New Horizons --- Hard Cider

[sullydavid]

I am going to start my first hard cider this weekend. I have seen so much conflicting information on how to do this I am really confused, ie. to boil or not to boil etc.

I am not looking for a real dry "wine-ish" type cider. Not sure what the other term would be, I guess more sweet like an ale.

Any info like a good website or anything else would be awesome. Especially a good recipe and typ eof yeast to use.

Thanks,
Dave

[quantum24]

wish i could help...but i have no idea! that said however, id love to hear what you come up with. ive been toying with the idea of doing this in the fall. best of luck

[YamahaXS]

There are some books out there, so i imagine there are a website or two.

My neighbor has starting obsessing over cider/meads/stronger beverages.


I found this with a quick google "how to brew hard cider"

link (http://brewery.org/brewery/library/CidYeast091595.html)

[danno]

I tried making a hard cider once, and used White Labs liquid yeast just for cider. if you don't want a dry cider, do NOT use this yeast. I like a dry wine, but this stuff ended up mouth puckering dry. maybe I just had a lucky batch, but it fermented so completely it took 6 months before my natural carbonation took hold... it's now been a year and a half, and I still dump in a couple of teaspoons of sugar to drink the stuff...

if I was to do it again, I'd look for a yeast that had a lower attenuation so you left some sugar for sweetness... maybe a sweet mead yeast or an ale yeast... depending on where you got your cider from, I wouldn't boil. I'd hold it at 170º for 15 minutes or so to make sure you killed everything. many people have said not to boil fruit (or honey for meads) as it can change the flavors...

[YamahaXS]

I have heard that IF you are the one squeezing the apples, you can just use the yeast on the apple skins. Sounds rather adventerous, but if you have free apples, and can borrow a press then you aren't out anything.

[toneyc]

I'm with Danno. I made a gallon batch of cider last month using either the White Labs or the Wyeast Cider yeast, I don't remember which one. I made one gallon with just straight apple juice and yeast. It was so dry there was almost no flavor. At the same time, I made another gallon batch with 3 pounds of honey that is just about ready to bottle. It *looks* much more flavorful, I'll keep you posted. I think that the next time I make straight hard cider, I will add a couple of unpasteurised concentrate cans to the mix to get more flavor.

:)
Toney.

[Tweek]

I decided to try my hand at this today. I too found it pretty dificult to find any info that I was happy with, so in the end my laziness won out. Here is what I did.

15 lbs of fresh apples from my buddies tree (these are actaully crab apples, small but sweet ofr crab apples)
2 gallons organic apple juice from the local hippy grocer.
5 lbs of honey.
1 pint SF lager yeast starter

I just tossed it all together and am now hoping for the best. I just put the airlock on the carboy about 3 hours ago so Ill let you know in a few weeks if it is working out.

[S.F.B.]

I have a friend who does cider. He usually uses champagne yeast. The deal with fruit is that it is 100% fermentable sugar so you are going to have a very acidic drink when it is finished. What I have found that works is adding a quarter cup of dissolved sugar per gallon of cider at bottling.

[Tweek]

my cider is kicking over at a good clip this morning.