Sam's Choice Sparkling Cider

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BrewinJack

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2008
Messages
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Location
Upstairs
Type: All Grain
ABV: 5.5% (give or take)
OG: 1.050
FG:1.008
Fermentation Time (Primary): Untill done (roughly 3-4weeks at 65F)
Fermentation Time (Sec) : None
Yeast: Nottingham Dry yeast
Difficulty level: Easy


Taste notes: dry and good apple taste, good strong almost burning carbination, pleasent and refreshing despite this. When still fruit flavor almost over powering. Taste best cold. When served warm carbination more pronounced. Champagne like flavor with more fruity undertone, and less of a kick. Smooth, no burn from ABV present at all. No ageing nessesary. Taste better then a Woodchuck and is much cheaper.


Its simple enough

List:

5 gallons Sams choice apple juice (from concentrate, it contains no preservatives) (2.27$ per 3/4 gallon jug, 15.89$ per 7 bottles)

Pack of Nottingham Ale Yeast (1$-3$ depending on LHBS prices)

1 gallon quality apple juice, i used "Tree Of Life" orgain apple juice. "Simply Apple", apple juice works well too. (for use as priming sugar) (Note you dont need a full gallon of high end apple juice for priming, for a 5 gallon batch 40oz is enough) (7$ - 12$ depending on quality and price)

1) 5 gallon carboy, bucket or prefered fermenting vessal

Total Price max (without cost of fermenting vessal): roughly 30.00$

Price per bottle: .60$ (with a yeild of 50, 12oz bottles)

Pro:

Add 5 gallons of juice to carboy, shake each throughly before adding to fermenter, then shake fermenter after all juice afterward to allow good Oxagenation

Add Nottingham, shake fermenter for good measure (not required). Will take 2-4 days for yeast to start due to high ammount of Vitimin C which is already present in juice.

Let ferment... wait...(note: ferment in the dark, did a small batch which fermented on the counter in the light, final tasted buttery and rancid)

(the juice will ferment completely clear during most stages of fermentation due to the fact that the Sam's Choice juice is so heavily filtered it will not require Secondary fermentation to clear or other additives. The final product will be so clear you could almost mistake it for white wine.

When fermentation complete rack to bottling bucket, read nutrient facts for priming juice for sugar content:

I use "Tree of Life" apple juice which contains 30g of sugar per 8oz (1 cup) serving. That is roughly one ounce (2 grams over) of sugar per cup. Im not picky and i like a little extra fizz so i added 5 cups for a total of 40oz of juice. Gave 5 quick stirs with a slotted spoon, then bottled.

Let sit in bottle for 1 week before tasting, should be fully carbed by then if not just wait will carb well on its own.

End

I personally have done this for well over 25 gallons of this stright juice cider. The only down side is you'll always want to keep a batch going and a couple of cases on hand. Works well as pain reliever because the ABV goes stright to your head because of the heavy carbination. I have personally drank 8 bottles in one night and found that the drunkeness provided is heavy but the same weather one has 4 bottles or 8 bottles. I have yet to have a hangover from it providing properly hydrated before going to sleep.

Warning: You will need to pee, the heavy ammounts of Vitimin C which Sams Choice adds to the juice (roughly 100mg per 8oz serving) increase the dieretic effects of the drink to a near system flush proportion. This is why after a certin ammount you never seem to get any drunker. Great if you have a drug test the next day, but then again you'll just get busted for acohal rather then anything your flushing out, you wont get fired though.

Cheers
 
First, it looks like the Sam's Choice has maltodextrin in it. Is this a recent addition, and will this harm the brewing process?

Second, could honey be used instead of apple juice for a priming sugar? Corn sugar? Other juices?

Thanks - this looks good!
 
First, it looks like the Sam's Choice has maltodextrin in it. Is this a recent addition, and will this harm the brewing process?

Second, could honey be used instead of apple juice for a priming sugar? Corn sugar? Other juices?

Thanks - this looks good!

I never knew if sams choice has maltodextrein in it, i never it may account for some of the flavors i taste in it, but it doesnt hurt the brewing process at all.

You can use any thype of sugar you want to prime, just use the rule of thumb of 1 oz per gallon of brew. You may prefer the apple juice though because the limited apple taste left in the brew after fermenting. Useing the better higher quality of apple juice to prime puts some of it back in, So i would sugest useing a high quality apple juice, but yes sugar wroks.

Honey is unpredictable, and it carbs very slow and leaves the juice sweeter and i like it the way it comes out. Its good stuff, i would sugest trying it the way i said it above, you wont be sorry.

Cheers
 
Okay, made it tonight. I used honey as an added sugar / sweetener. Hope it will turn out well. For fermentation, I will use the organic apple juice you recommend, or something like it. Thanks again!
 
Okay, made it tonight. I used honey as an added sugar / sweetener. Hope it will turn out well. For fermentation, I will use the organic apple juice you recommend, or something like it. Thanks again!

How much honey did you add? I mean if you added alot of honey then you OG will be quite high and your fermentation time will go up greatly depending on the added honey. You have made cyser, not a simple strait juice cider. Sorry i have never done that so i don't know what your final product. Good luck.

cheers
 
2 cups of honey, which is 24 oz, or about 1.5 lbs. I also used Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast, so it should be an interesting result.

As long as it tastes acceptable, I am fine :)

I plan to carbonate with honey, and go with 1 oz per gallon of brew, as you recommend, or slightly less than 1/2 cup of honey.

Thanks again!
 
2 cups of honey, which is 24 oz, or about 1.5 lbs. I also used Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast, so it should be an interesting result.

As long as it tastes acceptable, I am fine :)

I plan to carbonate with honey, and go with 1 oz per gallon of brew, as you recommend, or slightly less than 1/2 cup of honey.

Thanks again!

you may want to rethink that, honey carbs slowly, because it is much slower to ferment then regular sugar. It also sweetens the brew because not all of the sugar in honey is fermentable. Becareful, read the neutrient facts on the back of the honey you carb with (that is if your useing honey which has nutrient facts on it) to get an accurate measurement of the sugar that is contained in your honey. Also be prepared to wait longer for it to carb. but already your looking at a much longer fermentation time then i said in the orginal recipe, and a differnt flavor profile. You are useing a champagne yeast, and have boosted your OG by probably 25-30 points off the bat, think wont be ready for sevral months... good luck, you might get another fermenter and start a batch the perscribe way for comparision, or maybe some edworts apfelwien, thats good stuff too.

Cheers
 
I started a batch of this last night and have a question. How much krausen forms on top of the juice. I used a 5 gal. better beer bottle and their is not much head space. I know that apfelwien with monoratchet yeast doesn't make much krausen, but what about the nottingham?

Thanks,
 
you may want to rethink that, honey carbs slowly, because it is much slower to ferment then regular sugar. It also sweetens the brew because not all of the sugar in honey is fermentable. Becareful, read the neutrient facts on the back of the honey you carb with (that is if your useing honey which has nutrient facts on it) to get an accurate measurement of the sugar that is contained in your honey. Also be prepared to wait longer for it to carb. but already your looking at a much longer fermentation time then i said in the orginal recipe, and a differnt flavor profile. You are useing a champagne yeast, and have boosted your OG by probably 25-30 points off the bat, think wont be ready for sevral months... good luck, you might get another fermenter and start a batch the perscribe way for comparision, or maybe some edworts apfelwien, thats good stuff too.

Cheers


Thank you for the advice - it is greatly appreciated. :)
 
Also, I started getting fermentation bubbles yesterday afternoon. It started faster than I expected.
 
I am assuming that it is okay to bottle this in regular beer bottles. This is my first batch and it is ready to bottle. Do I need to be concerned about the carbination levels?
Thanks,
 
hey brewinjack,
this is my first post so bear with me please. great looking recipe. im new to brewing anything and i have a couple questions:

1. why not use the high quality apple juice for the whole batch? too expensive? too much sugar?

2. i live in an area where there are a lot of apple orchards and fresh apple cider is available all over the place. could i substitute this apple cider instead of the store-bought juice? i know to make sure it has no preservatives. if so, would you still use a high quality store-bought juice for the priming?

3. if you think the cider is a bad idea, maybe use the sams choice for the first fermentation then real apple cider for the primer? it may be hard to tell sugar content of this local cider as there are probably no nutrition facts on the label.

thanks for the help!
 
Nice ... I like the simple approach. But no yeast nutrient? I'd only assume that if you added nutrient the %alc would go up and the cider would be dryer. I am still brewing my first batch of cider so clearly I have no experience with this.
 
Mine fermented to 1.008, but it certainly isnt 'clear.' Bottling tomorrow hopefully! I tasted it, and it has a nice apple taste to it even now, but im hoping the juice i use to prime with (not sure yet..) adds to it!
 
Just finished making my first batch of this a few minutes ago. A few variations. Disolved 1 pound of dark brown sugar into one of the quarts in a saucepan. Cooled this and added it half way through pouring in the rest of the juice. Used Safale-05 yeast. I think I may split it after primary. Juice carb half and put the other half on fresh frozen blueberries in a secondary.
 
I was curious if anyone knows how this recipe will work out with Safale S-04 instead of the recommended Nottingham. Just curious, because I would like to try this and I have an extra packet of S-04 on order.

Thanks in advance.
 
I was curious if anyone knows how this recipe will work out with Safale S-04 instead of the recommended Nottingham. Just curious, because I would like to try this and I have an extra packet of S-04 on order.

Thanks in advance.

Its been awhile since I checked this site. Dark yeah, S-04 isa great yeast and will work just fine. Notingham is just most often the pick of the litter of dry cider yeast.

Drink them in good health
 
A few questions.

1. Can I get away without using yeast nutrient?

2. I'm going to make two batches, one normal and one "strong." I'm wantin to make this puppy as alcoholic as I can with it still tasting good. How much sugar can I add and get away with? Also should it be regular or
brown sugar? I have Nottingham, sf-04, white wine, and champagne yeast. Thoughts?
 
I just finished bottling a 6G batch of this. I accidentally bought Wyeast 4632 dry mead instead of 4766 (someone put it in the cider yeast section at AHS) and the uncarbed bit I sampled today tasted fantastic. It fermented down to roughly .995 (I'm still having trouble getting my hydrometer to stay still) and fermentation was really fast, I only saw bubbles for maybe three days and it was perfectly still the last week. I can't wait until it gets a little age on it.
 
I bottled a batch of this last week, for being such a simple recipe it's very good. It's extremely drinkable and light cider. I have a feeling this will become a bit of a staple around here, SWMBO loves it.
 
New guy here... been reading this forum anonymously for weeks though...

Got a batch of this fermenting as we speak... used Mott's apple juice, as it is my favorite blend of juice to drink and contains no preservatives... and Nottingham yeast...
Going to start a second batch tonight with a few variations...
add 2 cups of sugar and some yeast nutrient to boost ABV a bit...
Red Star Champagne Yeast (it's what I have on hand, and will also boost ABV)
This will ferment very dry... which I personally prefer... but was going to use cane sugar to prime and add some xylitol to sweeten a bit (so my wife will drink it)... but I think I'm going to prime with high quality apple juice as you've suggested. As a novice, I suppose that was too obvious to think of myself.

My goal is obviously to create a stronger cider that is pleasant to drink, so that my wife and our friends will also enjoy it.

Also... will a simple recipe like this require any type of yeast stoppage? Or can I just bottle it and keep it or give it without worry?
 
New guy here... been reading this forum anonymously for weeks though...

Got a batch of this fermenting as we speak... used Mott's apple juice, as it is my favorite blend of juice to drink and contains no preservatives... and Nottingham yeast...
Going to start a second batch tonight with a few variations...
add 2 cups of sugar and some yeast nutrient to boost ABV a bit...
Red Star Champagne Yeast (it's what I have on hand, and will also boost ABV)
This will ferment very dry... which I personally prefer... but was going to use cane sugar to prime and add some xylitol to sweeten a bit (so my wife will drink it)... but I think I'm going to prime with high quality apple juice as you've suggested. As a novice, I suppose that was too obvious to think of myself.

My goal is obviously to create a stronger cider that is pleasant to drink, so that my wife and our friends will also enjoy it.

Also... will a simple recipe like this require any type of yeast stoppage? Or can I just bottle it and keep it or give it without worry?

No not really,I normally let it ferment till it stops, it turns out pretty dry. I did a couple of batches where i cold crashed it by bringing the temp of the juice down to around 40 degrees over one night. Everything fell out of solution and had no yeast activity.

I did eventully find out i had some potential bottle granades with this recipe, so just be aware that your fermentation is complete before bottleing and double check your math when you add the priming sugar (weather in juice form or as sugar)

Cheers
 
Rock on... thanks for the reply... think I'm going to go with the 1oz of sugar per gallon ratio and see how that goes. I'm really hoping I can find a nice balance between strength and flavor... don't tell me wife... but I'm looking at kegs and force carbonation... lol!
 
I almost feel that I should earn my stripes without the keg first...
It can only make me better in the long run...
I think I just need more carboys... heh!
get this beginner's experimentation phase licked... and get to the goods...
 
I've never used a starter with notty(dry), always works out great. Just make sure you give your fermentor a good shake before pitching.
 
I've never used a starter with notty(dry), always works out great. Just make sure you give your fermentor a good shake before pitching.

Sound good. And If I'm just doing 1 gal should I use 1/5 a pack of Nottingham dry? And how long does a pack of dry yeast last once opened?
 
Made this last night, started moving and shaking this morning. Used Sams Club Apple Juice, Nottingham Yeast, & Yeast Nutrient. SG was 1.051. Looking forward to trying this, its my 3rd attempt at cider...

I let my Nottingham sit for about 1/2 hour in warm water prior to pitching.
 
This is awesome! I brew my first beer Saturday. I was thinking of brewing a second the same day but this recipe sounds too easy to pass up!

Cheers,
 
So it would be 24 oz of juice for priming a 3 gal batch, right? And why the difference in aging between this and Edworts Apfelwein? Edworts takes like 8 months to come into its own, whereas this is done wicked quick from the sounds of it. My first inclination is that its the yeast selection, but any other reasons? Have you waited for 6+ months to see how the results change? Thanks for the info.
 
I have done both recipes and I have never waited more than 6 months for anything, other than my daughter. With this recipe you are adding more apple flavor at bottling, so you don't really have to wait for the apple flavors to develop. I am brewing both recipes, at present, but I prefer this one. You also add sugar in Edworts recipe and you don't in this one so it is not quite a strong, but it still packs a punch. Give it a try! If you don't like it you are only out about $15. BTW I use Aldi apple juice that is $1.19 for 64oz and not Sam's, which has gone up in price. good luck
 
I used 5gal of indian summer juice. My OG was 1.050 and after 3 1/2 weeks its stuck at 1.020. Tastes great just needs to finish. Still a strong apple taste to it. Any idea what may have caused it to stop? I've had a steady 63-67 range for fermenting. Notty dry yeast. Should I repitch the yeast? Very little activity in the airlock. Could it have been poor airation? I shook the crap out of the jugs of juice. I'm not sure how much that affects this being all juice. I'd really like to avoid bottle bombs :)
 
First time to ever try brewing at home and this is the recipe I choose after a lot of research into the art. I am happy to report that after collecting the necessary supplies and ingredients, it was very easy to put it all together and get the first batch going. The only two things that I changed from the original recipe was instead of using Sam's Choice Apple Juice, I used Walmart brand "Great Value". This was because it contained the Maltodextrin ingredient which no other shelf apple juice's had. Last, instead of the Nottingham Ale yeast, I used Cooper's Brewing yeast. This was due to my local supplier having no stock when I went to pick up supplies.

I am on day 3 of brewing and everything looks good inside. The fermentation process began within the first few hours of pitching, which surprised me since the recipe said it might take a couple days to start. This might have been due to the different yeast being used. The fermentation has been so vigorous that I have had to clean my airlock several times due to the rising foam into the airlock chamber. My initial/starting gravity reading I got was 1.045, which was a little lighter that the original recipe got but I am still optimistic it will turn out great. Hopefully I will post in a few weeks as to how things go.
 
Hey, just started brewing and set my first batch this past weekend, pretty much with this recipe but with bread yeast. I was wondering if the carbonation you mentioned would be too much for a 2 liter soda bottle, as thats what I was planning on using for bottling. Is there any reasons that I should use glass instead?
 
Thanks for the recipe, well instructions mostly. Got the basics down now. I added 2 cups of sugar to my 2 gallons to get an OG of 1.060. My batch fermented a little warm in my basement(at about 75 deg) and was reading 1.000 after a week! That might also be because I used bread yeast instead of nottingham. It still came out really nice with a slight carbonation after adding 1/2 t per bottle after 2 days and really enjoyed it. Throwing together my next batch today! This time I wil be trying it with nottingham instead of bread yeast though. :)
 
First time to ever try brewing at home and this is the recipe I choose after a lot of research into the art. I am happy to report that after collecting the necessary supplies and ingredients, it was very easy to put it all together and get the first batch going. The only two things that I changed from the original recipe was instead of using Sam's Choice Apple Juice, I used Walmart brand "Great Value". This was because it contained the Maltodextrin ingredient which no other shelf apple juice's had. Last, instead of the Nottingham Ale yeast, I used Cooper's Brewing yeast. This was due to my local supplier having no stock when I went to pick up supplies.

I am on day 3 of brewing and everything looks good inside. The fermentation process began within the first few hours of pitching, which surprised me since the recipe said it might take a couple days to start. This might have been due to the different yeast being used. The fermentation has been so vigorous that I have had to clean my airlock several times due to the rising foam into the airlock chamber. My initial/starting gravity reading I got was 1.045, which was a little lighter that the original recipe got but I am still optimistic it will turn out great. Hopefully I will post in a few weeks as to how things go.
Happy to report that over the weekend I wanted to see how the cider was doing. I took a SG reading and the result I got was 1.010

Compared to the original reading I had which was 1.045, it looks as if the alcohol content I currently have is around 4.6%. Someone will need to correct me if I am wrong about that, but I am going by the measurements of my hydrometer. If all is correct, then 4.6% after only 1 week of fermentation seems pretty nice. The cider still had a very strong apple juice smell along with the alcohol odor which was pleasing to detect. The cider also had a good amount of carbonation to it, I was tempted to sample it but decided not to. I want to see if I can squeeze out that last remaining 1.3% of alcohol and will let it continue to ferment for a couple more weeks. I will also take another reading this weekend to see where it is at.
 
Hello all, my first post here, just wanted to share my experience with this cider. I imagine this recipe appeals to first-timers because of its simplicity, so hopefully the below will be helpful. I do not claim that any of this is the best way or even an okay way to do things, but I'll tell you what I did, and what I got.

What I used:

*Part 1*
5.25 gallons Great Value apple juice
Nottingham yeast
Glass Carboy with stopper and water airlock
Funnel I made out of a two liter soda bottle
Easy Clean

*Part 2*
1 59oz bottle Simply Apple juice
~5.25 gallons worth of bottles, including crown top, twist top, Grolsch pop tops and .5-1 liter plastic soda bottles
Turkey baster
racking tube/wand
Plastic pasta spoon
Hydrometer
Easy Clean
Bottle capper

What I did:

*Part 1*
Cleaned the Carboy, hydrometer, funnel, stopper and water lock with Easy Clean, letting it sit for about 30 min, then letting dry for a couple of days (I had to leave town, could have let dry for an hour or so)

Poured the juice into the carboy using the funnel, then pitched in the whole packet of yeast.

Put in the stopper, shook that badboy up for about a minute until the yeast was kind of suspended throughout the mixture.

Got an OG reading of 1.050 with my hydrometer (my apartment temp was 70F), then added the stopper and water lock (I used some Easy Clean solution in the lock).

Put into the closet and let sit for 18 days until the bubbles in the water lock were 15 seconds apart. The cider was extremely clear with about 3/4" layer of yeast on the bottom.

*Part 2*

Filled bottling bucket with Easy Clean and used that to soak all the bottles, used my dishwasher as a drying rack. Also cleaned racking tube by priming with tapwater, then drawing Easy Clean into the tube and letting sit for a while in the bucket. Also cleaned spoon, turkey baster and hydrometer.

Took a baster-full of the cider and tasted, it was dry and champagney with a light apple flavor.

Racked the cider into bottling bucket and took reading with hydrometer, 1.010, approx. 5.25%. Added ~40oz of the Simply Apple and stirred with pasta spoon.

Primed the racking tube with tap water again to draw the cider from bottling bucket. Once full, added the "bottling button" (the thing that stops the flow from the tube unless you press down on the bottom of the bottle, no idea what it is called)

Filled up all the bottles including several soda bottles to periodically test carbonation. Put into closet to carb. It may take a few days for it to start, but when you start seeing a thin layer of yeast on the bottom, trust that it is carbing away. The plastic soda bottles are also easy to pinch and will become firmer.

Nice carbonation was reached 12 days after bottling. With a 16oz pour, there was a nice white head about an inch thick which quickly dissipated, but beverage remained sparkly and crisp until finished. Flavor was still dry, but had a more distinct apple flavor.

*FINAL NOTES*

I would have made this slightly sweeter, probably by putting in the entire bottle of Simply Apple. I prefer dry cider, but this could have done with just a tiny but more
Clear soda bottles worked well (though I wouldn't use larger than 1 liter) and were and easy way to test the carbonation as it progressed.
I capped twist tops with a standard bottle capper without any problems. I only recommend that you make sure cap was secure by comparing the "teeth" to a capped crown top bottle.
I used Pappers' method to pasteurize my bottles once they were finished. I found the cider to be just as nicely carbed as it was before, and I didn't have to cram my fridge or fear bottle bombs.
Thanks to BrewinJack for this slick and easy recipe!
 
Only changes I made were using Red Star Champagne yeast, adding a tablespoon of yeast nutrient, a tablespoon of pectic enzyme, 2 pounds of sugar (I wanted about 7%+ ABV), and the one stroke of genius: I added a can of frozen apple juice concentrate instead of the fresh apple juice at bottling time for carbonation. Bottled in sanitized 1 liter PET bottles (Canada Dry Club Soda), put them in the pantry for 2 weeks, and when the bottles felt tight, I cold-crashed them in the fridge--which is where they are now a month later waiting for Thanksgiving. Next time, I'll leave out the yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme. I think one of those ingredients make the final product take longer to clear--probably the yeast nutrient.
 
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