Apple Cider

[WoyStew]

I'm looking at making some cider for the summer months ahead.

Never made it before. I'm looking for something simple and have noticed that some on this forum and others say you can make it out of plain old apple juice. It this true and if so what does the final product taste like? Is it as simple as getting some fresh juice from the supermarket and adding some yeast or should I add a couple of other items?

I would like my end product to have around a 6-7% alcohol. Not looking for something to knock my socks off.

Finally what process should I follow. I have a simple home brew kit so nothing fancy.

 

[bum]

Everyone lied in that thread. Lucky you asked!

Yeah, shop bought juice can make a tops cider. It is best to get the preservative free stuff though. The final product tastes like cider, funnily enough. Use a decent, neutral yeast and ferment at the bottom end of the temp range for best results. If I recall correctly apple juice comes out at about 1047ish but it ferments quite dry so if I have the gravity correct a bottled one could come in at around 6% depending on a few factors. Easy to bulk it up a bit with some dex if you want but I wouldn't. Cider is pretty easy drinking and a big one will sneak up on you very fast.

Process wise - just tip the juice into a clean and sanitised fermenter, add some yeast nutrient if you can be bothered, aerate, add desired yeast through desired method. Pretty much the same as anything else really.

Pete's simplest cider thread really does tell you everything you need to know. Good luck with it.
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=32364

 

[Wolfy]

Is it as simple as getting some fresh juice from the supermarket and adding some yeast or should I add a couple of other items?

You can even go as simple as adding yeast to the bottle and letting it ferment in that.

 

[smilinggilroy]

Hi,
Try this simple recipe...(I think it was one of Bribie G's ???)
10x2lt Apple juice (preservative free ,from Aldi or woolies etc aprox. $1.95-$2.00 a bottle)
300g Dried LME
Yeast- Wyeast 4766 cider yeast smack pac
Optional- Spices, 2cinnamon sticks, 2-4 whole cloves.

A variation to the above:-
10x2lt Apple juice (same as above)
350g Dried LME
Wyeast4766 (as above) IF YOU HAVEN'T USED A SMAK PAC BEFORE READ INSTRUCTIONS FIRST, time needed.
2 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 to 1 vanilla pod, 4 whole cloves, generous pinch or nutmeg
500ml Fresh squeezed lemon juice (squeezed manually on sanitized equipment)
METHOD
Place apple juice bottles in a warm water bath (sink or tub) to bring to aprox. 20deg
Dissolve LME in 500ml of water in detergent free saucepan on stove and bring to simmer for 5-10 min
you can add spices to this also, then cool
To your sanitized fermenter, pour in apple juice from bottles from a height to sparge and aerate,
or you can half empty, replace lid and shake vigorously and continue to pour.
Pour in lemon juice (as is!!!)
pour in sugar & spice solution, bits and all
Pitch Yeast as per pack instructions
My O.G. was 1053, F.G. 1004- aprox.6.7%
I used the cider yeast to retain apple flavour at end of fermentation as others had stated in other threads.
This took 30 days to ferment out, although I did let it sit on the yeast cake for about 6 days, this
helped it to clear only a little. This does bottle cloudy but clears as you bottle condition.
Am about to sample my first bottle this weekend (4 weeks bottle conditioning) but have observed the
bottles are clear with the expected sediment at bottom. Will post my findings on this thread for you.
Hope any of the info. here helps.
Cheers

 

[MarkMc]

I did a 2.4 preserve free apple and pear, just threw some coopers kit yeast on top, fermented at quite high temp.

bottled after 3 weeks, at that point it tasted crap.
left in the bottles for a few months, then chilled and left in fridge for a week or 2.

Tasted great - once my current brew is bottled, I'm planning on a bigger batch. :icon_drunk:

 

[technoicon]

i have made one with a kit from kmart, but they stopped selling it a while ago.

I was wondering if you could water it down a little, to get more out of your apple juice?

say use 6 x 2.4 and maybe 6-8 liters of water? would this just effect the gravity?

 

[Bubba]

You can even go as simple as adding yeast to the bottle and letting it ferment in that.

Your'e spot on Wolfy.
I buy a 3lt apple and pear juice (cost $3) from Coles. I use Apple and pear because the pear does not ferment out like the apple and makes it less dry, a little sweeter than just plain apple.
I pour off a little from the bottle to make head space, add either 100g of dex or 100g of honey and yeast. (I have used wine yeast and enzyme, and spare ale yeasts and think the ale yeast is less dry and fine for this).

Give her a good shake and sit at about 20degrees (old rule of thumb is that for every day it ferments you add another % for alc volume, so if it ferments for 4 days it is 4%, 5 days it is 5% and a bit drier, 6 days it is 6% and pretty dry and so on).
Dont leave it too much or it will be really dry and fizzy like champagne, I usually leave it for 4-5 days and it is fine.

The only thing I do is get a rubber seal about the size of a 20c piece from Bunnings (cost $2.00) in plumbing section). I prick a hole in it, drill a hole in the actial lid and put the seal under the lid so gas can escape through the hole and the seal making sure it carbonates but doesnt blow the bottle.
I reuse the seal, and this way I make $3l of apple cider for $3.00 (I reuse old kit yeasts now as I use US-05 in my beers and store the kit yeasts in the fridge).

When it is at the Alc % and dryness you want it, you can just put it in the fridge to stop the yeast fermentation and drink, or decant it into serving bottles and prime with a little dex if you want.

My mates wife loves some of the more expensive commercial ciders and she swears by this, better than Strongbow!

Bubba

 

[WoyStew]

Your'e spot on Wolfy.
I buy a 3lt apple and pear juice (cost $3) from Coles. I use Apple and pear because the pear does not ferment out like the apple and makes it less dry, a little sweeter than just plain apple.
I pour off a little from the bottle to make head space, add either 100g of dex or 100g of honey and yeast. (I have used wine yeast and enzyme, and spare ale yeasts and think the ale yeast is less dry and fine for this).

Give her a good shake and sit at about 20degrees (old rule of thumb is that for every day it ferments you add another % for alc volume, so if it ferments for 4 days it is 4%, 5 days it is 5% and a bit drier, 6 days it is 6% and pretty dry and so on).
Dont leave it too much or it will be really dry and fizzy like champagne, I usually leave it for 4-5 days and it is fine.

The only thing I do is get a rubber seal about the size of a 20c piece from Bunnings (cost $2.00) in plumbing section). I prick a hole in it, drill a hole in the actial lid and put the seal under the lid so gas can escape through the hole and the seal making sure it carbonates but doesnt blow the bottle.
I reuse the seal, and this way I make $3l of apple cider for $3.00 (I reuse old kit yeasts now as I use US-05 in my beers and store the kit yeasts in the fridge).

When it is at the Alc % and dryness you want it, you can just put it in the fridge to stop the yeast fermentation and drink, or decant it into serving bottles and prime with a little dex if you want.

My mates wife loves some of the more expensive commercial ciders and she swears by this, better than Strongbow!

Bubba

5 or 6 days of fermenting doesn't sound very long. Wouldn't I be in danger of blowing the bottles if I prime them in long necks. Say I add two carbination drops the yeast would consume them plus what ever sugers were left over from the juice

 

[Wolfy]

5 or 6 days of fermenting doesn't sound very long. Wouldn't I be in danger of blowing the bottles if I prime them in long necks. Say I add two carbination drops the yeast would consume them plus what ever sugers were left over from the juice

Very much a danger of bottle-bombs if it's bottled (into glass longnecks) before it's finished fermenting.
However, I think that Bubba was suggesting to bottle them in plastic, refrigerate them, and drink them quickly, that way the risk of bottle-bombs is minimal.

 

[bum]

That's what I thought, Wolfy, until I saw this:

or decant it into serving bottles and prime with a little dex if you want.

Stopping fermentation early by making it very cold is fine so long as you always keep it very cold, WoyStew. Halting fermentation then warming to bottle condition can be dangerous (though not impossible but I wouldn't recommend it myself).

 

[Bubba]

Very much a danger of bottle-bombs if it's bottled (into glass longnecks) before it's finished fermenting.
However, I think that Bubba was suggesting to bottle them in plastic, refrigerate them, and drink them quickly, that way the risk of bottle-bombs is minimal.

Yep Wolfy, right again, I ferment in the original plastic bottle, then bottle in PET and in the fridge straight away, don't leave them out or they will keep fermenting and get very dry. You can feel the pressure of the carbonation in the PET as they get nice and hard.

 

[The_Duck]

Yep Wolfy, right again, I ferment in the original plastic bottle, then bottle in PET and in the fridge straight away, don't leave them out or they will keep fermenting and get very dry. You can feel the pressure of the carbonation in the PET as they get nice and hard.

Personally I use the "Wild about fruit" brand juice as it is just a heat pasturised filtered apple juice. Nothing added or deleted from the juice in any way.

Better still the farm where it is grown is about 2 mins from my house so I buy direct and I know that they don't use nasty sprays or chemicals in the orchard.

I use the Lalvin EC-1118 yeast which is a white wine/champagne style yeast that gives quite a nice fine bead in the cider if you choose to do secondary carbonation.

I make a couple of 20 litre batches in April-May and keg and force carb them after 3-4 weeks and leave them for the warmer months.

Ususally they need 4-5 months to settle and mature and I get a nice crisp clear straw coloured cider with a snow white head on it. Just the thing for a pitstop while mowing the lawns or working in the hot summer sun. Just not too many as then the work gets shonkier and shonkier because the ABV will be around 7%-9%.

I really want to make enough during the year to be able to have some for the following winter so I can try out mulled cider and mulled spiced cider. Also it is great to cook with for marinating pork roasts or cooking pork sausages in cider.

Dammit... now I'm hungry again !

 

[Wolfy]

I use the Lalvin EC-1118 yeast which is a white wine/champagne style yeast that gives quite a nice fine bead in the cider if you choose to do secondary carbonation.

Using that yeast they'd end up very dry?

At this stage I'm tempted to try Bubba's method and an ale-yeast because I have to find a way to keep it sweet for SWMBO.

 

[Bubba]

Using that yeast they'd end up very dry?

At this stage I'm tempted to try Bubba's method and an ale-yeast because I have to find a way to keep it sweet for SWMBO.

I tried the Champagne yeast, and very dry.
This way you can control the dryness, and in small quantities, even tasting as you go to get it right the way she likes it.
And the beauty is if she doesnt like it, you don't have 20l of the stuff to drink yourself and you haven't tied up a fermenter for 2 weeks!

ps, I have tried dark grape juice (again long life off the shelf, no preservatives) and did the same process but didnt add any extra dex or honey...the result is something like a sweet lambrusco, sparkling light red. Surprisingly nice if she likes something sweet.

 

[Wolfy]

ps, I have tried dark grape juice (again long life off the shelf, no preservatives) and did the same process but didnt add any extra dex or honey...the result is something like a sweet lambrusco, sparkling light red. Surprisingly nice if she likes something sweet.

Yep she went nuts at the supermarket one day, brought home whatever 'no preservitive' juice she thought she'd like, Apple, Apple Blueberry, Apple Black Current, Dark Grape etc.
Problem was when I fermented a couple of them out fully they were too dry for her, even if they did taste very lambrusco-ish IMHO.
Since the bottles are only 2-3L, it should be easy to partly ferment and then cold-store them until someone drinks them (even if I have to do that).

 

[sinkas]

20L apple juice, 1kg DME, 1 package clear belg candy syrup, english yeast, make as a great cider

 

[enuun]

20L apple juice, 1kg DME, 1 package clear belg candy syrup, english yeast, make as a great cider

I just made a 2L bottle of cider using EZ-Caps and the kit yeast provided in the package (You can get this off ebay)
2L of Apple juice + 2 cups of sugar + kit yeast ferment at 20 degrees for 6 days
Crash in the fridge for 2 days to clear the cider
Decant out the Cider leaving yeast at the bottom
Pour in 2L of apple juice and start all over again!

I just had a cup of cider from my local pizza place and the taste is comparable

 

[WoyStew]

I just made a 2L bottle of cider using EZ-Caps and the kit yeast provided in the package (You can get this off ebay)
2L of Apple juice + 2 cups of sugar + kit yeast ferment at 20 degrees for 6 days
Crash in the fridge for 2 days to clear the cider
Decant out the Cider leaving yeast at the bottom
Pour in 2L of apple juice and start all over again!

I just had a cup of cider from my local pizza place and the taste is comparable

Using this process do you have to age the cider in the fridge for a while?? I've heard cider can taste crap for a couple of months after first being made.

 

[Swinging Beef]

Oz tops cider tastes great immediately.
I havent used Oz tops for three years, but they are bloody brilliant.
I reckon Im gonna get me some more.

Needless to say, the nicer the original apple juice, the nicer the end product.
I cant remember the brand, maybe Daily Juice?, but they had a cloudy pale apple juice that made awesome cider.

I just want to make more so I can start calling it more silly names like I used to :
For a good mate: Justin's cider
My family is from Tewin Gardens, UK: Tewin cider
Something Tropical, perhaps....Cayman cider

 

[enuun]

Using this process do you have to age the cider in the fridge for a while?? I've heard cider can taste crap for a couple of months after first being made.

my homebrewed cider is 9 days old from start to crash and it is quite nice actually, there's even that 'sharp' cidery taste most associate with cane sugar brews. I am not sure about the cider aging part but as I have scantily few storage space in my fridge (the majority being my Dark Ale conditioning) I am all for drinking it right away!

PS: I added demera instead of cane as I like the fuller maltier taste of demeras =)