Beginners Guide To Cider?

[Airgead]

hi, Ive got 4.5L of Juicy isle earth organic apple juice cloudy and 4L of clear apple juice.

I wanted to make 4L batches of cider in my 5L demis, for side by side comparison.. does anyone out there have a tried and tested recipe, I dont want it to finish too dry..

my ingredients consist of:

*apple juices

*yeast nutrients

*several different yeasts including cider yeast, sweet mead, champagne and US-05

*500g Coopers LDME

*Honey and Maple syrup

*Cinnamon quills

*pure Stevia powder


So are these good enough ingredients to make a decent cider??
I'd love to hear your thoughts/recipes

You can make a perfectly good cider just using juice and yeast so I'd say with that ingredient list you are good to go. Go easy on the additional sugar/dme/honey/whatever=. Just plain juice will usually get you 5-6%ABV so adding too much extra will give you rocket fuel not cider. Lactose is that easiest way to ensure it doesn't finish too dry (of course of your cider drinker is lactose intolerant lime mine is then that's not an option and you have to choose one of the trickier options). Cider likes to finish dry. Its hard to get it to do anything else.

Cheers
Dave

 

[boingk]

20L P&N apple juice, 2kg white sugar, 1118 Lavin wine yeast (or comparable champagne yeast) and a few vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks. Ferments out to around 12% and if you carb to champagne levels will make a really awesome holiday season sparkling wine complete with all the appropriate champagne type smells and tastes.

Thats my one and only cider experiment hahaha... was very well received by mates!

Cheers - boingk

 

[Chookers]

20L P&N apple juice, 2kg white sugar, 1118 Lavin wine yeast (or comparable champagne yeast) and a few vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks. Ferments out to around 12% and if you carb to champagne levels will make a really awesome holiday season sparkling wine complete with all the appropriate champagne type smells and tastes.

Thats my one and only cider experiment hahaha... was very well received by mates!

Cheers - boingk

yes, I have been mulling over your recipe for some time now, Im just not sure I want such a high alc %.. but I still went and bought the vanilla beans.. hehehe :lol:



I got a brewcraft cider yeast and some Safale S-04, US-05 and Safbrew T-58. I also have sweet mead yeast.. and the EC-1118.

I was thinking when I decide on the yeast I'll use to put about 1/8 tsp of Stevia powder, so it fininshes a bit sweeter. (Stevia doesnt ferment...right???) I hope.

 

[pk.sax]

Chookers, have you made a cider with nothing added but yeast yet?
Mate, give it a go. Use the champagne/white wine yeast and brew a 2-3 L batch in the juice bottle. Cling wrap & rubber band are your friends, then natural carb in bottle (fridge door). It will give you an appreciation for the level of sweetness you want or don't want in your cider.

Cider is quite tasty on its own.

 

[hendog88]

I was thinking when I decide on the yeast I'll use to put about 1/8 tsp of Stevia powder, so it fininshes a bit sweeter. (Stevia doesnt ferment...right???) I hope.

why not use some pear juice? either apple and pear juice or just pear juice out of a can?? the sugar in pear juice isnt fermentable and adds some sweetness and a nice pear flavour.

 

[NDH]

How long has pear juice been non fermentable? Do they add sugar to perry? I have a batch on at the moment,

18lt of Berri Apple and Pear Juice
300g lactose
BeerBelly yeast nutrient

US-05 @ 18 degrees.

Has been on for about 10 days and is still at 1030, its still fermenting but this may explain the high SG.

 

[hendog88]

How long has pear juice been non fermentable?

sorry i meant "some of the sugars".
pear juice will ferment to an extent but im led to believe that some of the sugar is non fermentable. therefore leaving some sweetness.

 

[troopa]

Someone will jump in with exact figures soon but pear juice is about 75% fermentable leaving some sweetness naturally

 

[Chookers]

Chookers, have you made a cider with nothing added but yeast yet?
Mate, give it a go. Use the champagne/white wine yeast and brew a 2-3 L batch in the juice bottle. Cling wrap & rubber band are your friends, then natural carb in bottle (fridge door). It will give you an appreciation for the level of sweetness you want or don't want in your cider.

Cider is quite tasty on its own.

that is a good idea.. I'll try that.

I did a pear juice one about a year ago using Goulburn Valley tinned pear juice, but it ended up being more of a wine.. So I just said its pear wine.. its a little dry but the pear flavour comes through after swallowing. Actually not too bad when its chilled. It took a long time to clear so I bottled it and put it under the house to forget about.

 

[NDH]

Will have to remember that, the Missus loves those Rekorderlig ciders that are crazy sweet. Will be a good way to sweeten up a cider without over doing the lactose.

 

[pk.sax]

that is a good idea.. I'll try that.

I did a pear juice one about a year ago using Goulburn Valley tinned pear juice, but it ended up being more of a wine.. So I just said its pear wine.. its a little dry but the pear flavour comes through after swallowing. Actually not too bad when its chilled. It took a long time to clear so I bottled it and put it under the house to forget about.

Just to avoid repeating everything on the thread,

pour a glass of juice out, tip in a little yeast (half a teaspoon or something). Put gladwrap on the top and rubber band. I actually put the cap back on - tight (Just juicy bottles with the strong caps). Just let the pressure go every now and then.

3-4 days at ambient/18C it will have fermented through most of it but still be sweet. I let mine ferment outside until the bottle is no longer blowing up hard in half a day with the cap screwed on tight.

Then stick it in the fridge door. Wine yeast is rated all the way down to 10C or something, fridge doors are usually ~4ish C or at least brewing cider kept in door will be close to that, it still ferments enough to carbonate. Drink a glass or two a day, as you drink it down the sugar content is dropping. In my experience, the dryer it got, the better the taste was. But yeah, if I could locate my right sugar level if I liked sweet cider, I'd aim to ferment for a set number of days/to a gravity and then keg it quite cold.

^^ that was meant to be a PM.. but whatever!

 

[Chookers]

Just to avoid repeating everything on the thread,

pour a glass of juice out, tip in a little yeast (half a teaspoon or something). Put gladwrap on the top and rubber band. I actually put the cap back on - tight (Just juicy bottles with the strong caps). Just let the pressure go every now and then.

3-4 days at ambient/18C it will have fermented through most of it but still be sweet. I let mine ferment outside until the bottle is no longer blowing up hard in half a day with the cap screwed on tight.

Then stick it in the fridge door. Wine yeast is rated all the way down to 10C or something, fridge doors are usually ~4ish C or at least brewing cider kept in door will be close to that, it still ferments enough to carbonate. Drink a glass or two a day, as you drink it down the sugar content is dropping. In my experience, the dryer it got, the better the taste was. But yeah, if I could locate my right sugar level if I liked sweet cider, I'd aim to ferment for a set number of days/to a gravity and then keg it quite cold.

^^ that was meant to be a PM.. but whatever!

heehee.. cheers mate :icon_cheers:

 

[MartsHomeBrew]

heehee.. cheers mate :icon_cheers:

I am thinking to do a cider and there is plenty of useful info on this thread, but am yet to try one and for some reason it seems a little trickier than beer. A few questions for anyone kind enough to answer them..
I notice a number of responses mention adding commercial juices. I have read that these are fine to use ONLY if they are preservative free. Is this correct and if so, why?
Secondly, would using a standard yeast like S-04 produce a vastly different result than specific cider/wine/champagne yeast? Further to this, would using standard bread yeast produce a vastly worse result than brewing yeast? I know someone who has tried this and i queried how it could possibly produce a good result!
I have a peach tree out back which is about to have heaps of ripe peaches on it, but have read peaches tend to lack flavour in brewing. Has anyone tried before? Any help appreciated

 

[manticle]

It's actually much easier than beer.

Juice + yeast, ferment, condition, bottle. Nutrient is a good idea too.

Some preservatives can inhibit the action of the yeast.
I've not used S04 in a cider but chances are it will leave more residual sugar and therefore a sweeter cider. Yeast makes a difference to the final outcome, as does the temp at which you use that yeast. Champagne and white wine yeasts make very dry cider (have used both).

Mad fermentationist (google) and Randy Mosher in radical Brewing both talk about peaches. From memory, Randy suggests apricots are more suitable, mad fermentationist reckoned peaches worked OK. Both of those were in relation to beer though.

Take 1 L of preserve juice, tip out a bit and squeeze some peach juice in there. Add your S04, put the lid on semi loose and let it ferment out. Cold condition fo a week or so and you should get an idea as to whether bigger batches will work.

I find ciders are best when fermented at the cool end of whatever your yeast choice prefers.

 

[Helles]

Link to my Cidar

Just tasted this for your benefit and mine
Couldn't go wrong with this juice and yeast
And the spices come through but not in your face
Just what i was after