Pappy`s Pub Cider - Award Winner!

[Sheriff5271]

How long does carbonation take once you bottle the cider?

 

[Vrishnak]

I have 5 gallons of TreeTop Apple Juice that I was going to use for a 2nd batch of EdWorts Apfelwein. But I believe I will use to try this cider. Just have to get the 10#s of sugar.

 

[globell]

Just about to keg this....
Paps...did you add Kenya and k sorbate. I've added three cans of concentrate. Think I'm close to 18% range

 

[Bosh]

Made something pretty similar to this due to my wife's strange apple pie recipe (cooking apples and cinnamon and sugar in a pot and then draining off the juice). Was FULL of sugar. The yeast ended up crapping out due to all the alcohol leaving it pretty sweet. Due to having a cooked apple taste it ended up tasting just like a bottle of apple pie once I'd let it age for a few months. Use WLP644 which is fruity with a good bit of starter fluid mixed in.

Came out delicious but a bit hard to replicate due to literally being fermented apple pie.

 

[Paps]

Paps...did you add Kenya

Kenya is far too big a country to stuff inside of an ale pail.

On a serious note, i don't add those things.
The juice is allready pasturised from the store and i don't try to stop fermentation at any time. I also keg which means that i force carb.
Any bottles i fill, i fill from the keg. There's usually plenty age on it before it sees a bottle and usually when it sees one, it's a gift to somebody and they drink it right away.(bottle bombs have NOT been a problem)

If you can afford it, get a keg set-up.
The 2 1/2 gallon kegs are just slightly taller than a soda 2-litre meaning that you can just put them in your fridge and still have room for actual food and NOT have to build a seperate kegerator.

 

[Sheriff5271]

Paps how long does carbination take in your recipe if bottling?

 

[Paps]

Paps how long does carbination take in your recipe if bottling?

Any bottles i fill, i fill from the keg.which means that i force carb.

 

[BILTIT]

Just a visual of what Pappys recipe uses (with a twist, i prefer some brown sugar). It makes a great high abv sweet wine and it just happens to make a great starter for applejack!

Just started purchasing items for my keg setup, very excited to keg this recipe!

 

[globell]

We had a Christmas Eve party and we drank and shared almost 4 gallons of this!! First time kegging and it was fabulous!!

And Biltit. I did the oppposite. Less brown and more white in same proportions though.

Excited to taste there difference!

 

[Paps]

Just a visual of what Pappys recipe uses (with a twist, i prefer some brown sugar). It makes a great high abv sweet wine and it just happens to make a great starter for applejack!

Just started purchasing items for my keg setup, very excited to keg this recipe!

Wow.
That is considerably darker than what i'm used to seeing.
( I use all white table sugar )

Congrats on kegging. Carbed cider is awesome.

 

[JDXX1971]

Yep, just tried some of ours that has been sitting in secondary for a couple months. Wow, just wow!!! Award winner for sure. Gonna keg up five gallons and carb it and gonna put a little of it in the freezer too!!!

 

[globell]

Correction 5 gallons in a week!!
Everyone LOVED it. Especially loved by the men at our party.
Reviews were "so tasty and the alcohol was in the finish not the foreground. "

The gals like the second edition. Added some additional cinnamon and cardamom extract and some more sugar. Call it the apple pie version. Well loved.

I used fresh pressed juice for the above and three FCAJ and cinnamon extract (homemade cinnamon sticks and vodka for about a week then drain)


Thank you for the recipe. I used all white sugar but the latest one making is part brown sugar and store bought not from concentrate.

Make this recipe. Period....

Thanks paps!!!!

 

[BILTIT]

Yes, this is the darkest batch i have made yet. We will see how it ends up, i may have to split it and add more juice and white sugar.

 

[BILTIT]

And this dark batch smells the best by far!!

Smells so good out of the airlock.

It has to be the brown sugar, i remember my first ever batch with brown sugar made my pantry smell amazing!

 

[Vrishnak]

Went BILTIT's route, I used 4 lbs white sugar, and 6 lbs dark brown sugar. Smelled and tastes good. I have a starting gravity of 1.120.

 

[jnbwolf]

I am currently running this recipe as the original post was written. I pitched yeast over 24 hours ago and no airlock activity yet. Should i be worried?

* I used the dry yeast and did not re hydrate
* I did use yeast nutrient.
* 3 gallons of apple cider, 2 gallons of Apple juice, all pasteurized no chemicals, 10 pounds of white sugar.

Should I just wait or purchase more yeast and try again?

Thanks again!

 

[Paps]

Should i be worried?

No.

Should i just wait?

Yes.

The yeast might actually allready be going.
Check the seal on your ale pale, you are probably not air tight.

 

[jnbwolf]

Paps, Thank you for the reply.

After giving it a good shake yesterday evening, it is has took off this morning.

In my very limited experience, fermentation has always started (some signs of it) in the first 24 hours. This looked dead the first 24 hours in the glass carboy.


Thanks

 

[BILTIT]

When not hydrating and high sugar content i have waited upwards of 3 days for signs of fermentation. With a well hydrated yeast i usually see alot of activity in 24hrs.

 

[Paps]

From 1.142
down to this.
My math could be off but i think that makes it 19.88% ABV

 

[Paps]

:rockin:

 

[globell]

Cool. Heard ec-1118 will do 20%

 

[globell]

And what do we have here? Do tell!!!

 

[Paps]

It's the Silver Medal the Oaked Barrel version of this cider took in the 2016
GLINTCAP. Avg BJCP score in the event was 41 so i have room to improve but was happy to get silver.

 

[Vrishnak]

Paps: Started on 12/31/16 SG was 1.120
Racked to Secondary 01/28/17 Gravity read 1.020
How much farther do you believe I have till bottling?

 

[globell]

Depends on many factors - temp for one. I've had mine go down to .996 with a higher SG starting point but I added some yeast nutrient later on in fermentation and would rock the carboy once a day gently when the bubbling slowed (as per paps recommendation)

 

[Paps]

Found a picture of the 2016 Brewtoberfest Homebrew Competition on the internetz. I took the "Judges Choice" award. The previous year took "The peoples Choice" (they only had the peoples choice that year)
Here is yours truly filling up a bottle for somebody to take home with them.

 

[Paps]

Paps: Started on 12/31/16 SG was 1.120
Racked to Secondary 01/28/17 Gravity read 1.020
How much farther do you believe I have till bottling?

I really don't want to speculate as FG can vary widely from brewer to brewer.
1.020 down to 1.000 would = bottle bombs and i wouldn't want anyone to hurt themselfes following my advice (or at all for that matter)

As pictured above, the Oak Barrel version gets served "Still" and i pour it into bottles using a funnel. (It's allready oxidised from aging in a pourous wood barrel) The other flavors (regular,vanilla,cinnamon,ect) i make get put into a corny keg and get force carbed. I then fill bottles from the keg using a bottling wand crammed into a picnic tap.

I don't know if you personally can justify spending a few hundred on kegging equipment or not but i HIGHLY suggest it.
A brand new 2.5 corny can be bought for around $80 plus shipping and they are only maybe 2 inches taller than a sodai 2-litre bottle so you should be able to stuff the thing inside your regular fridge that you keep food in.
Also, the little mini CO2 chargers are pretty cheap.
I don't know what volume of CO2/carb they would get you to but it's got to be the cheapest way to get into kegging vs buying a whole tank,regulator,manifold,keezer,ect,ect,ect.

 

[Vrishnak]

Paps:
Here's the good news. I inherited 5 5 gallon kegs, the CO2 bottle, regulator, etc.

The bad news. I just don't have the space to use them without angering SWMBO.

I'll hold it in secondary for awhile. It was rather active during transfer and our tasting. I'm going to check it in another month. If I need to I'll put it in a keg. I have an extra fridge in storage, the double door style that I might be able to use to store the 5 gallon kegs in.

 

[XPLSV]

Just racked off the cinnamon sticks and was going to put some SuperKleer into it...but it doesn't need it. Super clear after 3 months. The wife and I made four different batches of cider from what we picked up at the cider mills last October and we finished the previous three last week, to include the ice cider. She was pretty happy with them, but I think she would have loved this one...wish I had racked it a few days earlier.

I like it very much as a still cider...I'm thinking I will hold back a gallon from the keg carbonating and bottle some of it still.