Cider Season

[YamahaXS]

Well i pitched the yeast this morning.... lets hope this stuff turns out!

I was able to locate freshly pressed unpasturized (makes for much better taste supposedly) cider pressed from Jonamac, Macintosh, Cortland and a couple of other types.

I have three 5 gallon batches going. 2 are straight cider, and 1 has about 6 cups of raspberries added.

Don't want the cider to run low.

;)

cheers and beers!

[sallad]

did you add anything to the cider? or is it just straight apple cider dumped into a carboy with some yeast? (excepting, of course, for the one with raspberries...)

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by sallad
did you add anything to the cider? or is it just straight apple cider dumped into a carboy with some yeast? (excepting, of course, for the one with raspberries...)

I added 8 campden tablet per 5 gallons, plus 2 extra for the batch with the raspberries. This is supposed to kill off any wild yeast or bacteria. I let that sit overnight (about 18 hours actually) and then pitched a wine yeast (started it with 1/2 qt water/corn sugar).

[mortong]

I just moved my cider to secondary tonight. I pitched the yeast on 9/29, and bubblings already stopped and the gravity's down to 1.000. =) Much quicker than I'd expected. It also tasted pretty good. I'm thinking about adding some spices/flavors. Any suggestions?

[Professor Frink]

cinnamon, ginger perhaps?

I came across a hard cider recipe from Gambrinus' mug that calls for boiling half the cider with cinnamon, honey, & brown sugar, and then combining in carboy with other half. Then add champagne yeast, ferment 2 weeks, secondary 3days, then bottle.

It makes no mention of the campden tablets, just wondering if you're only boiling half how big of a risk of contamination are you running?

And this really is for my girlfriend, but I'll probably have a few :rolleyes:

Here's a link to the recipe

http://brewery.org/brewery/gambmug/recs/209.shtml

[YamahaXS]

Professor,

The cambden tablets will kill off any natural yeast or bacteria that residing in the cider (unpasturized). If I had used pasturized cider I would not have needed them. However, I have read that there is a big flavor/quality difference between pasturized and unpasturized.

The recipe you linked looks pretty standard, except for the cinnamon. Adding sugar or honey is standard practice, especially if the OG of the cider is less than 1.045. Adding 2.5 ounces of sugar (3 ounces of honey) per gallon will raise your gravity .005. It is important to have a higher gravity because the alcohol will stabilize the cider. Brown and table sugar are fine. Honey is good too, and the term for cider with honey added is cyser. I would estimate that recipe to bring in about a 8% abv cider (I guess 2 cups of sugar/honey would weigh about 20 ounces, and would boost the OG about .015 to about 1.060-1.065).

You can add the suger prior, during, or after the primary ferment. Expect your FG to be near 1.000.

I used a Wine yeast on the recommendation of a guy at my LHBS who has a lot of experience with cider. The two books I have read suggest both wine and champagne yeasts.

You can add yeast enzymes if you want, and you might want to check the Ph, aiming for a 5.1 - 5.3.

Be very careful with your cider after fermentation. Minimize air contact to avoid turning your cider to vinager.

If you want a sweet cider, then you can 1) add campben tablets before fermentation is done or 2) add campden tablets after ferment is done and then add more sugar or 3) filter out the yeast and then add more sugar (sounds tricky to me, and risks exposure to acetobacter which will give you vinager). Large brewies will centrifuge the yeast out of the beverage and then sweeten.

By the way, the pectin enzyme only aids in clarifying the cider. It does not alter flavor.

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by mortong
I just moved my cider to secondary tonight. I pitched the yeast on 9/29, and bubblings already stopped and the gravity's down to 1.000. =) Much quicker than I'd expected. It also tasted pretty good. I'm thinking about adding some spices/flavors. Any suggestions?

Mine is done with primary too...took about a week. I racked the raspberry cider over to a carboy on saturday (autosiphon filtered out the raspberries). It smells and tastes pretty damn good and is a beautiful rose color.

I wouldn't add any spices that need a sweet flavor to offset them unless you plan to make a sweet cider.