I have had the fortune of making some really great cider from fresh pressed apples, and from expensive cider blends of juice that are well balanced and very fruit-forward. Honestly, store bought juice simply cannot compare with this. Do it if/when you can.
However, more often than not, I don't have the extra cash lying around to spring for the really good stuff, and--after all--apples are only in season a few months a year. So, most of my cider comes from cheapo store bought juice, and most of the posts I read on here are the same. My current favorite is Rougemont due strictly to price, but I have used Tree-Top, Sun-Rype, Western Family and Motts. They all have generally the same gravity (about 1.050) and if fermented dry, without additives or backsweetening, will yield a tart, dry, bland and flat tasting cider at about 5% with ale yeast.
So, I figured I would post some tricks I've learned to improve on the cheapo juice and request you to post your own tricks so I can learn from you.
1) Use acid as an additive. Cheap juice is packaged to drink, which means they have different acidic preferences than juice for cider making. I've only used a blend of tartaric and malic, and have had success with 1 tsp per gallon of juice. I'm still experimenting though.
2) Easy on the refined sugars. This is total preference, but I like my hard cider to come mostly from apples. A great way to boost taste, abv and mouthfeel is to bump up the OG with nothing but A.J. Concentrate on top of not-from-concentrate juice. Too much refined sugars and cider takes on a hotter, boozy flavor that doesn't compliment the apple well IMHO.
3) use (good) apples! Core, blend, camden, and bag some apples in fruit bags to flavor your cider. If you like a particular variety, add them to secondary to soak up some taste. Its easy and can do a lot for your cider; be sure to use pectic enzyme though! One might compare it to steeping grains for extract beer.
Please chime in with comments on these tips or more of your own. Cheers!
However, more often than not, I don't have the extra cash lying around to spring for the really good stuff, and--after all--apples are only in season a few months a year. So, most of my cider comes from cheapo store bought juice, and most of the posts I read on here are the same. My current favorite is Rougemont due strictly to price, but I have used Tree-Top, Sun-Rype, Western Family and Motts. They all have generally the same gravity (about 1.050) and if fermented dry, without additives or backsweetening, will yield a tart, dry, bland and flat tasting cider at about 5% with ale yeast.
So, I figured I would post some tricks I've learned to improve on the cheapo juice and request you to post your own tricks so I can learn from you.
1) Use acid as an additive. Cheap juice is packaged to drink, which means they have different acidic preferences than juice for cider making. I've only used a blend of tartaric and malic, and have had success with 1 tsp per gallon of juice. I'm still experimenting though.
2) Easy on the refined sugars. This is total preference, but I like my hard cider to come mostly from apples. A great way to boost taste, abv and mouthfeel is to bump up the OG with nothing but A.J. Concentrate on top of not-from-concentrate juice. Too much refined sugars and cider takes on a hotter, boozy flavor that doesn't compliment the apple well IMHO.
3) use (good) apples! Core, blend, camden, and bag some apples in fruit bags to flavor your cider. If you like a particular variety, add them to secondary to soak up some taste. Its easy and can do a lot for your cider; be sure to use pectic enzyme though! One might compare it to steeping grains for extract beer.
Please chime in with comments on these tips or more of your own. Cheers!
