Universal beginners cider recipe

[Meadiator]

Does one exist? Such as JAOM in mead making?

 

[urbanmyth]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/grahams-english-cider-107152/

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

I've never tried the above recipe, but a beginner recipe is really as simple as putting yeast in juice and letting it ferment. Obviously you need to be vigilant with your sanitation and keep your fermentation temps within the range of your yeast strain...but thats about it.

 

[Meadiator]

I've never tried the above recipe, but a beginner recipe is really as simple as putting yeast in juice and letting it ferment. Obviously you need to be vigilant with your sanitation and keep your fermentation temps within the range of your yeast strain...but thats about it.

I'm just worried about nutrients and whatnot. Do you not have to add anything to it to help the cider not produce off flavors, or is it really that simple? If t is, is it due to the low alcohol level you reach with cider? Thanks for responding. And also, thanks for the recipe urbanmyth I'll be sure to look at it when I get the chance.

 

[LeBreton]

The best ciders imo are really that simple. Heavy use of non-apple sugars can easily cover the subtle fruit flavors, resulting is a more wine-like beverage, and in worst case scenarios harsh alcohol.

Use of nutrients is a personal choice, and really dependent on the natural amounts of nutrients in the juice itself along with the nutrient requirements of the yeast at work. I don't use them much at home, preferring a long, cold, low nutrient ferment. However, if the ferment starts creating odd flavors and smells, it may be helpful to add some.

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

I boil some brown sugar with a hand full (or two) of raisins and it seems to provide enough nutrient. I've never used the yeast nutrient from the LHBS so I can't comment on how much to use.

 

[Rambunctious]

Yes making hard cider is that easy. I just blend in a blender an organic apple in frozen reconstituted apple juice, add some brown sugar and let it go. It is ready in about 4-6 weeks and sometimes I add priming sugar and bottle in 16 oz plastic soda bottles. Makes nice fizzy hard cider in a few more weeks. Fermentation takes a while due to the low amount of yeasts added through the organic apple, it takes a while to populate or you can make a very small batch as a starter and then scale up to 5gal.

 

[mike_in_ak]

I know a guy that just did a bastardized form of Graham's cider recipe using BREAD YEAST.

Somehow it's not bad. Must be pretty foolproof.

Edit: and by "not bad" I mean "decent" to maybe even "good."

 

[Pratzie]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/caramel-apple-hard-cider-292770/

Dude cider is sooo easy. Follow this recipe and skip the caramel sauce part if u want. Buy the jugs, add some corn sugar to up the gravity if u want. shake it around in the bottles and then add it to the carboy. Pitch ur yeast and add a half a teaspoon or so of yeast nutrient. Mine bubble away within a few hours, fermented out to about 8% with all the corn sugar I added and it tasted great. If u want a still cider, add a crushed up campden tablet and let it sit for 24 hours and bottle. if u want it carbed that gets a little tricky but not difficult at all.

Oh and I recommend Nottingham.

Either way, read the thread/recipe I posted above.

 

[mike_in_ak]

Bottling definitely the most labor involved.

Might just start putting straw into carboy.

 

[Thunder_Chicken]

Nottingham yeast in pasteurized filtered apple juice, no preservatives, no added sugar. Ferment until dry (4+ weeks, check gravity), drink still or bottle/keg carb. Easy-peasy and delicious. Age if you feel the need. Will still give you 5-6% ABV without adding anything.

I have a batch of EdWort's apfelwein going, and it IS more wine-like. Added sugar = more alcohol = hootchy hot alcohol flavor = aging needed.

 

[FatsSchindee]

Hey guys, thanks for all the recipes on here. I too am making cider for the first time. So many options; hoping to get some clarifications on a few things. I'm hoping to end up with a sweet, carbonated cider, from 5-7% (or thereabouts). I bought the Nottingham dry yeast, and have three gallon glass jugs with the organic pasteurized cider in them (also bought pectic enzyme and wine tannin to add; I read that both aren't necessary, but can help?). Am going to make three variations, varying the adjuncts I add (brown sugar in one, honey in one, and apple juice concentrate in the other, I think... Or maybe add nothing to one to compare as a baseline). Anybody have a link to an online calculator that says how much of each to use, or know from experience? I've seen so many different recipes on here and elsewhere online, hard to know what exactly to do for a noob! And the guy at my homebrew store recommended NOT using yeast nutrient (though I've read the opposite, of course), so I didn't buy any. Should I add some raisins like someone posted above? How many and when (when pitching yeast into primary, I assume)?

Also, I want to bottle condition later... Should I use the same adjunct at that time to keep the flavor consistent, or should I use priming sugar (dextrose) like I do when I bottle my beer? I'm sure many different combos would/could work; again, just not sure which way to go... Seems like I will want to pasteurize on stove or cold-crash to not over carb, too?

One other thing... I've never used dry yeast before (always use liquid with the beer I've made): do you add it to the warm water, let it sit for 15 min, then agitate (like it shows on the package), or just pitch it into the jugs dry, or even make a starter like I've read about sometimes?

Sorry so many questions at once... but thanks for any help!

 

[devianttouch]

I prefer to sweeten with apple juice concentrate, but it's really up to you. Dextrose will work fine. It's a personal taste issue I think.

If you want sweet and carbonated you will need to either use an unfermentable sweetener (Splenda works), stovetop pasturize, keg, or refrigerate and drink quickly. Cold-storage will SLOW the yeast way down, but it generally will not kill them and sometimes does not stop them. If you have sweet carbonated cider in your fridge for awhile you run a risk of exploding bottles in the fridge!

As for yeast - I pitch it dry. Rehydrating is probably better, but I'm making smaller batches (1 and 2 gallon batches) so I just pitch a whole packet in dry and it works perfectly. Starters seem to be more important for beer than for cider, and they help a lot with high gravity situations, but for regular cider it's not necessary.

 

[FatsSchindee]

I prefer to sweeten with apple juice concentrate, but it's really up to you. Dextrose will work fine. It's a personal taste issue I think.

If you want sweet and carbonated you will need to either use an unfermentable sweetener (Splenda works), stovetop pasturize, keg, or refrigerate and drink quickly. Cold-storage will SLOW the yeast way down, but it generally will not kill them and sometimes does not stop them. If you have sweet carbonated cider in your fridge for awhile you run a risk of exploding bottles in the fridge!

Yeah, definitely don't want any bottle bombs! Am thinking of priming with the same sugar/fermentable that I added into the primary fermenter to up the abv (brown sugar, honey, or apple juice concentrate were the ones I was leaning toward) and then stovetop pasteurizing. Was hoping to keep the same "flavor-type" or sweetness, if that makes sense (obviously I have no experience, so maybe that doesn't work/matter?). Or is stovetop pasteurizing too ambitious for a first-timer?

As for yeast - I pitch it dry. Rehydrating is probably better, but I'm making smaller batches (1 and 2 gallon batches) so I just pitch a whole packet in dry and it works perfectly. Starters seem to be more important for beer than for cider, and they help a lot with high gravity situations, but for regular cider it's not necessary.

I'm also doing 1 Gal batches. D you throw the whole packet into 1 or 2 gallons, or do you divide it up accordingly? Since it says use the packet for a five gallon batch, I was going to split it up into fifths, and then pitch 1/5 per gallon. Or does it matter? I'm thinking a little more yeast would just help things move along more quickly, I guess, but not really do any harm, right?...

 

[devianttouch]

I'm also doing 1 Gal batches. D you throw the whole packet into 1 or 2 gallons, or do you divide it up accordingly? Since it says use the packet for a five gallon batch, I was going to split it up into fifths, and then pitch 1/5 per gallon. Or does it matter? I'm thinking a little more yeast would just help things move along more quickly, I guess, but not really do any harm, right?...

Pitching the whole packet works great for me. The higher cell count numbers seem to get things going pretty quick and easy.

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

Nottingham is $4 a sachet at my local LHBS. It's 11grams per sachet. It doesn't hurt anything but your wallet to pitch a whole packet. Why pitch $4 when $2 works just as well?

Just my opinion of course, but 5 grams of Nottingham (hydrated per instructions) works just fine in 1 gallon of juice.

And pitching a gallon of juice on top of a nottingham yeast cake works great for your next batch. (Just saved another $2 )

 

[FatsSchindee]

Makes sense. I'm thinking ill just split the 11g packet up over the 3 gallons... So still more than pitching it into one 5 Gal batch, but less than all into 1 or 2 gallons... I think that should work fine. I'll add some raisins to give the yeast some more nutrients (have seen a couple recommendations to do that instead of yeast nutrient). Do y'all add the pectic enzyme in the primary or the secondary? I've seen people saying both... Then again, I've seen people only doing primary and no secondary fermentation, so obviously that'd work if you're going to add it...

And good advice about starting the next batch on top of the yeast cake... I just read that in another thread on here also. Will def give it a try for round two! Thanks...

 

[FatsSchindee]

And pitching a gallon of juice on top of a nottingham yeast cake works great for your next batch. (Just saved another $2 )

Okay, my three gallons of cider have been in primary for over a month now, and its time to move em along to free up the jugs for the next round (am going to bottle one now, and secondary the other two). I'm going to pitch new juice onto the yeast cake on two of them, and a mead onto the third yeast cake. I used Nottingham (should I bother pitching mead onto this, or should I just clean it and add some wine yeast? I have redstar cotes du blanc or Pasteur champagne. Anybody have success with Nottingham and a mead?!) for all three.

My question is about pitching onto the yeast cake - never done it before. Do you just dump the juice onto it and then attach your airlock? Do you mix it up or aerate it at all... And before or after the pitch? ( I bought some fermaidK to add, but read that it should be added after fermentation is already going on.) my guess would be to shake the juice in its container first to aerate it, but then not sure about mixing up the yeast too much after pitching... Thoughts/experiences/advice? Thanks!

 

[Meadiator]

I'm guessing you just dump it onto the less and it'll start up after about an hour. And pitching mead on it will be perfectly fine, it does well for mead. I just wouldn't Recommend pitching onto it again since mead is higher ABV. I'm no expert though. Whatever you do, good luck!

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

Just pouring the juice in will agitate it enough to mix up the yeast. As Meadiator said, you should have action in about an hour.

I've never made mead, so I can't offer any advice on that. I assume nottingham with that high enough pitch rate would be just fine. You might also pitch a little nutrient to help with the higher OG.

 

[FatsSchindee]

Thanks for the replies. I did just pitch the juice (mixed with some dextrose - gonna give upstatemike's Carmel cider recipe a try) onto the yeast cake through a funnel, and that did seem to mix it up pretty good. No activity yet, though, and its been almost 12 hrs. The attached pic shows the yeast cake of each gallon (before I racked that cider from it; I used B and C, and bottled A) - looks like it should be enough, no? It was originally one 11g packet of Nottingham, rehydrated per directions and split between the three gallons. I just now added 1/4 tsp (1 gm) of fermaidK to each one... Hopefully that'll get it going (those are raisins you can see floating at the top of each bottle - 30 per - that's what I used for nutrients first time around). They're in a swamp cooler, with temp of water currently at 73*... Was gonna wait til they get active and then add some ice to cool it down so they don't get TOO active, and to try to keep lower temps in Notti's range.



That is one thing with these first three batches - they were just done at room temp (low to mid 70s), which is higher than recommended, I think. And after sampling last night, they weren't that good. Wondering if that could be from higher fermentation temps? They were all completely fermented dry, though, so that could be part of it too - I do prefer some sweetness. Figure ill just age the first bottles for awhile (wanted to just do dry, though I did prime to try to get 2 vols CO2 in bottles, for my first one). I'll probable backsweeten the others...

 

[Rambunctious]

Just started a new batch. I prefer to make caveman juice, ie. even a caveman could or may have done it.

I use a couple organic apples sliced with the skin on added to 1/2 gal apple juice. Shaken daily for the first three to four days under an airlock until fermentation is noted through the airlock. Once this is going good shake it up strain off the fruit bits and add to 4.5 gal apple juice for a 5 gal batch. Plan to bottle in sanitized 16oz. Plastic soda bottles in 2 weeks. Let age in the bottles for 2-3 weeks unrefridgerated then keep refridgerated and consume. Have made this this way before with many compliments and comments it resembles redds apple ale.

 

[cheyneco]

Just started a new batch. I prefer to make caveman juice, ie. even a caveman could or may have done it.

I use a couple organic apples sliced with the skin on added to 1/2 gal apple juice. Shaken daily for the first three to four days under an airlock until fermentation is noted through the airlock. Once this is going good shake it up strain off the fruit bits and add to 4.5 gal apple juice for a 5 gal batch. Plan to bottle in sanitized 16oz. Plastic soda bottles in 2 weeks. Let age in the bottles for 2-3 weeks unrefridgerated then keep refridgerated and consume. Have made this this way before with many compliments and comments it resembles redds apple ale.

How long do you ferment the 5 gal batch before bottling? 2 weeks? What is the typical FG and typical ABV? Does it carb up in the bottles any during aging unrefrigerated?

New here...sorry if questions are dumb. Brewing my first 1gal batch about a week into fermenting.

 

[Rambunctious]

I add 2 , 12oz cans of apple juice frozen concentrate just before bottling. It will carb up nicely after a few weeks un refrigerated. I did not take gravity readings this time but the last batch yielded about 8% A.B.V.

 

[Rambunctious]

Had a little incident with starting new batch of hard cider. Using an ale yeast I harvested from a commercial brew. I had under pitched so in an attempt to get it rolling. I decided to make a half batch and aerate for a day or two until it got rolling. Bad idea worked fine the day I pitched it and the next morning no problem. Not so well that evening apparently it was going better than I thought so when I attempted to shake it up it blew its top and sprayed cider across two rooms and a hallway floor to ceiling. LOL... Oh well live brew and learn I guess.


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[Texconsinite]

when I attempted to shake it up it blew its top and sprayed cider across two rooms and a hallway floor to ceiling. LOL... Oh well live brew and learn I guess.

Sounds like a great opportunity to RDWHAHB, and clean furiously before SWMBO sees it

 

[Rambunctious]

Too bad she was in the adjacent room. Did not go over well.


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