2nd Cider about to go down

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I"m loving the cider myself, cursing I tossed my second barrel, gunna have to get a few more soon, so I can up the production rate. This long fermenting one is tasting good out of the barrel, I think the low and slow ferment leaves more apple flavours, just a thought.

Got cider, mead and two wines on the go at the moment, going to go get some apples soon and run em through my juicer and do a small batch in a demi of cider made from a fresh apple blend I have yet to decide on what it will contain. There is a roadside tree a few clicks away from home at the moment that is looking good for raiding, lots of small, ignored fruit that should have some interesting flavours I hope, hopefully nice and tart.

Probably spoiled for choice with apples down here, seriously contemplating getting a few "cider apple" trees from a nursery down here and sticking them in the middle of my front lawn. LOL
 
What sort of temps are you brewing your ciders at deep end?
I had a look at some info on the ec 1118 Yeast and it sounds like it has a pretty wide range in fermentation temps.
 
What sort of temps are you brewing your ciders at deep end?
I had a look at some info on the ec 1118 Yeast and it sounds like it has a pretty wide range in fermentation temps.
 
In summer I try and keep it at 24-26c max, currently I am in the range of 16-18c, which I find is much better. I'm currently using the lid yeast off the Brigalow can which is a white wine yeast. Although I have been looking at some white labs and wyeast cider strains which I'm seriously considering investing in to see what difference it makes.
Also been looking at some semi dwarfing cider apple trees from a nursery down here, giving some though to setting up a micro orchard on an espalier system and giving the best part of my vegie garden the arse and filling it with a few cider apple varieties, but thats getting a bit serious aye LOL.
 
Haha sounds like your pretty keen on this cider caper. I'm hoping to have a fermentation fridge up and running by the weekend so ill be able to have my cider sit at a lower level. It's at about 23 at the moment. I think I'm still ages away from actually growing my own apples. Not sure the land lord would appreciate it
 
Yea, I'd say I was fairly keen on my cider brewing I guess, haven't been at it for long. It seems to be the new trend though, the drinking of it anyway. I like the simplicity of it, yet it can still be complex...bit of an oxymoron. But it, in my opinion, is easier to make cider yourself from start to finish than it is beer or wine. Far easier to grow a few trees and run the fruit through a juicer etc than growing a field of grain and hops or maintaining vines and following all the time consuming procedures involved in winemaking. But you can still toy with yeasts, carbonation levels, tannins and acid levels, juice varieties etc to come out with varied end products.

Dont get me wrong though, I'm still buggering around with brigalow cans and a few litres of mass produced juice, but the idea is there to set myself up a few trees and take it that step further and make my own product. Dont have any aspirations of marketing it and joining the boutique brewing crowd though, just for my own and a few mates personal enjoyment. Fridge full of homemade cider, spit roast turning in the backyard sounds like a good weekend to me!!
 
Hey Deep End, wanted to ask you and others about thoughts on using Malt, spec grain and Hops with Cider. Is it something you or others have done. Manticle gave a great link to Graff :

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/

I'm interested if this could give a more complex cider as I can personally find some cider a bit "winey"? for want of a better word. Could be that I'm more a beer drinker at heart, but curious what toffee flavours from spec grain, sweetness from spec malt, or complex sugars from mash temps, or fruit flavours or aroma from hops could do?

Just curious as to what other cider lovers do?
 
Oh, and thanks for the recipe ideas. Just thinking about my first cider soon, you've got me excited as to the possibilites.
 
Yea, I really dont know much about grains or malts apart from what they are, I never got further than K&K beer brewing. I'm willing but not quite able yet to go the extra mile with my cider, but the plans are there. I spose its just a trial and error thing in the end, the human race wouldnt of got far if it wasn't for people experimenting.....or aliens landing and giving us technological advances, depends which school of thought you subscribe to. I like to think we did it own our own LOL

But like I was saying you can only try and find out, at the end of the day if you find something you like to drink there cant be too much wrong with it. I brew probably more for the fun and interest side of it than the drinking, dont get me wrong the beverage is nice bonus at the end of the process. But I find myself brewing small batch things like meads and fruit wines just to see if I can do it, and what it turns out like, dont particularly like wine at all unless its in a good casserole or stew, but I like the process behind it.

I'm starting to get a little carried away with my posting, happens as the hours pass by, but back to one flavour aspect your were asking about, I imagine using brown sugar or some other dark sugar; muscavado, might impart a caramel type flavour to a cider, honey, golden syrup, molasses, treacle, palm sugar. I imagine each one would leave its mark on a brew in some way, shape or form. Anyway me thinks I should go to sleep or something :blink:
 
Hey just a quick question Deepend.
Just wondering what fg you got for your brigalow recipe? Mines sitting at about 1.010 at the moment after 2 weeks of fermenting.
Liking the taste of it so far so hopefully once bottled it'll get even better.
My reading had been about that for 2 days
 
They average 1.000 - 1.002 depending on tempreture before I bottle, I know its a bit late, but I ran out of internet for a month or so LOL
 
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