5L Fermenter Ideas

[Spanky]

G'day lads,

I picked up a 5L glass bottle the other day with the idea of experimenting with different ciders whilst brewing beer in my 23L job.

At the moment I have just done a basic apple cider which is going smoothly, but I was wondering if anybody has some random ideas that worked well for them.

Nothing is off the table. Any ideas are appreciated (except anything that involves bananas - they are the spawn of the antichrist).

Cheers,
Spanky

 

[Jace89]

Try the same recipe and ferment it with Champaign yeast.
I've heard Champaign can yield good results.

 

[Airgead]

Champagne yeast is OK for cider. its pretty neutral. I like 71B or CRU005 as they will partially digest mallic acid so they give you a smoother cider if you use a high acid juice.

easy things to try -

Add spices
Add some honey (make a cyser)
Try a blend of apple and pear
Berries.
Different apple juices

Cheers
Dave

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

I like using S04 for cider. It tends to stop at around 1010 leaving a moderately sweet cider. I don't know if I'd trust that it 'stops' to the point that I'd put it in glass bottles, but it is back to juice clear at this point and doesn't seem to be actively going...but I'd only dare keg it.

 

[Airgead]

Never tried S04 in a cider myself but I'm not sure why it would stop at 1.010. Its all simple sugars so unless you are going over its alcohol tolerance it should finish at 1.000 (or lower). It may be that S04 has a higher nutrient requirement and is stalling due to lack of nutrient.

Cheers
dave

 

[stakka82]

Yeah I have had s-04 go down to 1002 on a cider before, did make a ripper cider though, insane after a year in the bottle.

 

[Deep End]

I wonder what apple and wasabi cider would taste like????

 

[Mr. No-Tip]

Never tried S04 in a cider myself but I'm not sure why it would stop at 1.010. Its all simple sugars so unless you are going over its alcohol tolerance it should finish at 1.000 (or lower). It may be that S04 has a higher nutrient requirement and is stalling due to lack of nutrient.

Cheers
dave

I always add nutrient to ensure a healthy ferment. As I said above, I wouldn't trust it in a bottle. I suspect it would keep going, but slows significantly at that point. S04 is so flocculant, that's probably half of the action.

I picked up this technique when I got to press cider at Wig and Pen in Canberra. From what I understand, Richard only uses S04 now because of the flavours it leaves in the cider. He crash chills around 1010 and serves there.

I wonder what apple and wasabi cider would taste like????

Interesting, but probably pretty awful. I home grew real wasabi this year and we had a sushi party to test it out. It's so much more complex and relatively mild compared to the coloured horseradish stuff you get at sushi restaraunts. We ended up shotting some with sake. It was pretty vegetal.

 

[Spanky]

I wonder what apple and wasabi cider would taste like????

Probably crap, but it sounds interesting. Interesting enough to actually consider.

Maybe and apple/ginger/(something else) combo?

 

[QldKev]

Pretty boring, but you could try different amounts of pear juice to tweak the sweetness.

Also an apple crumble style cider. Just throw in a lot of spices from an apple crumble/pie.

 

[Spanky]

Yesterday I just threw in a couple of bottles of Woolies HB apple/blackcurrent juice and cider yeast. I have no real expectations of this but I have my doubts that will be pretty plain Jane.