinking experience.

When looking back over my notes, I am going to change up my racking technique and definitely sweeten a couple days ahead of time.

What I have run into now is that the taste of the cider has changed again after bottle priming. I am hoping to oak flavor will come back with time after some bottle conditioning.

 

[1bottlerocket]

It has been a few weeks since bottling and the cider is slowly developing. It is still a bit dry for what I would like but I made some syrup from Elder flowers and it really is a nice addition when serving.

The oak flavor seems to have gotten lost too, which I have to figure out for the next time. I like the flavor the oak imparts but I may have to switch to C02 carbonating to get what I want.

 

[1bottlerocket]

The oak flavor is slowly coming back in one batch that I tried. Still on the dry side for me but the longer it sits the more the taste is slowly improving. Phew!

 

[1bottlerocket]

I wanted to bump this up.

In the off season I purchased and read three books that I would recommend:

The New Cider Maker's Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers

Cider: Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider, 3rd Edition

Craft Cider Making

I think they are great for anyone new to cider making, as they cover a range of topics.

 

[1bottlerocket]

I am reviving my old thread.

Update: Time is really your friend when it comes to making cider. (For me anyway!) The first batches I made are drinking very well now and are comparable to professionally made ciders.

I had a blind tasting with some friends and inserted mine in the lineup. One of them came out 2nd and another one in the middle of the pack.

On a sadder note, the juice I supposedly had coming ended up not arriving. I had numerous delays from the farmer. When I looked into it further I found out the producers ended up in some kind of internal fight, which brought production to a halt. Long story short, I didn't get any juice. I didn't have the energy or time to get anything else going so I had to sit this round out. Bah. Onward and upward.