The difference between "brewing" and "just letting it sit"?

[Torvik]

This fall was our second year pressing apples for cider, but I quickly realized we still had liters of cider sitting in the freezer from last year! I decided I would try brewing it into hard cider. (I've never done anything brewing related, and in fact had only started drinking alcoholic drinks a couple years ago.)

So, I follow the guide on www.howtomakehardcider.com and buy all the materials and thaw out the jugs, and presto, by winter I've got some jugs of hard cider sitting around for me to share with friends.

I'm still so new to the world of fermentation, most of it still tastes pretty gross at first. Every time I crack open a new bottle I think "Will it still taste like beer or will the taste have mellowed yet?" Every time it's still the same. Not bad, just... you know... you have to get half way through before you don't notice the taste any more. It's not as good as a can of cider from a restaurant, but it's fine.

So the other day I found a half drank jug of (soft) apple cider in the fridge. Guess I had cracked it for breakfast a while back, but never came back to it. I poured myself a cup and noticed it was kinda bubbly, which was unusual. I took a sip and my first reaction was, "Woah! That's gone bad!" I guess it had been sitting in the back of the fridge for a month or so and had fermented. After the first shock wore off, I took another sip and then another. Be darned if the stuff was pretty tasty! Just not what I was looking for first thing in the morning with my cereal.

So... like... what the deal??

Was the stuff I made at the back of my fridge technically cider? If so, how is it different from that what I made downstairs in my little brewery? And why did it taste so good? And what's the best way to replicate that?

So many questions, so little understanding...

Thanks!
Alan

 

[Blacksmith1]

Wild yeast seems to have gotten to your cider. I have one going that was apples being prepped for a pie and left in the fridge a bit to long.

 

[MarkKF]

I’ve told this story before. My wife had a gallon of sweet cider from the same orchard I fill my carboys. She drank most of it then it sat in the back of the fridge at 38 deg. F. I tried it and it had fermented. So I swirled it around to get as much “stuff” and poured it into my 2 gal. bucket then added another gallon of fresh sweet cider and used an airlock. It took right off. When it stopped I racked it into a jug and let it sit til it cleared. Then bottled with a little priming sugar. It was the best cider I ever made and I did nothing!

Drank the last bottle last week.

 

[Maylar]

So... like... what the deal??

Was the stuff I made at the back of my fridge technically cider? If so, how is it different from that what I made downstairs in my little brewery? And why did it taste so good? And what's the best way to replicate that?

So many questions, so little understanding...

Thanks!
Alan

Yep. Mother Nature does a good job. As long as the juice has no preservatives, there will be wild yeast from the apples. Letting it ferment at low temperatures can make some fine hard cider. Just be sure to use some kind of airlock to allow the CO2 to escape, else you can get this:

 

[NeverDie]

I’ve told this story before. My wife had a gallon of sweet cider from the same orchard I fill my carboys. She drank most of it then it sat in the back of the fridge at 38 deg. F. I tried it and it had fermented. So I swirled it around to get as much “stuff” and poured it into my 2 gal. bucket then added another gallon of fresh sweet cider and used an airlock. It took right off. When it stopped I racked it into a jug and let it sit til it cleared. Then bottled with a little priming sugar. It was the best cider I ever made and I did nothing! View attachment 613837
Drank the last bottle last week.

If you capture the yeast, then you can have it again and again. See if you can grow some colonies on an agar plate maybe?

 

[MarkKF]

My plan next year is to do it in my oak barrel and let it sit for a year. Think it’s OK to leave it for a year on the lees?

 

[Maylar]

People do cider in barrels all the time without racking. That's how farmhouse ciders were made.

My wild ferment turned out meh. No better or worse than commercial yeast. But it sure was easy to do.

 

[JohnSand]

When I was a kid we would leave a plastic jug of cider on the counter until it swelled, loosen the lid and let it set until it cleared. It tasted good.

 

[kh54s10]

The only thing I have is that cider should never taste like beer. Unless it is a beer with apple.

 

[madscientist451]

I make a wild fermented cider every year, sometimes its better than others. It always gets consumed.

 

[John Doe]

I met a guy this year that owns and operates a orchard and cider press. He does a barrel every year by just leaving it sit. All he adds is a small amount of honey.

 

[wasully]

If you capture the yeast, then you can have it again and again. See if you can grow some colonies on an agar plate maybe?

The accepted wisdom is that wild ferments aren't from a single colony, but a succession of different ones(that grow steadily more ABV tolerant?) so capturing things is difficult.

 

[MarkKF]

This orchard does it all wild and it’s sooo good!

http://www.bearswamporchard.com/page12/page12.html

 

[bernardsmith]

The accepted wisdom is that wild ferments aren't from a single colony, but a succession of different ones(that grow steadily more ABV tolerant?) so capturing things is difficult.

But if what you say is accurate - and I have no reason to think that it isn't and every reason to agree with you then while you may be unable to "capture" any of the yeast that wimped out early what you will be able to harvest is the A-team, and rather than act like a lab- coated chemist streaking agar plates with looped samples of the yeast to grow a colony why not simply hold back a cup or two of the lees from the hard cider and add a batch of fresh apple juice and treat the colony you have in your fermenter as a natural "starter" for any subsequent batch.

 

[MarkKF]

I’ve done exactly that but I’m not sure I would have the same success using it again & again.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

wild ferments are unpredictable, that is why the wine and beer mega-businesses moved away from them.However, unpredictable is not the same as bad.

I like my wild ferments, most of them at least. I make all my wine with them, and some of my ciders. I have found my berries have really good yeast for going wild, my pears do not. I just planted cider apples last fall, so I will have to see what I do with them. I will probably do some wild, some with Nottingham ale yeast.

Also, it seems to me that wild ferments come out best if you aim for lower ABV. I have done higher, some of my wild berry wines have gone to 15%, but the taste takes MUCH longer to age and mellow. On the flip side, a good wild at 7-10ABV will taste great after 3 months.

My two cents worth