Woot woot!! Branching out into cider for the first time.

[ICWiener]

Hey all,

I've been into brewing for a while, but never gave cider a shot...until now. Bought a gallon of 365 organic juice from Whole Foods, threw in about half a packet of S-04, and slapped a blowoff tube on that bad boy. I didn't add any extra fermentables because it was already at 1.050. Good enough for this guy.

Now it's time to practice carbing, sweetening, and flavoring. Hopefully I'll be ably to churn out a drinkable product.

Anyways, no questions (yet). Just wanted to share the excitement, and to say thanks to the community. I've been reading posts in this forum for a little while. All of the communal knowlegde here has really helped me out.

I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

 

[ICWiener]

!

 

[roadymi]

Be careful........it becomes an obsession........I just bought 30+ gallons of walmart juice on sale cause I'm afraid local fresh juice will be too expensive this fall.

The checkout lady was like........You must really like apple juice...........lady you have no idea!

 

[tracyt1800]

I just bought 30+ gallons of walmart juice on sale ...

NICE! How many shopping baskets was that? The lady at Wal-Mart said the same thing to me and I only walked out with 5 gallons.

 

[Proboscidea]

Rock on! There are two separate gallons of EdWort's Apfelwein in the cellar, and a second batch of Skeeter Pee is in primary. I guess those are both considered "wines" on accounta the type of yeast and l-o-o-o-o-n-g fermentation times.

I've never done "cider-cider." Want to.

There are some great cider recipes and discussions on HomeBrewTalk, but it's primarily a beer forum to my knowledge. I was wondering, does anybody have experience with some other central active hub for cider people on the interwebz?

 

[LeBreton]

There are some great cider recipes and discussions on HomeBrewTalk, but it's primarily a beer forum to my knowledge. I was wondering, does anybody have experience with some other central active hub for cider people on the interwebz?

Check out the cider workshop at https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!forum/cider-workshop They are mostly UK folks but there is a wealth of info and experience on that site. It's hosted by Andrew Lea.

 

[roadymi]

NICE! How many shopping baskets was that? The lady at Wal-Mart said the same thing to me and I only walked out with 5 gallons.

Well I made 2 trips....I picked up some while on normal grocery stop......after leaving kicked myself for not getting more at 3$ a gallon......so was going through town next day and picked up the rest.....coincidently had same lady both times.

 

[Proboscidea]

Check out the cider workshop at https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!forum/cider-workshop They are mostly UK folks but there is a wealth of info and experience on that site. It's hosted by Andrew Lea.

Thank you! :fro:

There's some hardcore orchard knowledge on that forum!

 

[ICWiener]

Update:

So, I bottled this batch on Sunday. I was surprised at how well the ale yeast performed. I let it sit for one month and the gravity was all the way down to 1.000. I thought there woud be a little sugar left in there, but nope...dry as a bone. I backsweetened it with some xylitol dissolved in water, carbed it with about an ounce of corn sugar and that was that. Following some advice that I'd seen around here, I filled up one plastic PET bottle as a tester.

Once I crack the first bottle I'll post a taste test.