Apple and pear cider 1st attempt

[TheBigD]

Gents,

I'm about to attempt the below recipe but using a champagne yeast. I'm planning to make it to about 16 litres, keg it, age it, cold crash it and then back sweeten by adding some apple and pear juice in the keg and keep refrigerated to prevent secondary fermentation.

I would like to know what sort of ABV% id end up with before diluting the below recipe, just a rough idea so I know what I'm playing with thanks.

Somerset Gold 5Litres (1 Gallon)
========================
2.4L Apple (Just Juice)
2.4L Apple & Pear (Just Juice)
Juice of half a lemon
250mls strong Liptons tea
100gms Honey (diluted with hot water for easy mixing)
3.5 gms Favorite Yeast

1. Steep tea bag in about 250mls of boiling water, add juice of lemon and honey. stir honey until dissolved.
2. Cover with cling file and let cool down.
3. Fill fermenter with juices (this should equal 75% apple and 25% pear)
4. Add Honey Lemon tea liquid.
5. Pitch yeast - I used left over pack of Coopers kit yeast. Probably an ale yeast. If using a champagne yeast the end product may end up very dry.

Primary for 14 days (16-24C)

 

[Airgead]

Hard to say without knowing the gravity of the juice. At a guess round 6-7%.

 

[TheBigD]

Thanks airgead just what I needed.

I suppose I will measure and adjust the gravity with dex when I'm mixing it up pre ferment if it ends up a little low.

I would like it t to end up around the 5% range after diluting.

 

[Diggs]

How did this go BigD? I'm assuming with Champagne Yeast it took a while?

 

[TheBigD]

sorry for not getting back in a timely manor Diggs!

The champagne yeast chew through it in a week, it was a very effervescent ferment to say the least very different from beer.

I was lazy and left it in the FV for a few weeks(lost count actually hope I didn't ruin it) turned out very dry with that champagne sort of flavour however I've only just kegged it and primed with some Dex

I'm just waiting on a couple of kegs to blow and ill get it in there and on a tap in a few weeks, I plan on feeding the misses it with some lemonade or apple juice on ice which will be the final test.

I hope she enjoys it because I don't think I can get through 18 litres by myself.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

I did a cider a while back with a champagne yeast, think it was Lalvin EC1118 from memory? Found it had a funky flavour,marry "winey" as you would expect I guess. We fermented at around 20-22C in an uncontrolled cool room (switched off).

I have another package of it which I'm tempted to try again on another cider but temp control it down around 18C... But it really was unpopular compared to the other keg of cider we fermented at the same time with mangrove jacks cider yeast,so it's on the back burner....

Anyone else had similar experiences with the champagne yeast?

 

[siege]

I used that champagne yeast for an apple/pear cider (only 5% pear into primary, backsweetened 50/50).
Didn't find any funk in the finished product but I had it temp controlled for a month at 20 degrees C.

It turned out a very clean and dry hard cider before backsweetening and people liked it. But I didn't have a side by side like you did, I reckon I'll give the mangrove jacks yeast a crack next time.

With the funk, are you confident there weren't bugs involved? Especially if it was winey.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Funk is probably the wrong descriptor, also it was more a weird aroma than taste, if we held our noses and drank it it was clean and lovely! But obviously aroma has a big play on perceived taste and it was not very nice. Reminded me of white wine spilled that has been left to dry for a day or two. That's why I was thinking was more the temperature and yeast combo that caused it rather than infection/bugs. We were as sanitary with the cider as we were with the other cider and yeast and beers all of which were fine.

Mangrove jacks I'd happily reuse, although the white labs English cider yeast has by far been the best we've used and is our go to!

 

[Airgead]

Sulphur? A lot of cider ferments will throw off sulphur if the nutrient levels are too low.

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Nah not sulphury from what i could say. Hard to recall the exact aroma now but it was unusual, not pleasant. What are typical temps for the lalvin yeast strains?

 

[TheBigD]

Well what a difference two weeks makes! anyway I originally primed the keg with 120g of dex so its nicely carbed. I just put it on one of my taps, its still warm but I had a taste test anyway and ive got to say its really good very easy to drink even warm, any over the top champagne taste has mellowed and it should taste even better once its chilled to a crispy cool temp. I don't think ill even bother to back sweeten, if the misses wants it sweeter she can add a dash of lemonade or apple juice.

Im looking forward to reporting back once chilled and tast tested by the misses, but all in all I think this will go down easy and fast.

 

[iJosh]

I've just made a 'cheat' apple cider with straight store bought juice. No preservatives in it but food acid and flavour added I think. OG was 1.050 and I fermented with S-04. FG is stable at 1.015 and it drinks lovely still but I'll carbonate anyhow.

The last two ciders I made where 2/3 Nudie 100% apple juice and 1/3 fresh granny juice fermented with Mangrove Jack's cider yeast. I have to say that the latest cider is far superior. MJ's cider really dried them out and although still pleasant, they were really lacking in apple aroma and flavour and were somewhat yeasty for lack of a better word. I have to say that in the future I will be 'cheating' and using S-04, I much prefer the slight sweetness and much nicer aroma. It's probably the added flavours that help with aroma and S-04 is known to leave some residual sugars. Works out to be a good combo for this cider drinker.

 

[TheBigD]

ill have to give the S04 a try

 

[welly2]

Just had a go at the same recipe although I used two 5L containers of Nudie apple juice as there wasn't any of the apple/pear juice in Woolies. Local brew shop had sold out of most of their yeast so I stuck a packet of US-05 in it. Will have to see how it turns out. I also got a packet of T-33 yeast as I read around a few of the forums and some people have talked about great results with that. Anyway, let's see what happens in two weeks time and I'll report back! OG was bang on 1.050. Planning on carbonating it and if it's any good, I'll be entering it in the Royal Darwin show middle of July!

 

[welly2]

Just had a little taste after only 5 days in the fermenter and it's certainly tasting like cider but the sweetness has almost all but gone already. Is there anything I can do to add a bit of sweetness at this point or shall I leave it be? I do like a dry cider but was keen to make something a bit sweeter for mates/girls. I'm probably going to get another batch going as I've found some pear juice at the local Coles so will add some of that in. Is there anything else I can do to add a bit more sweetness to it?

 

[Airgead]

I wrote an article on sweet cider a while back - http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/83751-sweet-cider-how-to-keep-things-sweet/

There are a few ways to keep cider a bit sweet. None of them are perfect though.

 

[welly2]

I wrote an article on sweet cider a while back - http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/83751-sweet-cider-how-to-keep-things-sweet/

There are a few ways to keep cider a bit sweet. None of them are perfect though.

Awesome, I'll check out the thread. Thank you

 

[welly2]

Just put down another batch:

2 x 2.4L of Nudie Apple Juice
1L of Bickfords Cloudy Pear
300ml mix of strong tea, lemon juice and honey
T58 yeast.

Will see how this one works out. The other one is going great guns but I'll leave it until next week to bottle. Talking of which, do I need to do anything differently to carbonate this cider? I've got some carbonation drops which I want to use up so thought I'd stick one of those in a 330ml bottle.

 

[pipsyboy]

Hey guys,

I'm planning on making a cider with Aldi juice and perhaps putting extra fermentables in there to make it strong so I can back sweeten with juice in the keg. Would I just use dex?

Cheers