Second batch

[Schmaffy]

My first batch (Irish Stout) is about a week away from bottling, so of course I'm planning my next batch. Mostly from information I've read on this forum, I'd like to make a hard cider by pitching onto my already existing yeast cake. My plan is to get as much liquid out of the fermenter as possible, pitch two gallons of apple juice and 2 pounds of honey on top of the yeast cake, stir it up, put the lid back on (with fresh airlock, of course) and let it sit for a good solid six weeks. I'll then rack to a bottling bucket and add a can of flavored juice concentrate - either cranberry or pomegranate/blueberry or something like that - bottle it, and wait a couple weeks more before drinking. I'm hoping it will turn out like a cyser.

Anyway, a few questions:

1. I'm assuming I want the yeast cake as dry as possible before I add anything to it, right?

2. Is one can of juice concentrate adequate as priming sugar for this recipe? Too much? Too little?

3. How do I go about cleaning/sanitizing the leftover ring of krausen in the fermenting bucket? The first batch of beer was 5 gallons and this batch of cider will be 2.5 - is that enough of a difference to not worry about it?

4. Can I assume that the finished product will take on a bit of the character of the Irish Stout originally in the bucket?

Thanks for your help!

 

[boydster]

I wouldn't use the entire yeast cake, you will only need about 1/4 of it. You can pour/scoop what you need out of the bucket into a sanitized mason jar (or pyrex measuring cup, or what-have-you), then clean the bucket like you normally would before adding the yeast back with your juice and honey.

So to answer your questions in order:

1. Don't worry about getting it dry. If you scoop out the yeast you need, you can crash cool it in the fridge to help it settle out, then decant the liquid off the top and pitch the remaining slurry. Or just pitch the slurry without crash cooling and decanting. Either way will work.

2. I can't comment, I don't have a can of juice concentrate in front of me to reference the sugar content, but if you look at the concentrate it will tell you how much sugar there is per serving, and how many servings there are in the can. (Sugar per serving) x (number of servings) = (total sugar in can). Take that total sugar and compare it to the amount of sugar that you need according to a priming calculator and you'll have your answer.

3. Covered in my opening statement - scoop out the yeast you need into a sanitized container, clean/sanitize bucket as usual.

4. If you crash cool the yeast and decant the liquid, you'll have less character from the beer that you harvested from than if you just pitch the slurry without crashing and decanting. Either way, since you are harvesting from a stout, you may notice a little bit of residual flavor in your cider.

 

[Schmaffy]

That is really helpful information, thank you! Since you didn't run away screaming that it was a terrible idea, I'm going to assume that maybe it will work.

Anyway, a can of 100% apple/pom/blueberry concentrate is 6 servings at 29 grams of sugar per serving - so 174g of sugar for the whole can. That seems like a lot for 2.5 gallons of liquid...

I checked out Northern Brewer's priming sugar calculator - can you tell me which of the sugars in the juice is closest to what they list? Would it be sucrose? Either way, it looks like I might be OK if I use at the most 1/2 a can, and probably even 1/3 of a can.

Thanks in advance...

 

[boydster]

I don't have their site up, I'm on my mobile, but the sugar would mostly be fructose. If that isn't in the list then any simple sugar should be close enough.