Spontaneously fermented Mott's is amazingly good.

[CormanoWild]

Like, almost better than most of the stuff I've actually sat down to try to make.

It actually started as an accident - I was brewing a batch of New England-style cider (brown sugar, honey, cinnamon and allspice) and realized I would need to boil some apple juice to dissolve the honey and brown sugar in. So I cracked open a gallon of Motts and poured out about two cups.

A few days later, I noticed the Motts was getting pretty cloudy and realized what I'd done. Not one to waste potential alcohol, I tried using a ballon-airlock (all my fermenters were now full!) and then found it was easier to just remember to crack the bottle open a bit every night before going to bed.

It took a long time - about 3-4 weeks - but the thing finally fermented out. I realized the process was about to finish up and stopped cracking the bottle open for the last few days, so the cider actually stayed highly carbonated.

When I finally got around to trying it, it tasted like nothing at all, almost - perfectly dry, it seemed. So I backsweetened with a bit more Motts from a new bottle.

Deliciousness! Clear, no yeasty flavors, no weird off-flavors. I guess the Motts's Corp. does a good job sanitizing their 1-gallon plastic jugs! Worked out perfectly. I fully expected the thing to be skunked, but what I had was a perfectly good cider I'd actually take over Strongbow, even if the prices were the same - which they definitely weren't!

Tried the process again with more Motts, intentionally this time - worked great again! Not much of a huge difference in flavor, which I was worried about, because who knows with wild yeast?

Trying the process again now with some BJ's brand juice to see if I can really get myself a perfectly-easy automatic brew.

But just thought I'd let people know that going basically the most ghetto, theoretically unhygienic, half-assed route possible can work out perfectly! Though maybe your place of residence might not have as delicious natural yeast floating around as mine, haha. I think if I get a batch that tastes really good, I'll just save some of that batch to pour into my next jugs, and thereby keep the yeast strain consistent.

 

[scinerd3000]

supposedly wild yeast from california tastes really crappy...i guess east coast is different. Did you try and take a gravity reading to see how much it fermented down? Just curious

 

[GNBrews]

Hilarious! If you're a brewer, the yeast that's most likely floating in your home is a brewing strain anyway.

 

[CormanoWild]

Yeah. First O.G. (read off a different batch of Mott's - I'm assuming this stuff is all always the same) - was 1.05.
There was never a time when it wasn't carbonated (as we fermented it in-jug), but I poured some out and let it go flat to get a reading. Right around 1.000, probably a bit beneath it.

So something that's around 6.7% ABV for about $2-2.50 a gallon! Can't beat that.


*EDIT* And about the yeast! I brew in upstate Connecticut, so not sure how that might affect the wild strains floating around. It's entirely possible that some of the Nottingham's I've used previously is floating about, but as I've got central air in an oldish apartment complex, I kinda doubt it! The building where I live is fairly dilapidated and awful in most respects, actually - but my buddies and I were wondering if it wasn't this outdated infrastructure that was harboring the strains that were adding character to our cider! I guess I'll have to try at least 3-6 batches to see if I can get reliable results.

 

[scinerd3000]

that sounds awesome. You could always try and use that yeast as a starter for other batches of cider or beers. Very cool

 

[khiddy]

Belgium, you can suck it! Northern Connecticut has you on the run!

Or, you should do everything you can to remain married to your wife...

 

[GNBrews]

that sounds awesome. You could always try and use that yeast as a starter for other batches of cider or beers. Very cool

Absolutely! If the yeast is producing a flavorful cider, you should harvest a large "mother" culture from your current fermention, and use a small amount of that into a starter to get a pitchable quantites for future batches. If you wholesale reuse the same yeast over and over (pitch onto a used cake), you'll likely get some weird mutations that start to taste less pleasant.

 

[CormanoWild]

How would I make a starter like that? Just extract a large amount of the yeast from the current fermentation into some apple juice and keep that in a sealed jar in the fridge or some such?