Pappy`s Pub Cider - Award Winner!

[globell]

Western Canada myself, lloydminster ab/sk border.

I haven't looked for any frozen concentrate but you should be able to find some in the frozen can juice section.

Let me know if you find any and what chain store it was at. Nothing here yet

 

[globell]

Paps...
Is it 1118 champagne yeast that likes a lower end of the fermenting temp for smoother end product or is that a general good practice?

My house sits at about 70 and my cool room stays at 65 and dips to 60 in winter.

Have more cider currently fermenting with m02 (mangrove jacks) and Nottingham (primary) and 1118 and 1116 in secondary fermentation

 

[Paps]

It's a general good practice but each yeast has a different range.
S0-5 supposedly throws off wierd peachy flavors if kept too cool.
Your cool room is where you should be making the cider, 60-65 is perfect for EC-1118 IMHO

 

[JDXX1971]

I am going to make this recipe next week. SWMBO has a 10 pound bag of sugar left over from jam making, Langers AJ is on sale at Safeway and I coincidentally just ordered the EC-1118 yeast. Due to the size of my fermenters I am going to step it up to 6.5 gallons of AJ and 13 pounds of sugar. Should I add all the sugar at once like the original recipe in the first post or step feed it in? Our temps are pretty cool overnight, should I keep the temps up in the low 60's or will mid to low 50's overnight be ok?

I am pretty excited to try this recipe, relatively inexpensive and sounds like it will be a lot of bang for the buck. The bulk of this will end up in a keg to age as is but there is that extra gallon or so????

 

[Paps]

I ferment in the 60's
One thing though. no matter what temp you run at you want it to be steady.
Ten degree fluctuations could put the yeast to sleep.
A cheap work-around for this would be to place your fermenting bucket inside a larger container filled with water to partially submerge the actual fermentor.
This will act as a buffer for temp swings.
I can't say that i've gone as low as the 50`s with this cider and with the large amount of sugar, i often finding myself shaking the bucket several times daily near the end of fermentation to keep the yeast going.
I do add all of the sugar at one time as i like to keep things simple if i can but i could see adding extra yeast nutrient/energiser in steps as benificial.

 

[BILTIT]

Just a note, i added all the sugar at once (but didn't dissolve it into the juice) and 3 of 4 fermentations (the 3 that i added the sugar) did not start. The sugar crystallized at the bottom and must have prevented the yeast from doing its thing. I racked most of the liquid off and swirl dissolved the sugar into the juice before putting it all back into the primary. Those 3 stagnant vessels took off in 8hrs or less.

The one recipe that i did not add sugar to was off and running easily so that's how i knew something was up.

So i suggest you learn from me, dissolve the sugar in wether it be some or all.

EC-1118 is good down to 50F so it should be fine.

 

[Paps]

Ocasionally you will get some lag time but it will start.
I've had a batch or two that i thought it was bad yeast after 24 hours but it took off after that. The packets were on the shelf at the LHBS but were not expired.
But if you have the means and the motivation to dissolve some of the sugar there is definately no harm in doing so.

 

[JDXX1971]

We just started a batch of 6 gallons Tree Top three apple blend with four pounds of brown sugar and Nottingham yeast last week. That batch did not want to start (at least not fast enough for me) so I took it in the living room and set it near the fireplace (not too close) and shook the heck out of it every half hour or so. After each shaking it would bubble a little and stop. Before bed I mixed up a concoction of Go Ferm Protect and Fermaid O dumped it in shook well and put it back in the kitchen. By morning it was bubbling away.

I am pretty sure that batch would have took off on it's own eventually but I was anxious as the yeast was just out of date. Should I expect this batch of Pappy's to take off as slowly? Possibly I need to practice more patience?

So, I obviously have Go Ferm Protect and Fermaid O which will hopefully be adequate nutrients for this. Do you add more nutrients along the way (Step feeding, I just did this with a Cyser) or just what you added in the beginning?

 

[Paps]

I like to keep things as simple as possible (read that as "I'm lazy")
and therefore add all the nutrients in at the beginning.
I do however add a good bit more than originally posted but i can no longer edit the original post to reflect this.

Brew on.

 

[BILTIT]

Let me know if you find any and what chain store it was at. Nothing here yet

Superstore has frozen apple juice from concentrate. Just picked some up (no name brand). Cheating and going to try and build some ice cider from frozen concentrate.

Og is 1.169 corrected.

 

[globell]

Superstore has frozen apple juice from concentrate. Just picked some up (no name brand). Cheating and going to try and build some ice cider from frozen concentrate.

Og is 1.169 corrected.

WAHOO! Thank you!! Picked some up today. Pressing more apples tomorrow too

 

[globell]

globell, where you at?

I have 5 gal of pappys fermenting now but used superstore (no name apple juice, 88 cents/Liter). I will let you know how it turns out.

I also have some cloudy (like fresh pressed) from superstore (presidents choice apple cider) as well that is brewing but only 1gal batches, they will be made into applejack.

My last batch i used sunrype pure apple juice so we will see how it compares.

Please do let me me know the differences! You're welcome to PM me!

 

[CheerfulHeart]

Just opened a bottle from a year ago. This is really smooth stuff!

 

[globell]

Just opened a bottle from a year ago. This is really smooth stuff!

Wow. A year! Great to hear!!

Is cider sweet like a strongbow gold or sweeter?

 

[CheerfulHeart]

@globell...I haven't tried Strongbow Gold yet but I hope to do soon. I would say this cider is about as sweet as Angry Orchard but smoother with a more intense flavor.

I definitely plan to start another batch of Pappy's Cider in a couple of weeks and add some cinnamon sticks or Martinelli's mulling spices to a couple of gallons. By this time next year the 2015 will be consumed and the 2016 will ready.

 

[Paps]

You must have more patience/dilligence than i if you can hang onto a batch for a full year before drinking it.

 

[globell]

oh and the cinnamon in the secondary tastes absofukkinglutely great for anyone whom wanted to know.

Awesome. Pitching yeast on another batch tonight (first one is only 2.5 weeks in primary). Still bubbling away.

For your cinnamon sticks...how long were they. Seem to come in small and large sticks here. About 4-6" and then 10-12".

Excited. Will keg this!

 

[globell]

This is a cut-n-paste from a member called `woozy`
=================================================================
Well, it's all a guess but flying by the seat of my pants:

Pounds of sugar to get 1% of alcohol boost = no. gallons/(6*attenuation of yeast).

So to raise a 5 gallon batch 1% with yeast attenuating at 75%, you should add 5 gallons/(.75 * 6) = 5 gallons/4.5 = 1.1111111.... = 1 1/9 lb of sugar.

(Because ... 1 1/9 lb of sugar in a gallon will rise the o.g. by 1 1/9 * 46 = 51.1111 pts. So in 5 gallons it will raise the o.g. by (1/5)* 5.1111 = 10.2222. This will raise the potential alcohol percentage by .131 * 10.2222 = 1.339% =~ 1 1/3%. But as the yeast has an attenuation of 75% the actual alcohol percentage will go up by 1 1/3% * 3/4 = 4/3 * 3/4 % = 1%)


(the 6 comes about because .131 * 46 = 6.026 =~ 6. .131 is the scale to convert points to potential alcohol, and 46 is the gravity points of a pound of sugar in 1 gallon of wort.)
=================================================================
going by what this guy says the 10 lbs of sugar alone potentially has 13.39 % ABV
the next batch that i do i'll try to remember to take a reading of the juice without adding the sugar.
Hope this helps
-Paps

My SG measured at 1.13 with fresh pressed juice

 

[Paps]

They were the shorter of the two that you mention.
Sometimes i will throw them in the keg and just leave them in there till the keg is kicked.
ATM i make 4 different variants of this cider.
1 - regular
2 - cinnamon
3 - vanilla
4 - oak barrel aged
All of them are decent but i'll admit i like the oak barrel aged the most but i do like the flavor of whiskey for the rare times i drink spirits anymore so that's not really much of a suprise.
I do plan on making more variants but i just don't talk about it much on here....perhaps if i get motivated and make 50 gallons or so at once and do the `finishing process` to them all and get them all bottled up together, then i'll post a pic of all the types in bottles together but that actually takes me getting motivated (and of course aging everything) so i wouldn't count on that pic for another 6 months or longer.
-Cheers.

 

[globell]

Paps...
Have you ever tried using some yellow sugar in the mix? Tossing sugar in right now.
Not a brown but a golden or yellow sugar. More fine grained, lighter taste by far then brown or demarrara

 

[Paps]

Nope.
Just plain ole table sugar.
Supposedly when using brown sugar, sinse it ferments most of the sugar out the residual flavor i've heard is not pleasant.
Sinse i `finish` these ciders (add flavors in secondary) i generally want the sugar to be neutral as to not distract from the other flavors.
If i were to make the sugar be the standout flavor, i'd use a Belgian candy sugar as it is easy to make. But i've read a few pages here claiming that there was little difference between using a Belgian candy sugar and regular table sugar... I guess YMMV
Brown sugars supposedly have a high molasses content and having made a molasses wine (and not really liking it) I've intentionally avoided putting it in my ciders.

 

[BILTIT]

I made some applejack with demerara sugar (1lb/gallon), too much burnt molasses flavour in the end. I have two 1 gal recipes working now with 1 using all white and the other using half white and half golden yellow. Curious to see the difference.

 

[BILTIT]

Just checked in on this recipe i have on the go, been fermenting for approx 2.5 weeks and it is at 1.026 with a bubble every 30 seconds or so. Tastes great! I will be making some applejack from this but drinking most of it the way it ends up.

It is much better than my other 3 recipes on the go, so excited to see how it finishes!

Have a feeling i will be making a whole lot more of this recipe, thanks paps!

I am hosting a christmas party on dec 16th, planning on serving this up.

 

[globell]

Hey BILTIT! Looks like we are on the same track. Mine too is about 2.5 weeks old and 1.03 (few days ago). It tastes way better than I expected it to. It's starting to slow down fermentation wise and I can in the last couple days really start to smell the alcohol in it. Pretty good for not being cleared and for around the 13% range! I just put on 6 gallons mid week so there will be plenty for our annual christmas libations. loving this community! awesome!

 

[JDXX1971]

We just started seven gallons of this last weekend using IGA apple juice, fourteen pounds of table sugar,two tablespoons Fermaid O and EC-1118 re hydrated with ferm protect.

 

[CheerfulHeart]

Yesterday I started 2 gallons with 4 pounds of sugar. Used Montrachet yeast. No 1118 left in my yeast stash and I'm not patient enough to wait for the online order to arrive next week. The local temperatures have been a bit cool lately so I added 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient just for good measure. Smaller batch experiment...planning to throw in 1 or 2 Martinelli's mulling spice bags in secondary and unsure how many to use. Directions on the box say 1 bag per 8 ounces when using it for hot spiced cider. Since the spices will be infusing, I am thinking 1 bag per gallon. Will taste test 1 week after the spice bag goes in the cider in secondary and go from there. Input or suggestions gladly accepted.

 

[BILTIT]

Decided to start another 5 gal batch of this recipe tonight, might even use it for an ice cider in the near future.

 

[BILTIT]

Paps, you are becoming popular around here haha!

My weigh scale cropped out so I just winged the sugar amounts.

 

[globell]

Let us know about the pear addition if there's a difference. Did you find that at superstore as well? Thanks for the FAJC reference to there. Helped fortify a weak blend I have on.

I've also made some apple concentrate from the left over juice and I'm excited about backsweetening with it. How many times do you let it thaw and release the concentrate then refreeze and try again?

 

[BILTIT]

No problem, yup pear juice was from superstore also. Still keeping my eye out for apricot juice but no luck so far.

In that photo I am jacking (already fermented) so I am unsure how many times you would do it with just juice.

When I jack I do it until it won't freeze well enough to separate anymore. At 1lb/gallon using ec1118 I could only get 3 freeze/thaw cycles.