Results from juice, yeast and sugar experiments

[datcv]

Adolf Wagners was actually the place I went to. I only went once but I still dream about their onion beer cheese with pumpernickel bread. It's the only Apfelwein I've ever had but it was really good.

 

[bembel]

Adolf Wagners was actually the place I went to. I only went once but I still dream about their onion beer cheese with pumpernickel bread. It's the only Apfelwein I've ever had but it was really good.

Wagner's is nirvana...


Glad you had the "Schneegestober" which is camembert mixed with onions and butter...yes, insane good!

 

[MrsPeepers]

Three reasons: (1) Most Ale yeasts will go dormant and drop to the bottom of the carboy if you cold crash the cider. This makes it relatively easy to remove the yeast so that you have a semi sweet cider. (2) They generally use more nutrient, which make crashing more reliable and often causes them to stop on their own at higher gravities (although an ale yeast can easily take a cider down to 0.996 with high nutrient juice) and (3) They produce a cider that tastes better (that is subjective, but most folks who like a semi-sweet or sweet cider agree)

Those are the short answers. You can use the search function to find longer explanations of these points

Forgot to say thank you for this! I'll take it in consideration when I place my next order at my LHBS.

 

[bembel]

Adolf Wagners was actually the place I went to. I only went once but I still dream about their onion beer cheese with pumpernickel bread. It's the only Apfelwein I've ever had but it was really good.

"Frankfurter Scheegestoeber" translates to 'snow flurries' To re-create the cheese spread from Wagners leave out the paprika in the recipe and substitute 2 parts ricotta, 1 part sour cream for the 'quark' Google translate mistakenly replaces 'quark' with 'cottage cheese'

One of my favorite dishes there as well!!!

http://www.apfelwein-freunde.de/apfelwein-rezepte/herzhaftes/original-hessisches-schneegestoeber/

 

[kgressler]

CvilleKevin,

So I was able to find a late season source for some fresh cider. Not sure what type of cider yet I should find that out later today.
I've now finished 2 5 gallon batches with notty using your method cold crashing around 1.008 to 1.010.
I mentioned a bit of a thin taste and you said I should try crashing a little higher.

For this batch I don't have notty but I do have safale s04 available. What is a good range of gravity in your experience should I crash this?
I wouldn't mind attempting something slightly sweeter then those previous batches as well.

The previous batches I used honey in one and the other raspberries in the secondary in the other.
This one I have turbindado to bring up the sg to 1.065
Would crashing say 1,015 be ok with s04?

 

[TastyAdventure]

Is headspace important at all when making ciders?

 

[bembel]

Is headspace important at all when making ciders?

If you are using a top fermenting beer yeast like Wyeast 3333, 3056 or 3068, then yes, you will have more yeast/foam/kreusen than you can handle and want at least 1/4 of your container empty headspace WITH a blow off tube

If you use wine yeast like SN9, VR21, or others then not nearly as much.

 

[TastyAdventure]

If you are using a top fermenting beer yeast like Wyeast 3333, 3056 or 3068, then yes, you will have more yeast/foam/kreusen than you can handle and want at least 1/4 of your container empty headspace WITH a blow off tube



If you use wine yeast like SN9, VR21, or others then not nearly as much.

Sorry, I should have specified. Could I ferment 1 gallon in a 4 gallon container? Would it matter with cider? Or mead??

 

[bembel]

Sorry, I should have specified. Could I ferment 1 gallon in a 4 gallon container? Would it matter with cider? Or mead??

thats a LOT of empty space but for a primary I would think OK, a lot of C02 produced will push out the 02, but when you rack it, ya need a smaller headspace

 

[CvilleKevin]

Would crashing say 1,015 be ok with s04?

Sorry for slow response. Yes, you can crash S04 at 1.015. To my taste, the ale yeasts can be a little sticky in the finish (like a soda) if the final sg is above 1.010 or so, but that is with the juice I'm using. If 1.010 tasted too thin to you, you can go higher for more body and sweetness

Could I ferment 1 gallon in a 4 gallon container?

You could, but I wouldnt recommend it. Even with all the CO2 being produced, its going to take a while to push out all the old air that was in the head space, so the risk of getting some sort of spoilage bacteria increases. If you are planning to drink it relatively quickly, then its probably not an issue, but in general, the less air exposure the better if you want to have any sort of of shelf life. Mead is more resistant to spoilage.

 

[rrenaud]

This thread has a ton of great info, but it's sort of spread throughout a bunch of questions, and hard to read systematically from someone who is interested but just started thinking about brewing a cider. CvilleKevin, have you thought about during this into a book?

 

[jimbostarr]

How to make my watermelon hard cider... [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAV-ACUg28A[/ame]

 

[babybalrog]

Just finished binge reading all 104 pages of this thread. I had to register it was so great.

I started my first cider two weeks ago with just some store bought apple juice and bakers yeast (Fleischmann's). Strangle enough it turned out - like a white wine but it turned out. Three of my friends gave it a test drive and all thought it was good, I thought they were crazy, it didn't taste like apple to me. That's obviously because i fermented dry and the apple taste gets digested under 1.005 it looks like.

My next step is to do another batch and try to catch it around that range for a semi-sweet, my plan was to use Nottingham so i could crash it and not use chemicals, but my questions is this. My apartment is really warm here in NC. It probably hasn't been below 75ºF in my place for months. Do you think it would be ok to pitch Nottingham at that range and let it go. The higher temp is going to be hard to catch at the range i want, but will it also produce off flavors?

If not any suggestions? I still have one packet of Fleischmann's left (came in packet of 3, used 2) which is a lot cheaper than buying new yeast for a 1 gal carboy.

 

[bembel]

Just finished binge reading all 104 pages of this thread. I had to register it was so great.

I started my first cider two weeks ago with just some store bought apple juice and bakers yeast (Fleischmann's). Strangle enough it turned out - like a white wine but it turned out. Three of my friends gave it a test drive and all thought it was good, I thought they were crazy, it didn't taste like apple to me. That's obviously because i fermented dry and the apple taste gets digested under 1.005 it looks like.

My next step is to do another batch and try to catch it around that range for a semi-sweet, my plan was to use Nottingham so i could crash it and not use chemicals, but my questions is this. My apartment is really warm here in NC. It probably hasn't been below 75ºF in my place for months. Do you think it would be ok to pitch Nottingham at that range and let it go. The higher temp is going to be hard to catch at the range i want, but will it also produce off flavors?

If not any suggestions? I still have one packet of Fleischmann's left (came in packet of 3, used 2) which is a lot cheaper than buying new yeast for a 1 gal carboy.

1- freeze some 2 liter soda bottles filler with water
2. submerge your carboy in a buckets filled with cold tap water so most of the carboy is covered and rotate in a soda bottle at a time of the ice

If 75 is your low end temo, your could be getting into the 80s, and that will produce fusel alcohols which will HURT your head and scare your friends away. Worst hangover I ever had was my first batch of Eds Applewine, fermented it at 75-80. Owch.

Rule of thumb, the lower the temp and the longer the fermentation, the more flavor will remain, when yeast is warm and active, it scrubs a lot of the flavors out, by slowing it down, you keep more of them.

I ferment store bought juice, ( Costco) which I add acid blend and tannin to, and ferment it using lager yeast at 45F in a spare fridge with a temp controler. its takes 3 months to finish but it wins awards and tastes and smells like apples even when it finishes at 1000-1002 Low and Slow!

 

[MtnGoatJoe]

Wow! What an impressive thread! Thanks Kevin!!!

You posted a couple years ago about using some cider specific apples, but the results from your tasting party didn't seem like they made much of an impression (though maybe I read your results incorrectly).

Also, your Juice Blends post lists several varieties for cider apples.

I was just wondering if you had any further thoughts on this. I'm going to plant several cider apple trees this winter, with several more eating apples the next year, so I'm very interested in your thoughts.

Thanks!
-Joe

 

[CvilleKevin]

You posted a couple years ago about using some cider specific apples, but the results from your tasting party didn't seem like they made much of an impression ... just wondering if you had any further thoughts on this. I'm going to plant several cider apple trees this winter, with several more eating apples the next year

Hi Joe - When I get juice, I usually get apples that I know will make a good blend. Using a number of different blends throughout the year, my experience is that the yeast and process make a bigger impact on the taste profile than the specific apples in the mix - but I am also aiming for roughly the same taste profile when putting a blend of apples together, so YMMV

For example, a nice early season mix around here is Cortland, Gala and Jonathan. I just started 6 carboys of that last week. Later in the season, a mix that I like to get is Stayman, Pink Lady, Albemarle Pippen and Winesap. Both are really nice mixes, maybe not the very best, but some of the best for reasonable money. They would taste slightly different if you tasted them side by side fresh, and there are some taste characteristics that remain after fermentation, but the big difference is still the yeast. For example, the latter mix would have a little more tannin and that would carry though but it would not be as noticeable of a difference as the yeast and SG where I crashed it. With a completely dry cider, then the apple blend is more noticeable but the yeast is still a major, if not the major flavor driver (again, assuming that you have a relatively decent blend to start with)

As far as what trees to get for yourself, the best person to ask would be a nursery that is already growing apple trees in your area and knows which trees work well and which combinations make good hard cider. In Central VA, the place to go is Vintage Virginia Apples and hopefully there is someplace like this near wherever you are. VVA has a sister company which is Albemarle Cider Works and a big chunk of the nursery is oriented towards cider apple trees. You can get some really nice apple trees from them and grow apples that are better than what you can find on the market. Different varieties of apples do better in different locals, so talk to the local tree nurseries. If you are having trouble finding one, if there is a Cidery around your area that grows its own apples, you might want to ask them where they get their trees. Good luck!

 

[szajsiwo]

Hello everybody!

Thanks for your effort Kevin!

Last saturday I've pressed fresh cider using apples from my old orchard. Trees are more than 60 years old, never fertilized, mix of five different old varieties (Herrnhut, Bankroft, Beforest and some unknown).

One part was pasteurized and bottled and second was taken unpasturized for hard cider yeast comparsion.
OG 14Blg (SG ~1.057)

I've set six 4-liter batches using yeasts:
- WLP041 (with 24h starter)
- S-04
- US-05
- S-33
- Mangorve Jack's M02 Cider yeast
- Ciderini Sweet (our Polish brand yeast for sweet, apparently)

Every yeast except WLP041 was rehydrated and after 20min added to cider.
Ciderini Sweet didn't start even after second pitching...
After 1 day stuff moved to basement (15,5-16*C, ~60*F)
After 2 days I got sulfury smell especially with S-33.

Kevin, should I add some (maybe 1/4 or 1/2) nutrient to avoid making fart-cider or it will somehow mellow in following days of fermentation or even after bottling? (I'm not using kegs nor force carbonaton but bottling with priming)

Thanks,
Marek

 

[CvilleKevin]

Trees are more than 60 years old, never fertilized, mix of five different old varieties (Herrnhut, Bankroft, Beforest and some unknown).

Nice! I have never heard of any of those varieties but old stock and unfertilized trees are usually a good bet!

should I add some (maybe 1/4 or 1/2) nutrient to avoid making fart-cider or it will somehow mellow in following days of fermentation or even after bottling?

Did you add any sulfite to kill wild yeast before pitching the above yeasts? If so, that will often cause a sulfury smell, but it will go away after a few days. Usually the sulfery smell will go away on its own regardless. My experience is that at 60F, most ale yeasts will produce very little sulfur, alhough it is possible that your juice has less nutrient than what I usually get. If you are going to ferment to dryness, then a little nutrient wont hurt, but if you want a bit of residual sweetness, the nutrient will work against you on that. Some yeasts are just stinky. If you find that the S-33 is the main culprit, you might want to just avoid in the future unless the taste is significantly better.

 

[szajsiwo]

I didn't use any sulfite to kill wild yeast because you said that it results in more sour taste when sulfited before fermentation. I trust your experience and I was hoping that used yeasts will dominate before wild yeast starts.
So all the sulfur smell comes form working yeast in low nutrient enviroment. I hope it will disapear and won't leave any sulfur taste in the final product.
I'm making this yeast test because I try to find yeast which will produce at least semidry (semi sweet preferably) cider without breking fermentation and without loosing apple flavor which can be bottled with priming.

Regards
Marek

 

[pricelessbrewing]

In my experience most ale yeasts finish in the 1.003-1.005 range. I always use lots of nutrients as it seems to make fermentation quicker and less smelly. In my limited experience, it tasted better without aging vs the no nutrients without aging. So I always use nutrients, they're cheap and anything to keep the little yeasties happy sounds like a good idea to me.

When i use orchard/mill cider I always use some sort of sulfite to knock the other yeasts out before pitching my own.

 

[CvilleKevin]

I get juice from a low fertilizer orchard, and it will usually go down to 1.002 or so on its own with ale yeast. Sometime a little higher. But juice I used to get from other orchards could get down to 0.998 no problem with ale yeast if I didnt stop it in time.

With juice from non fertilized trees, it would probably stop a little higher on its own. How much, I dont know. But I know for a fact that S04 and US05 will easily take it down to 0.998 if there enough nutrient there, even when starting SG is above 1.060. WLP041 might stop a little higher and not sure about the others.

One consideration if the yeast stop on their own above 1.000 due to nutrient reduction, then adding priming sugar is not going to help much, because the yeast wont be able to do much with the extra sugar if there is no nutrient. You may get some carb, but it will probably take a while

One of the advantages of having your own trees is that in theory the nutrient levels ought to be fairly consistent from year to year, so if you find a yeast that you like and it stops out on its own at say 1.004, then next year you could bottle at 1.006 before its done and let the yeast carb while it is finishing out

These days I am sulfiting about half of my batches and setting those aside to last through the next summer. I am really looking forward to drinking some fresh unsulfited cider, which I should have ready in a few days. One thing I've noticed in the past couple of years is that the juice that is pressed late in the season tends to turn more quickly if it is not sulfited. The early season stuff lasts fairly long regardless. I suppose that is due to slightly more spoilage when the apples are sitting in storage for several months after being harvested, so cider goes funky faster if not sulfited

 

[GatineauBrewer]

Hi all. New member. Super grateful to the Cville man (you must be immune to all the "thanks" by now!) and other posters. Here's my bit to this thread.

Juiced approx. 90 lbs of Paula Red and Lobo fresh-picked apples (= almost 5 gallons or 23 litres).
Added 5.67 litres (1.25 gal.) of fresh-pressed, organic cranberry juice (unpasteurized).
Added 1kg dark demarara sugar and 2 cups white sugar (=1.065).
Added 3.5 crushed Campden tablets.
Added 1Tbsp pectic enzyme.
--- Waited 48hrs ---
Day1:
Racked in glass carboy (leaving a whole lot of bit and pieces behind, in the bucket).
Prepped Lalvin 1118 (in a mix of warm bottled water, a little of the apple juice, trace amounts of yeast nutrient and yeast energizer) - waited 30 minutes for frothiness and dumped in the pail.
Added half tsp of yeast nutrient.
Bung+airlock.
Temp constant at 19C (66F)
4 hrs later: bubbling -steady slow pace.
24 hrs later: bubbling -steady rapid pace.
48 hrs later: foamy crud spills over from airlock. No biggie, bung holds tight.
6 days later: steady pace, but much slower; SG reading 1.0165.
8 days later: same slow but steady bubbling: SG reading 1.0140.
9 days later: slower but still steady bubbling: SG reading 1.012.
Immediately put the carboy in my chest freezer -highest freeze setting- for two hours. Noticeably "syropy" juice consistency.
Removed carboy from freezer and put in dedicated fridge (highest setting) for 2 days.
Reracked (carefully leaving behind leas and such). SG reading: 1.011 (damn it!) and returned to fridge for another 3 days.
Another SG reading: 1.008 (oh gawd!!). Bottled immediately: 4x500ml plastic brewing bottles with plastic screwcaps and 42x500ml swingtop bottles. To each bottle, I added one third tsp. dextrose + one third tsp. xylitol... to both carbonate, and add sweetness, respectively. Liquid level was deliberately left under the neck of bottles. Plastic bottles were squeezed to push out all air (those are my "test" bottles).
Left out to stew (temp: 20C or 68F).
Day1 after bottling -no noticeable difference.
Day 2: plastic bottles pushed out to normal shape, but soft.
Day 3: plastic bottles hard.
Day 4 (today): Plastic bottles hard. Opened one: noticeable "pshhht" sound. Tastes fizzy. Tonight I try the stove-top pasteurization.
End of story.
Moral of the story? Don't try to cold crash Lalvin 1118. It just won't stop!!!
Meanwhile... another 6.5 gallon batch started yesterday; this time, using S-04 in 115 lbs of Cortland, Spartan and MacIntosh. We'll see.

 

[CvilleKevin]

I'm glad that so many folks are finding this thread useful! I've definitely learned a lot from everyone who has contributed.

I got my first juice of the season a couple of weeks ago. The mix was Cortland, Gala and Jonathan, which has become my early season mix of choice. One of these days, I'm hoping to add some Hewes Crab to this mix as a few orchards around here have planted them but no one is selling them yet.

The SG was 1.057, which is the highest that I've ever got from an early season mix. Partly that is because it was a dry summer and partly its because now that the orchard where I get my juice is making their own hard cider, they are letting the apples hang on the trees a little longer. I still bumped it with 3oz/gal of turbinado/dextrose mix, which turned out to be a good thing because even with the extra sugar, these batches fermented out really fast.

I did two batches each of Brupaks and Wy3056 (sufited & non sulfited), non sufited BRY97 and a sulfited Notty batch. The weather for the past two weeks has been great for fermenting. By opening the basement windows at night, I was able to keep temps between 62F and 66F, which is a good range.

This batch still fermented out really fast and I crashed them all after 9 days. Last year, same juice from same trees and same temps fermented out in 12-13 days. The main difference seems to be the starting SG of the raw juice, because in both years I bumped the SG up to about 1.065 before pitching the yeast - I just had to use more sugar last year. So its possible that the higher sugar content seems to be correlated to higher nutrient level in the fruit (given same trees). I called the orchard to see if maybe they had fertilized this year, and they did apply some phosphorus and potash this year, but no nitrogen. Last year they didnt add anything. So either the phosphorus and/or potash has a similar effect on the yeast as nitrogen, or the same process that concentrates sugars in the fruit is also concentrating nutrient

Go to sleep yeasties... nothing but dreams now.

One of the batches, the sulfited WY3056 batch, would just not shut down. It blew the bung out of the carboy twice.

Back into secondaries and clearing at room temperature, all of the batches except the sulfited WY3056 batch seem fairly stable. The six on the right are the ones from this season, right after the crash

Unsurprisingly, the sulfited WY3056 batch started back up after a day. I'll need to throw that one back in the fridge. Its not unusually for the WY3056 to need two crashes to stop in the beginning of the season

 

[motobrewer]

Picking up 10g of a "Gingergold, McIntosh, Cortland, Mollies and a few Honeycrisp" blend.

We'll see how it goes. US04.

 

[motobrewer]

juice was pretty low sg (1.044) so in one I added cane to get to 1.053, and the other I added honey to get to the same.

US04 for both.

 

[GatineauBrewer]

Just wanted to finish my initial post (3 posts higher).
... So I've decided I'm going to do the "stove-top" pasteurization on my batch of swing-top-bottled, Lalvin1118 yeasted, fresh-pressed cider and pure cranberry juice (4:1 ratio). Recall that my 5 gallon batch was at 1.008, and moving downwards, even while in the fridge, at highest 'cold' setting...
- I filled two very large pots of water and put them to boil on stove. I also filled the kettle and got that going;
- Meanwhile, I was able to fit 32 of 44 of the flip-top bottles in my camping cooler (you know, rectangular, plastic, usually keeps things cold). I put the cooler in the bath tub and filled with hot water (as hot as it would get from tap), right up to the neck of the bottles, so bottles would already be hot by the time the "near-boiling" water would be poured over them;
- When the stove-top pot-water got boiling (temp. approx. 212F) I turned stove off and had a smoke outside. Came back, it was at 192F (pretty good timing, I thought I drained the hot water in the cooler and poured both pots (and the kettle) over the bottles... and I shut the cooler door;
- 10 minutes later (exactly), I took out the bottles one by one (I"m wearing huge oven mitts, protective glasses and my winter coat!). Temp of water in cooler was still 154F;
- Remaining 12 bottles (12 of 44), I repeated the procedure in pots of water.
- Stored 32 in the garage, kept 12 in the fridge.

Now, I should state: Before I started this, I did not feel good about the whole thing.... despite the very good thread on this site that describes the procedure in detail.
For one, I had drunk three bottles of the cider before starting... it tasted freakin' awesome! and I didn't want anything about it to change.
Honestly... I was half convinced that "near-boiling" my hard-won liquid-gold was going to ruin it (people say, when brewing "above all, keep an even temperature if you want good results").
WELL! The very next day, I had one from the fridge... "POP!" -really good fizz... and I kid-you-not, it tasted EVEN BETTER!! No joke. I'm sold on the stove-top method. It works... really well!
Mind you, there is a very, very thin, barely noticeable "dusting" at bottom of bottles (you have to look very hard). Those are leas (dead yeast cells) if I'm not mistaken.
Had a couple friends over to indulge -they are super impressed. I am a BREWING GOD!
All credit goes to posters on this site who've shared... and some basic common sense too, I guess.
THANK YOU!

 

[szajsiwo]

GatineauBrewer,

My fresh experience with stove top pasteurization is not as positive as yours.
I've pasteurized with this method samples (2 bottles) of every 3 different yeast testing batches S-04 (@1.026), US-05 (@1.022) and WLP041 (@1.028). Everything went well but the final taste is definitely worse than that before pasteurization (which is very tasty). I didn't want to finish the bottle - it is hard to describe but it is almost not drinkable...
I don't know why we get such different results but there are some thoughts:
- I'm using pure fresh pressed cider, no juice from other fruits
- I didn't cold crash - just racked to bottles just as it is
- my bottling final gravity was higher

I'm not sure but maybe the reason is that the yeasts processed by high temperature left some off taste which does not occur after cold carshing?

 

[GatineauBrewer]

Thanks for connecting, szajsiwo. Interesting experience.
Yes, when I tested a few bottles, before pasteurizing à la stove-top method, it tasted really, really good. I'm not an expert taster, so I can't really describe the taste using the right terms... It did have a slight yeasty aftertaste, but very slight.
After pasteurization however, it seemed to have "melded" the flavours better (apple and cranberry), the tartness stayed the same (which I like), and the yeasty aftertaste had disappeared. I was so happy with the results! (I'm a usual consumer of Blackthorne and Strongbow ciders, but I'd take my homemade wonder-brew first, at this point). Having said that, "awesome" to me may just be "ok" for a super cider connoisseur?

Just to confirm, you didn't re-rack after primary fermentation? Just straight to bottles? That would leave a lot of yeast floating about... But then again you said it tasted good at that point.
You know, there is another difference: I was using Lalvin 1118 (a champagne yeast), while you were using ale yeasts, if I'm not mistaken.
Maybe that makes a difference too? I really can't say, not having replicated this with other yeasts.

I have another batch fermenting now, with S-04 this time. Only apples. I don't think I would try the same method. Bottle-carbonation would be pretty iffy, given that cold-crashing/re-racking with S-04 seems to effectively halt fermentation in most instances. How would I then bottle-carbonate?
That means trying forced-carbonation. And that means spending some $$ on a Corny Keg, a C02 tank, and picnic tap... which is starting to make this a pretty expensive "hobby". Which makes me wonder: how did CvilleKevin get his hands on soooooooo many corny kegs??? Check the pictures!

 

[szajsiwo]

I did not racked at all. Afer fermantation starts I was waiting until gravity reach given level, which is pretty high because I want a sweet cider. It took 10 days - first day in warm place to kick the fermantation than moved to basement with 57-59F.

I noticed one interesting thing that the fermentation speed decrease significantly after bottling.
Pasteurization was made 2 days after bottling. During this period the gravity of rest of unbottled cider dropped by 0.004-0.006 which is more than enough to fully carbonate (I was afraid of bottle bombs) BUT to my surprise in bottles there is almost no carbonation!
I seems the bottling is a sort of racking which slows fermentation significantly.

Now I got a problem because I got a new big batch (47L so about 12,5gallons) running with WLP041 (the winner of my 6 yeast test) and I have no satisfactory solution to get sweet and bottle carbonated cider...

 

[kgressler]

I'm glad that so many folks are finding this thread useful! I've definitely learned a lot from everyone who has contributed.

I got my first juice of the season a couple of weeks ago. The mix was Cortland, Gala and Jonathan, which has become my early season mix of choice. One of these days, I'm hoping to add some Hewes Crab to this mix as a few orchards around here have planted them but no one is selling them yet.

The SG was 1.057, which is the highest that I've ever got from an early season mix. Partly that is because it was a dry summer and partly its because now that the orchard where I get my juice is making their own hard cider, they are letting the apples hang on the trees a little longer. I still bumped it with 3oz/gal of turbinado/dextrose mix, which turned out to be a good thing because even with the extra sugar, these batches fermented out really fast.

I did two batches each of Brupaks and Wy3056 (sufited & non sulfited), non sufited BRY97 and a sulfited Notty batch. The weather for the past two weeks has been great for fermenting. By opening the basement windows at night, I was able to keep temps between 62F and 66F, which is a good range.

This batch still fermented out really fast and I crashed them all after 9 days. Last year, same juice from same trees and same temps fermented out in 12-13 days. The main difference seems to be the starting SG of the raw juice, because in both years I bumped the SG up to about 1.065 before pitching the yeast - I just had to use more sugar last year. So its possible that the higher sugar content seems to be correlated to higher nutrient level in the fruit (given same trees). I called the orchard to see if maybe they had fertilized this year, and they did apply some phosphorus and potash this year, but no nitrogen. Last year they didnt add anything. So either the phosphorus and/or potash has a similar effect on the yeast as nitrogen, or the same process that concentrates sugars in the fruit is also concentrating nutrient

Go to sleep yeasties... nothing but dreams now.

One of the batches, the sulfited WY3056 batch, would just not shut down. It blew the bung out of the carboy twice.

Back into secondaries and clearing at room temperature, all of the batches except the sulfited WY3056 batch seem fairly stable. The six on the right are the ones from this season, right after the crash

Unsurprisingly, the sulfited WY3056 batch started back up after a day. I'll need to throw that one back in the fridge. Its not unusually for the WY3056 to need two crashes to stop in the beginning of the season

As many gallons as you produce each year you have to have quite a problem consuming all of this dont you?lol
Do you make full batched for friends or just give alot away or what?
I felt like I made a lot last year(35 gallons) and i have a few cases remaining. I may have to start giving some away soon myself.