Small Batch Ciders

[mrtinvan]

I can only get away with brewing 1 Gallon at a time in my Apartment so this is what I thought of for a recipe:

2.84L of unfiltered apple juice
1L of Pear Juice
1.5 cups of Honey
.5lb brown sugar

No boil, mix in 1 Gal bomber, pitch half a tube of WLP775. Leave for 4 weeks, dry hop with .5oz of Cascade at week 3.

Any suggestions?

 

[MindenMan]

That is a lot of sugar for a small amount of juice, I don't know if you are new to cidering or not, but with that much alcohol, it will need a bit of aging to be a non rocket fuel tasting beverage.

 

[mrtinvan]

New to cidering altogether, but not to homebrew.

Would I be ok with out the added brown sugar? Id like to keep the honey in their for the sweetness more than anything.

 

[stella_tigre]

Starting SG? Unless the yeast hits max alcohol it will ferment dry. Usually sweet is achieved by post- fermentation sweetening, after stabilizing with sorbate and kmeta. If you want fizzy too, that is a whole different thing.

 

[MindenMan]

Adding more fermentables (sugars) will only increase alcohol, not perceived sweetness. You don't mention if this is planned to be a still cider or a fizzy cider. You can do a sweetened fizzy cider by using non-fermentable sweeteners as well. Seeing as you are new to cider making, I would not try a sweet-fizzy cider my first time out. If you stabilize your cider first, then sweetening with honey will work out fine.

 

[madscientist451]

I can only get away with brewing 1 Gallon at a time in my Apartment so this is what I thought of for a recipe:

2.84L of unfiltered apple juice
1L of Pear Juice
1.5 cups of Honey
.5lb brown sugar

No boil, mix in 1 Gal bomber, pitch half a tube of WLP775. Leave for 4 weeks, dry hop with .5oz of Cascade at week 3.

Any suggestions?

Yes:
-substitute WL002 for the 775, I did comparison tests using these two yeasts
with many different apple combinations, and everyone who tried them preferred the WL002.
-Omit the pear juice, use all apple; pear has such a delicate flavor it seems tasteless compared to apple. Instead, do a whole gallon of pear cider and then blend the two to your taste.
-Adding sugar produces a flavor I don't like at all. If you really want to boost the alcohol, try frozen concentrated apple juice instead of sugar.
-Forget about: "leave for 4 weeks, dry hop at week 3" Let the cider sit until you are happy with the taste, it may take 4-6 months, but if you like yeasty cider, 3 weeks may be ok for you. Don't dry hop until the flavor suits you.
The WL002 will leave some apple flavor if you ferment slow. You may not need to add any sweetener. I don't add chemicals of any kind including yeast nutrient.
--Keep the cider cool during fermentation, like mid 60's.

 

[MindenMan]

Low and slow, just like real barbeque. Adding concentrate keeps apple flavor much better than just adding sugar in my experience. I make some high proof ciders (okay apple wine), and I ferment in the low to mid-sixties. It takes a long time to ferment out my 1.120 O.G. ciders w/o making rocket fuel. From the time I start fermenting my ciders until fermentation in done may take four months, and then I age at least three months before sampling. I could use an aggressive yeast and add a ton of nutrient and be done in a month or so, but the one time I did that produced nail polish remover smelling cider.