Another annoying cider thread

[melb_student_brewer]

Hey guys,
Hoping we aren't all sick of cider threads just yet, as I'm another newbie he needs a (hopefully quick) hand.

I've done a few beer brews now, and SWMBO and the housemates are demanding if I'm gonna be taking up common area all the time brewing and bottling they get something out of the deal. So now I have to do a cider, which I'm not entirely opposed to myself.
They're fans of not-so-dry ciders, although I'm not aiming for a cordial-sweet drink.

So here's what I'm thinking.

20L of apple and some blend juice, like apple blackcurrant or something. (50-50 between straight apple and apple blend)
Some lactose (I have a little lying around, but don't know what I should be aiming for in terms of quantity. 500g sound about right?)


Yeast
I'm thinking a Wyeast, cos I don't have any yeast lying around. I'm really close to G&G in Melbourne, so I'll probably be grabbing something from there. They don't seem to have the dedicated cider yeast from Wyeast, but have some Anchor wine yeasts and plenty of Wyeast beer yeasts. From my reading, I've taken that the wine or champagne yeast will produce a drier cider. When combined with the lactose I don't think that'll particularly be a problem, will it? otherwise, which beer yeasts are a good idea?

Thanks for any help you're all willing to give.

 

[Deep End]

From my understanding wine yeasts, especially champagne style yeast, gives a good, clean fermentation and the sediment settles compactly. I assume this is why we use it in cider, most kit yeasts labeled cider yeast are actually a white wine style yeast, again from my understanding.

Some beer yeasts may leave flavours and smells that are unbecoming of a cider. So basically what I'm trying to say is if you want to brew a cider that tastes vaguely of what you have put in it I'd suggest white wine style yeast.

I like my cider fairly dry and as such have never used any lactose in my brews, however the kit can I use as a base does have an artificial sweetner in it, and the end product I enjoy. It's no where as sweet as say Mercury Draught, I tried a James Squire Orchard Crush at the pub the other day and thats as close to what I brew in taste that I have come across, its just a tag sweeter and has a little more apple flavour than my homemade product.

So I cant really give any quantified advice on lactose usage but they say between 250-500 grams a barrel from what I read. I'm no cider expert but I like what I brew and that keeps me happy. So all I can say is try a white wine/champagne yeast and try the lactose out and see what happens.

Mick

 

[Bribie G]

For your first brew why not get a Black Rock cider kit from the LHBS and add 4 litres of Aldi Apple/blackcurrant and 750g sugar. At around $23 it ain't cheap for a kit, but it will get you set up with proper cider yeast that you can reuse from brew to brew, and at the end of the day you'll still be cranking out your first batch for less than a dollar a longneck / tallie and can go cheaper next time with the juice plus sugar.

If you are going to drink it from glasses then it's simple to pimp it up with some juice when drinking, I do that all the time towards the end of a keg when it starts tasting a bit dry (it keeps fermenting out).

Black Rock comes with 3 yeast sachets which are fairly small but I cultured one up in a bottle of apple juice and pitched it a few days later. I'll use that yeast for three or four brews then culture up sachet #2 and so on. A kit should therefore give me enough yeast for about 10 or 12 brews.

In any case I'd really recommend their yeast. Kit's not bad either, drinking one now. hic.

 

[melb_student_brewer]

Cheers for the help. I'll go with a bastardisation of your recommendations, keep it light-ish on the lactose, back sweeten if needs be. Still torn over kit with dry yeast versus all juice with a liquid yeast.

 

[JDW81]

Cheers for the help. I'll go with a bastardisation of your recommendations, keep it light-ish on the lactose, back sweeten if needs be. Still torn over kit with dry yeast versus all juice with a liquid yeast.

Mate of mine made a kit cider with some additives that collected a bronze medal at a fairly large comp a few years ago, so a kit is not necessarily bad. Treat it right and it will give back to you in spades. I make his version all the time and it is a beauty.

 

[Fossey]

Try Danstar Nottingham yeast - won't be as dry as a champagne yeast and will leave some apple flavour too. Champagne yeast can strip the apple flavour out and requires a bit of aging to get it back. I often add brown or dark brown sugar instead of dextrose for a bit of flavour too. Sometimes I'll add 1kg tub of "sliced apples or pears in natural juice" per 4 litres of juice.