Cider Advice

[tcraig20]

I was hoping to use 20L+ of real apple juice with a Wyeast Cider yeast, no cans or anything. Any advice on a good place to get bulk apple juice? Just checked the supermarket fridge, and it looks like its $5+ for 2L of 100% preservative free anything juice - not sure if I want to drop $55 on my first cider attempt

Ive got a cider on at the moment. At woolworths there are 4 litre bottles of preservative free juice for $4 each. $20 for 20 litres.

Had a little taste of it when I took my OG, tasted fine, but we'll see how it looks once its fermented out. Recipe was 12 litres apple/pear (55%/45% I think), and 8 litres of apple.

 

[drsmurto]

I was hoping to use 20L+ of real apple juice with a Wyeast Cider yeast, no cans or anything. Any advice on a good place to get bulk apple juice? Just checked the supermarket fridge, and it looks like its $5+ for 2L of 100% preservative free anything juice - not sure if I want to drop $55 on my first cider attempt

Use the Berri preservative free stuff off the shelf. On special is around $1/L. And since you are using juice the trub after ferment is nice white yeast that you can wash and re-use or just dump another batch of juice on!

20L of juice will ferment out to a fairly high %alc I would think because its mostly sugar. most cider and lemonade receipes ive seen only call for a little bit of juice for flavour and alc. Im trying to find the last thread I read on AHB with juice receipes. I would think you would only want 10L of juice and 10L water. but of course fresh would be best in that case.
EDIT: strike that, I found the link I was looking for and Im wrong (raspberry cyser thread). still it would be nice to know what the % would be before you breww it so you can adjust accordingly

Apple juice has an SG of around 1.046-8. So its not going to produce rocket fuel even if you ferment it down to 1.000 with a champagne yeast. Even then its only around 6.5%. Using the wyeast cider yeast i ended up with 1.010 from 1.048 - 4.9%.

 

[barls]

most of the juice i use ends up being around the 1040 sg and thats pure juice

 

[axl]

What about the sweetness/dryness factor & overall flavour in 100% juice cider?

 

[Tyred]

Sweetness/dryness is dependant on the yeast. Champagne/wine yeast can lead to a very dry cider. Cider yeast (I believe) can lead you to a sweeter one. I haven't used cider yeast so I'm not too sure on that.

From the ciders I've made, there is still quite a strong apple flavour with some sweetness, but then I've been adding honey to mine (making them like a cyser than a cider).

 

[Sammus]

Use the Berri preservative free stuff off the shelf. On special is around $1/L. And since you are using juice the trub after ferment is nice white yeast that you can wash and re-use or just dump another batch of juice on!

Do you know if that is reconstituted or not?

 

[drsmurto]

dunno about that, will read the bottle next time i am near one.

I have an apple tree that noone can identify. From the history of the place its likely to be more than 70 years old (up to maybe 100) and is a variety that isnt grown commercially. I am suspecting its an old english variety and more suited to juicing for cider than the 2 granny smiths.

Anyone know how to identify apples? and if some of the apples have codlin moths in them can i cut them out and still use the juice? I would treat thejuice first with sodium or potassium metabisulphite to kill off the wild yeast and then whack in the wyeast cider.

My all juice cider with the cider yeast started off beautifully but is slowly turning to a wine? I think its the lemons i added. Its not real dry tho, it finished at 1.010 but next time i will leave out all the additions and go straight juice and the yeast. I tasted the cider Tangent made this way and its was nice and way too easy to drink!

Cheers
DrSmurto

p.s. FWIW i tried a mates cider he made using a tin of goop. He subbed 3L of water for apple juice and its not too bad at all. Might have been the fact i have spent nearly 5 hours on the golf course sweating my arse off but it hit the spot.

 

[Wrenny]

I tasted frogmans cider at the xmas swap and confirm that it is delicious.

A question, though, for anyone. Do you boil the juice, or is a pretty sterile out of the bottle?

Cheers,
Wrenny

 

[drsmurto]

Its already been done for you in the bottle.

 

[Haiper]

Well it's been in for a week now at a steady 20-21deg and stopped bubbling so I gave it a try just to see how it was going. VERY sweet. Could be something to do with the 2kg of sugar I was advised to put in. Any suggestions for reducing the sweetness of the cider?? Is there some additive I could perhaps add or is it all over bar for the bottling?? I was also advised to put in 2 teaspoons of sugar to each bottle to make it "fizzier". I reckon I'll only pop in one teaspoon. Will this then only add to the current sweetness?? I prefer a dry cider as opposed to a sweet one. Then again, I'll drink any cider. :icon_drunk:

Any suggestions for reduction of sweetness at this stage?? or am I stuck with what I've got? I'm going to leave it another 4 or 5 days then bottle it up I reckon.

 

[brettprevans]

throw in some champagine yeast to dry it out. if theres any sugar left to ferment that is.

 

[tangent]

let it ferment out it hasn't finished.
the best ciders I've made were 100% apple juice, no added anything apart from wyeast nutrient and wyeast cider yeast.

 

[drsmurto]

Well it's been in for a week now at a steady 20-21deg and stopped bubbling so I gave it a try just to see how it was going. VERY sweet. Could be something to do with the 2kg of sugar I was advised to put in. Any suggestions for reducing the sweetness of the cider?? Is there some additive I could perhaps add or is it all over bar for the bottling?? I was also advised to put in 2 teaspoons of sugar to each bottle to make it "fizzier". I reckon I'll only pop in one teaspoon. Will this then only add to the current sweetness?? I prefer a dry cider as opposed to a sweet one. Then again, I'll drink any cider. :icon_drunk:

Any suggestions for reduction of sweetness at this stage?? or am I stuck with what I've got? I'm going to leave it another 4 or 5 days then bottle it up I reckon.

The sweetness is due to the artificial sweeteners in the tin (or at least i assume they contain them, most do). The extra sugar is there to up the alcohol. No way to reduce the sweetness now. Next time, if you want a dry cider, just use apple juice and a yeast.

 

[tangent]

you should be able to pick the horrible chemical taste of saccharine, if that's what it is. that awful diet-coke taste. nothing you can do about that other than try to mask it with a worse flavour.

 

[Haiper]

you should be able to pick the horrible chemical taste of saccharine, if that's what it is. that awful diet-coke taste. nothing you can do about that other than try to mask it with a worse flavour.

It's not a horrible saccharine taste. It actually tastes great, it's just quite sweet.

 

[0M39A]

well the obvious question then is "has it finished fermenting"

the only answer you will get is to whip out your hydrometer and check the SG reading.

the blackrock cider can i did with 4L of apple/pear juice and near enough to 2kg of sugar took nearly a month to ferment out totally, and was very very dry. also, i agree that it could do with a bit more priming sugar than normal. i primed to (i think) 160g of sugar to the 23L batch and i think it could have done with a little more.

 

[NRB]

I second the "check the SG" advice. Don't base degree of fermentation by time or CO2 egress. As I've said time and time again, your hydrometer is your friend. Get to know it, continue to use it. I wouldn't be surprised if fermentation still has a bit to go. Don't rush things!

 

[SJW]

2 kgs of sugar WOW. I have the Blackrock Cider fermenting now with 1 kg of sugar madde up to 19 litres and it had a OG of 1.044. I reckon your going to have a pantie dropper there if if ferments right out. My advise is, if u keg, to keep tasting until the desired amount of sweetness is tleft the crash cool, filter and keg.
I would not make this one up with 2kg's of sugar, but thats me.

 

[drsmurto]

Are we 100% certain the black rock tin contains no artificial sweeteners? I recall seeing them on the side of a cider tin before - look for sucralose and aspartame in the ingredient list......

EDIT - stupid sausage fingers....

 

[tangent]

usually they include it as a suspicious package labelled "sweetener" under the lid.